A shocking new report released this week points to a number of serious health threats facing workers on Namibia’s uranium mines.
The researchers say their findings reveal “a clear trend towards negative health impacts on the workers,” noting the workers’ fears about their future health and the fate of their families, given that “many workers pass away shortly after retirement, unnoticed in their hometowns or villages, where no data for statistics are collected.”
The ‘Study on Low-level Radiation of Rio Tinto’s Rossing Uranium Mineworkers’ was conducted by the Labour Resource and Research Institute and Earthlife Namibia and indicates that workers at Rossing Uranium mine are at risk of serious occupational diseases, such as cancer, due to exposure to radiation.
The researchers conducted interviews with 40 mineworkers at Arandis, many of whom complained about failing health and sicknesses they did not experience before working at the mine. The workers narrated stories of cancer and premature death among their colleagues, which they strongly believe are linked to their exposure to radiation and dust at the mine.
The early days
Rossing Uranium mine has been operated by Rio Tinto since 1976 and according to the report “Miners who started working for Rossing at the early years of operation, were not protected against exposure, be it dust or radiation or both. Moreover, they had no knowledge about the danger uranium mining poses.”
“At the time we started we didn't have the masks, glasses etc. The safety measures only came recently. In the beginning we used our hands to clean the uranium without having anything to cover ourselves,” one respondent at Arandis said. One laboratory technician said: “We had to test the yellow cake with our mouth. We didn't know [any better]. I'm not the only one. My colleague is also sick. He is at the farm, but presently in the hospital, also in a wheelchair. In the beginning there was no safety policy.”
“In the past the machinery at Rossing was a bit heavier to handle and had no [advanced] technologies. This damaged our health. The dust in the early years was too much before 1991; that is dating back to 1975. The working conditions were hazardous. Things were not good. The eye protection shades were not good. The machinery we used did not have canopies to protect us from all exposures. Until up to now, the people who started working in those years have health problems.”
Medical records
A Rio Tinto spokesman said the company keeps detailed records of the health status of its workforce from the day of employment to the day they leave the company: “The health and safety of our employees is the top priority. We have health management systems in place to make sure that everyone goes home safe and healthy every day. Effective controls ensure that radiation exposures to employees are kept well below the Rossing standard for occupational radiation exposure.”
Some workers complained that they were not allowed to see their own medical results. “Not at all, they won’t give or tell your results. You will only find out maybe if you go to a doctor and when you undergo certain tests. That is when the doctor can tell you if you have a problem.”
“Doctors were told not to inform us with our results or tell our illness. As you know, she [the doctor] is also just working for the company and she just has to obey to what she is told. This has become a very dangerous issue, since you are sick and never informed about your sickness,” another miner reported.
“They only supply you with medication until you are totally almost finished up or about to die. That’s when they will tell you what your sickness is. I even had a friend who died of cancer, but he was never told about his results. They were supposed to tell him. It was very painful news to hear that he died of cancer while he has been going for the test and was never informed.”
Another said that they have lately been able to access their medical reports: “Three years back they started to tell the people. But before that we were never told,” he said.
Risky work
Many workers said they would rather not work in the mine, but to take the job, even if it is risky because they need to earn a living and support their family. “You gamble with your life and will maybe be ill when you are old,” one said. “The problem is that there are not many jobs. That's why people will work anywhere. When your children are crying for hunger you will go,” said another.
A third respondent said “I understand you must only work for five years with uranium, after that you must do something else. The thing is just that if you are unemployed and your family needs money then you will go! If you need money you can't think of the dangers. It’s dangerous, but we need the money.”
Another miner said there is no long term risk: “We choose when we want to go. For example, if I have worked here for 20 years then I can say I want to be retrenched. It's our own choice. When the retrenchment comes we can also opt for that if we know we have worked here long.”
Some of the workers said health and safety standards at the mine are excellent. All workers said that their washing is done at the mine’s laundry, but back when the mine started up workers went home with their work clothes on and it had to be washed by themselves or their wives.
Of the 40 workers interviewed, only four of the younger ones, who had not been at the mine very long, said that they did not know any mineworkers who got sick. All the older workers said they know of miners, former and current colleagues and family members, who are dying of cancer and other occupational diseases.
“When my uncle started working for the mine he was healthy. He started in 1984 without any illness, but he got diagnosed last year with cancer. I think it comes from the mine because he is always working there. He works as an operator in the open pit,” one woman reported. “I know a lot of them [who got sick], but I cannot remember their names. You should just ask others as well around here in Arandis.
Long-term health risks
The problem is that the impact on the worker’s health due to low-level radiation exposure only shows after a long period of time (5, 10 or even 20 and 30 years), the workers frequently get ill and pass away after retirement. One family member said: “When my uncle started working for the mine he was healthy. He started in 1984 without any illness, but he got diagnosed last year with cancer. I think it comes from the mine, because he is always working there. He works as an operator in the open pit.”
“People get sick. We are seeing it in people that have worked for Rossing for a long time. They just go back and die after working for Rossing,” said one. “Yes, most of them that I know of have retired. Some of them just spent very few months and they died. They were diagnosed with a lot of sicknesses like TB, lung infections and cancer,” reported another.
It is difficult for workers in developing countries, like Namibia, to prove that their illness was caused by their work as uranium miners and get compensation, because cancers may take years to develop and although the cause of chronic health problems have been linked to uranium mining on the basis of large epidemiological studies with lifetime follow-up, science has yet to prove that exposure to radiation was the effective cause of the miners’ ailments.
The researchers recommend that all mineworkers should get access to their own medical reports. Furthermore, they say the Ministry of Health and Social Services must get unrestricted access to all medical reports of all workers employed by Rossing and that a large-scale epidemiology study with independent medical experts be conducted to examine those workers who started working in the 1970s or early 1980s.
Rossing Uranium mine accounts for 7% of global uranium production, making up 10% of Namibia’s total export in 2012. It is 69% owned by Rio Tinto, a British-Australian mining giant. The Namibian government owns only 3%, the government of Iran 15%, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa 10% and local individual shareholders 3%.
