Document Qg7Dkr7rnJdbV4dLvRZMOb4YL

Australian Broadcasting Corooration NOTE: This transcript is typed from a recording and not from the original script. 8ecsuse of the risks of mishearing and the difficulties in some cases <?f identifying individual speakers, the ABC cannot vouch for its accuracy. TOUR CORNERS" - 23RD MAY, 1968 "BiUE DEATH" REPORTER ; PAUL BARRY PRODUCER; SUE SPENCER Mot for publication - ; OPENING THEME AMD TITUS ANDREW QilXJ.Studio) - A Supreme Court Jury tonight granted the wish of a dying man, and rarsed' the hopes of many old friends and neighbours facing a similar plight. Welcome to what 1 think you'll find is a truly unforgettable four Corners. We brought it forward in place of our advertised programme following tonight's landmark decision in Melbourne to award substantial damages against an asbestos producer. ~ * Klaus Rabenalt has just a few months to live, but tonight he's celebrating the jury's finding that his incurable cancer, mesothelioma, is the result of negligence by his old employer, a subsidiary of the giant CSS? group. The jury ordered the company to pay six hundred and eighty three thousand dollars ($681,000) to Hr. Ramanolt including a quarter of a million dollars in exemplary damages for being reckless in its conduct.... the first -- such award in the industrial arena. Klaus contracted the disease after working in a blue asbestos plant at Wittenoom in Western Australia in the early sixties. Wittenoom has quietly developed into Australia's greatest environmental disaster, the death toll is simply staggering. Some three hundred men and women, who lived and worked in the shadow of that remote-mining operation have now succumbed through asbestos-related disease. Eventually Wittenoom may well claim a thousand lives. Yet today's strong negligence verdict in Victoria is the first success in some three hundred damages claims by the Wittenoom victims. Nor does it guarantee future success for people exposed before I960 because Hr. Rabenalt [verdict was based on the state of knowledge after that time. WV-003995 "Sloe Death*' 7- 23/5/88 ANDREW DLL (Cent. ) This investigation of the blue asbestos tragedy reports evidence end arguments involved in a number of cases before Western Australian courts. The reporter is Paul Barry.......... the the AERIAL VIEW. BLUE ASBESTOS MINE, WiTTENOGH GORGE PAUL SARRY In the remote north west of Australia, a thousand miles by road from Perth in .ihe spectacular Hammersley RangesLs-^usLs-lists only ever blue asbestos mine. flying over Wittenoom Gorge, you can see its waste still plastered on the walls of the valley to which it clings. The mine, whose operator was Australian Blue Asbestos, a subsidiary of CS8, closed more than twenty years ago, yet still it claims lives. Nearby, on the wide open plain, is the town of Wittenoom. Set up in the 1940'8 to house the mine's workers, it has over time, been home to 20,000 people. Today, its streets are deserted. The cinema is closed, so is the store and so is the school. Wittenoom is dying, a long slow death, just like many of the people who once worked here.* Flttt - Valerie Dovle oolno through photos VALERIC DOYLE And this is my brother Frank, he passed away with cancer in 1982...January 1982. He worked in Wittenoom as a truck driver in the mill. PAUL BARRY And what about these two? VALERIE DOYLE This is my. mother and my stepfather, that's Esther and Phil McKenna. My mother died of mesothelioma in 1975, September 1975* and my stepfather Phil McKenna died in 1970, 10th October 1970, with asbestosis. PAUL BARRY And they also at Wittenoom? VALERIE DOYLC They were both in Wittenoom, yes. PAUL BARRY He was the shift boss in one of the mines? VALERIE DOYLC Yes, in the mill....in the mill. Slue Oeath'* 3 23/5/88 PAUL BARRY find who's that? VERONICA DOYLE This is my husband Ron, he died in February 1978 of asbestosis. He was a transport officer in Wittenoom, he did twelve months in the mine when he first went to Wittenoom, and then he was transport officer. He worked under Don Ecott. PAUL BARRY How old was he? VERONICA DOYLE When he died he was 50, he was coming up to his 51st birthday when he passed away. PAUL 8ARRY Was he ill for a long time? VERONICA DOYLE Yes, twenty..