Silicosis and Silica Disease News
Eight stone-crushing unit workers get tuberculosis
Express News Service
Vadodara, August 30: Eight workers of a stone crushing unit on Godhra-Ahmedabad Road were found to be suffering from tuberculosis. On Saturday, 13 tribal workers of Badri Stone Mill were admitted to the Dahod Civil Hospital with acute respiratory symptoms. All the 13 had been referred to the SSG Hospital here for further investigation.
‘‘Thirteen workers of Badri Stone Mill were admitted here with symptoms like chest pain, cough and dyspnoea. The ones suffering from tuberculosis are chronic patients and had been receiving treatment under the DOTS programme from Jhalol Community Health Centre,’’ said Amit Shukla, a physician at the Dahod Civil Hospital.
Apparently the patients are being referred to the SSG Hospital for confirmation of what illness they are suffering from and how it occurred. They might be suffering from silicosis, caused due to prevailing working conditions at stone crushing factories, is also under consideration by physicians.
‘‘The ones suffering from tuberculosis were undergoing treatment for the same. But doubts about the nature of their ailment arises from the fact that even after receiving treatment for tuberculosis, these eight are also showing signs like the other five,’’ said the Resident Medical Officer of the Dahod Civil Hospital.
‘‘We had observed that incidence rate of workers suffering from silicosis, in the 20-30 stone crushing units in Godhra, is very high. Proper details could only be availed after a visit to the unit, may be there are more workers with similar respiratory symptoms but not in such acute state yet. The district health officials to take note of this,’’ said an occupational health hazard expert, Jagdish Patel.
Senate Judiciary Committee Likely To Approve Class-Action Measure
04 Feb 2005 - As President Bush in his State of the Union address on Wednesday night reiterated his call for federal tort reform, action on the issue in the.... Senate Judiciary Committee this week "is quickly turning into the political laboratory for what will be doable and what will be difficult," the New York Times reports. In his speech, Bush said, "We must free small business from needless regulation and protect honest job-creators from junk lawsuits. Justice is distorted, and our economy is held back by irresponsible class actions and frivolous asbestos claims -- and I urge Congress to pass legal reforms this year."
According to the Times, the committee on Thursday is expected to "approve by a wide margin" legislation that would move most class-action lawsuits from state courts to federal courts. The measure is expected to be approved by the full Senate next week. The legislation, the first in Bush's tort reform package to be addressed by Congress, is opposed by federal judges, who argue that their dockets would become clogged, and consumer, environmental and civil rights groups, who say that legitimate class-action cases could be dismissed by federal judges if they involve laws of several states. Consumer advocates also worry that the legislation could delay class-action suits because there are far more state judges than federal judges.
Asbestos Measure
According to the Times, supporters of the class-action legislation hope that its "quick adoption ... will provide political momentum" for the remaining two major tort reform proposals: limiting damages in medical malpractice suits and removing all asbestos injury cases from the courts. However, a number of concerns discussed by members of the judiciary committee on Wednesday "threaten to derail the asbestos measure." The measure would create a $140 billion trust fund to pay workers who claim to have been injured from asbestos exposure. Lawmakers are concerned about the growing number of lawsuits filed over exposure to silica from activities such as sandblasting and mining (Labaton, New York Times, 2/3).
According to Bloomberg/Baltimore Sun, since the committee first expressed support for the trust fund in 2000, the number of silica-injury lawsuits increased from fewer than 1,000 to 19,389 in 2003. Medical experts testifying at the hearing said the increase in lawsuits is suspicious because the overall incidence of silicosis has decreased over the past 30 years. Lester Brickman, a law professor at Yeshiva University, added that many of the workers who claim silica injuries previously filed claims for asbestos injuries, suggesting that lawyers claimed injuries were from silica in case Congress barred asbestos lawsuits (Bloomberg/Baltimore Sun, 2/3). The medical experts testified that it is very rare for a person to suffer injuries from both asbestos and silica and that it is easy to distinguish symptoms of diseases resulting from exposure to the substances (New York Times, 2/3).
Silica Provision Could 'Jeopardize' Fund
The congressional proposal would require people filing silica cases in state court to prove their injuries were not caused by asbestos, a provision that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said is "overly broad" and could "jeopardize" an agreement on the trust fund. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said, "This is a potential deal breaker because it is very hard to solve," adding, "We do have to preclude dual claims" without barring legitimate silica lawsuits (Bloomberg/Baltimore Sun, 2/3). Committee Chair Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said he hopes to further "refine" the legislative language regarding silica cases (Heil, CongressDaily, 2/2).
Test case against AngloGold approaches
Allan Seccombe
15 Jan 2007 - [miningmx.com] -- A test court case against AngloGold Ashanti that could open the floodgates to millions of dollars in claims against mining firms operating in South Africa comes before a High Court on 10 April.
The outcome of the case will be crucial to the local mining industry, which could find itself open to legal action if the proceedings go against AngloGold.
Thousands of former employees, especially those who worked underground, have contracted a lung disease called silicosis. Up to now South African legislation prevents workers made sick or injured in the course of their jobs from suing the company.
the point we want to argue
ANGLOGOLD Ashanti is contesting a summons in a R2.6m lawsuit brought against it by human rights lawyers on behalf on a sickly former employee.
The proposed date for the matter to appear in the Johannesburg High Court is 10 April, but the date has yet to be finalised between two sets of counsels representing both sides. The date should be agreed early this week.
The case was brought by Richard Spoor, who made a name successfully representing communities against mining companies, together with Cape Town-based Charles Abrahams and an international alliance of class action law firms centred in Washington.
The lawyers representing Thembekile Mankayi say he has been left destitute with a wife and 10 children after he was unable to work anymore because of ill health. His lungs were damaged by inhaling silica dust from underground drilling, causing silicosis.
He was paid R16,300 in compensation after 16 years at AngloGold Ashanti’s Vaal Reef operations.
AngloGold has filed a notice of intention of defend and a notice of exception, in which it argues that it cannot to sued for a worker’s ill health under South African law.
“This is the exception point we want to argue,” Abrahams told Miningmx.
AngloGold could not immediately offer comment.
Under South African law, the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases (COID) Act, workers or their families may not sue an employer for injury or death incurred at the work place. The compensation commission assumes responsibility for claims payouts.
However, mineworkers are covered under the Mineworkers Occupational Diseases in Mineworkers Act, which limits their payouts in event of falling ill from working conditions to just a fraction of that awarded under the COID Act.
The legal arguments will revolve around which act applies in this case – either the general compensation Act or the mineworkers diseases Act.
The lawyers representing Mankayi plan to argue that mineworkers are not covered by the general Act. They will further argue that it could not have been the intention of the drafters of the legislation related to mineworkers to prevent them from suing their employers if their payouts were just a fraction of that provided for under the general Act.
The lawsuit is seen as a test case, which if successful, could open the floodgates to thousands of other mineworkers coming forward to claim compensation for damaged lungs from mining companies.
“This worker has silicosis and tuberculosis. He’s 48 and his working life is over. He’s unemployed and unemployable,” Spoor told Miningmx in October. “AngloGold had a legal responsibility to provide a safe and healthy work place. They failed in that.”
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