- twenty years we were married. PAUL BARRY Who's that? VERONICA DOYLE This, is y sister, Virginia and 1979 of asbestosis and cancer. worked in the sill. ,. her husband Eddo. Eddie died in He was in Wittenooa too. He PAUL BARRY That's guite a harvest isn't it really? VERONICA DOYLE Yes, well three sisters were widowed in fourteen months. GRAPHIC - Valerie Dovle and family PAUL BARRY Valerie Doyle grew up in Wittenoom and raised her family there, but she had gone there when just a child herself. For ten years or more, she and her brother, mother, stepfather, sisters and in-laws lived in Uittenoom, with most of them working in the mine or at the mill. For ten years they breathed the asbestos dust that has killed so many of them, and not once it seems were they warned of any dangers. PAUL BARRY Does that make you angry? VALERIE 00YLE Yes, yes, it makes me very wild...very very wild, urn, I wouldn't have lost my husband or my parents if it hadn't been for the asbestos (starts crying)..I*m sorry, but nobody deserves to die the way that they...they died. It's cruel, but nobody wants to know...just nobody. It's a cruel death. I'm sorry about that. Blue Death" -4 - 23/5>/88 F HH - Barbara Lee dancing PAUL BARRY Barbara Lee is Valerie's sister. asbestosis and has recently had a dancing. Her husband Pay Lee has stroke. they used to love BARBARA LEE Three nights- a-week we used to go. When I was in y*'^HinoT seven nights e week. 1 couldn't wait to get dressedand off, just to get down and hear that music and dance. Wow there's, nothing like that at ail, nothing. PAUL BARRY Why not? BARBARA LEE Because Ray can't do it. , ~ RAY ItZ 1 used to love dancing with Barbara, and 1 used to hate any other bloke that come and picked her up before I could get at her (laughter), that's true, we used to dance lovely together. PAUL BARRY Ho* do you spend your time nowadays? BARBARA LEE -- Sittin* in the chair, go shopping for half an hour, sit in the chair, and he goes to bed, and I sit here end read. PAUL BARRY What does it feel like to have the disease? r+ * RAY ItZ It's terrible. I've got pain all the dsy I've got pain now. 1 used to lay in bed there and, and l el...kicking ail the time sake me feet, make me mouth open...like that, I couldn* understand whet it was...cake me do that. PAUL BARRY Do you blame anybody for it? RAY LEE Yes, C.S.R. PAUL BARRY Why? fifty etc Because I got asbestosis from up there end that is causing me pain in my lungs. FILM - Archival footage. Aerisl view of Wittenoom Blue Death" -5 23/5/&S CRCH] yai TOQTACiC "H Town Bern" "jn 22*8 in the shstf^iy cf the Hammers ley Range, s town *as born. A town which in four years has grown to be the largest inland town in the north of Western Australia, Wittenoam". PAUL BARRY When Wittenoora was built in the 1940's, the north of Western Australis was jalmost virgin territory. But in the far off Hammersley Ranges were the nation's only cdBfraercijai*'vo'si-ty*'of blue asbestos, and one company wanted to get at them. FILH - Blue Asbestos Wine. Wlttenoom PAUL. BARRY In 1942* C.S.fi. bought a handful of mining leases around Uittenoom and started development. Australian Blue Asbestos was the company that employed these men. It owned the mine and operated it. But Australian Blue Asbestos in turn was owned by C.S.R., and all its active directors were in fact C.S.R. employees. FilN - Slue Asbestos Wine in operation PAUL BARRY C.S.R., or the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, Australia's* fifth largest industrial enterprise-. is now Set-up in the 1850`s, C.S.R. had long relied on cutting sugar csoe for a living, but they were looking for. new fields to conquer - and the search took them to Wittenoom. The Wittenoom venture was backed by State and Federal governments, and it started in 1944 with high hopes. It would boost the war effort; it would tap the west's mineral wealth - here wasa brave enterprise that the newsreels_ciaimed could bring nothing but good. ARCHIVAL FOOT AGE "A Town 1b Born* Each year 6000 tons of refined fibre leave Australia's only blue asbestos fields. But the immensity of the known deposits ensure a long and prosperous future for the town __ born as a result of the faith end enterprise of the operating company, a company responsible for many fine achievements in the industrial history of Australia". PAUL BARRY Ssdly, the predictions were wrong. Today the mine site lies abandoned, as it has done for the last 22 years. Slue Death" 6- 25/5766 f l M - Aerial__view. Scarred isnoscsoe f AUl BARRY CloseG in 1966, it almost never maoe a profit. loasy you can still see the scars it left on the landscape. What you can't see is the havoc it wrought on the people. And nor would you guess that this is the site of an awful industrisl disaster - Australia`s Bhopal. Asbestos related disease is likely to kill one in six of those who worked here - and that at the minimum would be.-ane thousand deaths. FILM - Close-up of mine site, Mittenoom PAUL BARRY Spattered round the mine site at Wittenoom is the stuff that's caused all the trouble, crocidolite or blue asbestos. No* banned virtually throughout the world, even the smallest exposure involves danger. Pulled apart in the hands you can see the fibres, but it`s the ones you don't see, the microscopic fibres or dust in the air you breathe, that can kill or cripple, host commonly what it can give you is the disease asbestosis. DR. ANN SHANAHAN - Thoracic Surgeon, Melbourne Asbestosis.. is "scarring of lung tissue due to asbestos 4spositien in the lung. It's s progressive disease, results in more and acre scarring with the passage of time and as the scarring increases, lung function diminishes and people become progressively more short or breath. This can go on to an end stage condition where people with asbestosis are unable to engage in any sort of physical activity. They're .. we would describe them as being respiratory cripples. GRAPHIC -> X~ftay of tuno Cancer PAUL BARRY One of the complications of asbestosis recognised since the 1960`s is cancer of the lung. exposure to asbestos at Wittenoom more than doubled the risk of contracting it. But there is another cancer that blue asbestos produces, not identified until I960. It is uniformly fatal, and it kills its victims on average within 9 months of diagnosis. Its name is mesothelioma. fltd - Normal tunp/Diseased Luno PAUL BARRY (To Camera) If you want an idea of what mesothelioma does to you, take a look at this. That is a normal lung, it's stout the size and shape that a lung should be. And that is the lung of someone who's died of mesothelioma. All this white stuff around it is the tumour, and you can see how it's grown right around the lung, and crushed it to about a quarter of its normal size. Now what has happened is that the victim has essentially been suffocated to death. As one doctor told us, it's rsther like having concrete poured into your chest. "Blue Death" ?- 25/5/86 IN'UftVlEW Ullh PCTCR Htvrs PAUL BARRY What are you diagnosed as having? PETER HE YS Mesothelioma*. * malignant mesothelioms, which was diagnosed in April *86, and been confirmed ... so . unfortunate. PAUL 8ARBY What do your -doc-tors say about your chances? v t .... PETER KEYS Well, I don't think they give me any chance. I did have an operation in July, `86, which the main reason for that was to attempt to prolong .. prolong things, and I think they were quite happy .. that has prolonged matters somewhat. But as far as anything long term, no I'm not .. I * really not into that. f KK - Hevs family playing snooker PAUL BARRY Till 1966, Peter heyes and his family had not a care in the world. The children were strapping and healthy. They prospered at school. They won all the local sporting trophies. But when the parents read in the papers that ex Wittenoom workers were dying of cancer and asbestos!, they didn't give it a thought. Peter had worked in the bagging section of the sill at ttittenoom, but that had been fully 50 years before. And what's more, he'd been there just 2 months. HRS. HEVS Peter just said "wasn't 1 lucky that l was only up there a couple of months", and it was jvst .. 1 really didn't give any thought to it at all. I never thought he was in danger at all. PETER KEYS Nor did I. One of those things that doesn't really happen to you or the people you know - happens to someone else. HRS. HEVS That's right. PAUL BARRY Is it anunpleasant disease? PETER HEVS I'd say very unpleasant. Probably, at this stage, the disease isn't that terrible, I'm not getting pain as such, a lot of discomfort, but it's probably more the psychological thing. You take away hope, and you take a lot away. fILM - Wittenoom MUSIC - "Oont fence He In" AUL BARRY for the good folk of Uittenoom, ignorance was bliss> Had they known the full dangers of living here, it's hard to believe many would have stayed. But, unaware of the risks, these were happy times, for some perhaps, the best days of their life* -Blue Death" -8 7:'J/5/Sfi PftUt 6ARRV It w & s a j j f * from the ceres of the city. of fun, and once a year there were int races. A ] x f * s t l: t\e s HUSK (Cant'd) VALERIC DQVIE Ue ^Bd our dances 8nd the races, and .. yes, there was good times - plenty of good times, and plenty of laughter, when we used to go dancing on the hotel verandah with Mrs. Whittaker playing her radiogram, yes .. and in the old hall . . we had a lot of good times, a lot ..of'._fun. t . .--. PAUL BARRY But not everyone liked tfittenooa. ?fc was miles from anywhere, dust ridden, and for half the year, unbearably hot. Getting people to work here was a constant problem for the company. And making them stay was even harder. Almost half those who came to Uittenoom had left within three months. fllH - Underground shots of mine, truck carrying asbestos PAUL BARRY For many, hitching a ride on the asbestos trucks was the only way to escape. One men even loaded up his wife, furniture and 7 children to get them out. . Underground, conditions were hot, dusty and cramped.. Fecewgrkers spent hours doubled up on their haunches as they drilled into the rock because headrcrom was only 40 inches. And since Australian miners from Kalgoorlie's goldfields wouldn't stand for that, the mines owners had to recruit overseas and .rely heavily on immigrant workers. ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE "A town is Born" "Miners from many parts of the world come to Wittenoora and of the total population of nearly 900, three fifths are migrants, and 20 different nationalities are employed by the operating company". F1LH -> Arrival of migrants, dock scenes. M.A. PAUL BARRY Tn the 10 years after World War II, one million new Australians set foot on these shores for the first time. They came from a Curcpe torn by war and ruled by rationing, and they had great hopes of what they would find. To many, it was a disappointment. Those who leaded in the west st Fremantle talk of tin sheds and little else. And there are stories of women thronging the quay to yell "go back .. go back .. there are no jobs here". FILM - Plane arriving at Wittenoom PAUL BARRY 8t for those who touched down ir the red dust of Wittenoom the jolt must have been even greater. They were marooned in a hot strange land like nothing they'd ever seen before. `Blue Deetr\" S 23/5/88 UIK'K -__ C* wiltenoon Worker. 1950's *6y and large "they were m state cf sf.ock you tee. I actually seen guys coding flown from the plane, the DC 3, and they v.alked straight back up the plank, back into the plane and they .. you know, they just looked around because it's flat and then you've got these hills, brown spinifex. OttO PONGfiATZ Weil when 1 came off the plane on the 16th January, it was that hot we just couldn't ... we just took the air .. you know, it took the breath_away. Vou know, we all thought "what^the heck am 1 doing here?" ^ FILM - Qtto Pongratz on motor-bike on .ari.ivai at W.A. PAUL BARRY Otto Pongratz went to Wittenoom when he was just 21. An Austrian immigrant, he was sent there by the West Australian Government, because there was no other work available. His is a typical story. And typical too, is his account of conditions in the Wittenoom asbestos mill. OTTO PONGRATZ You couldn't see your hand before your eyes. You couldn't breathev 'As soon as you get in to towards the mill, the whole gorge was one cloud cf dust. It wouldn't matter where you ere, you couldn't escape the dust. Everything was white and grey. ttTCRVlgtf WITH SAY Ltt AUt: BARRY Tell me Ray, what were conditions like in the mill? RAY LEE Terrible. At the worst times you couldn't see fro one end of the mill to the other. PAUL BARRY You were in the bagging section at one stage weren't you. was that like? What RAY CEE That's the worst psrt of the lot. That's the main killer. PAUL BARRY Can you describe it? RAY LEE These blokes are handling it with their hands. And when you get a good run with plenty of asbestos in the rock you know, coming out, often they'd get .blocked up as they're coming down to the baggers underneath, and they'd have to stretch up and pull this down you know, and *that's what I call literally eating and breathing asbestosis, trying to claw that down, you're looking up at it like that. PAtlL BARRY And it's all coming down on your face is it? "Slue Death 10 22/5/06 r rtf-f > Mi 11 /Conveyor Bells PAUL BARRY Cuen today, more than 2 decades since the wheels of wittenoon last turned, yoo can see what it must have been like. Almost everything is covered with fibre and dust. It's caked onto conveyor belts, it sticks to the structure of the building. Everything is coated asif it's been caught in a deadly grey-blue shower. FILM - Interior of Hi 11 PAUL BARRY It's like cement isn't it. ROLLV SA6BAP1N1 It is* but under microscope .. under magnifying glass you'll find that it's fibre end dust of course. PAUL BARRY Some 3D years ago, Roily Sabbadini was an electrician here. Now a successful businessman in Perth, we brought him back to show us around: ROLLY SftBBAOXNl ~ Inside Wine with Paul Barry Look, this is lit-dustT It *# ail" dust. As you can see, that's been here for 22 yesra, and yet it's still here. This is the kind of dust that was flying ar'ound and people had to wear it on their skin, in their face, in... their nose, in their ears .. everywhere. 1*11 show you another one. This is sewe material that people were wearing, they were breathing it sll day long, and when you. come out of your work and you go for your shower, that's what you would be looking like- And when you go under the shower with that, the shower would be black, the water would be pitch black running down the drain, and then you start to recognise your tastes. Only after they went through the shower, you could tell who he was. So this material was flying everywhere. FILM - Close-up of blue asbestos fibres PAUL BARRY (To Camera) But how much was known in the 1950's of the serious dangers to health posed by asbestos dust, dangers that have brought people to their deaths. And could those who ran Wittenoora have foreseen the tragedy? PAUL BARRY These questions are currently being mulled over by the Supreme Court of Western Australia where there are some 3G0 claims for damages by former Wittenoom workers or their families. The claims allege negligence by Australian Slue AsbeetcT and/or C.S.R. Now the whole issue of negligence is extremely complicated and only s court can decide it. But central to all the cases, is whether the companies could and should have foreseen the setioos damage to health and prevented it. And at the heart of that matter is what was the state of medical knowledge at the time? Slue Death'* n r xu - Crs phac of Hesothe3iorca Article PAUL SARftY Ihe first thing to nay is that mesothelioma was not. linked to asbestos till 1960. So till then, no-one could have foreseen that people exposed to asbestos would die from that disease. But the health dangers of asbestos were known about- In 1955, in e famous study, published in the British Oournal of Industrial Medicine, asbestos had been definitively linked to lung cancer. And indeed, evidence for the link had been widely accepted by doctors in the late 1940*s. And as for "a sSestosis , that had been known abodt-'StT?te*`blffdTe 1900, with the first deaths in British factories weaving asbestos reported in 1907. As early as 1918, American insurers were reportedly refusing cover to asbestos manufacturers because of the health risks. And in 1950, a British government report documented at great length the seriousness of the disease and how to prevent It. So by the 1950's, the victims are saying in court, the dangers of asbestosis at least should have been well known, certainly among the medical profession. PROFESSOR ERIC SAINT, Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital, Perth. Weil the facts about asbestosis, the relationship, the hazardous nature of the asbestos particle have been well known in the literature, the general literature since the mid 19ZQ's, and I think would have been known by any competent physieian- PAUL BARRY When you say the facts were well known, could one have known at the time that exposure to that sort of dust could kill people? PROFESSOR SAINT Yes, unequivocally, the answer would be `yes'. PAUL BARRY So could the company have known that? PROFESSOR SAINT If they had^ proper advisors they should have known, because the British, the American, the South African literature, wherever asbestos was being mined or manufactured, those English speaking countries, there is an abundance of literature which made it Quite clear that the asbestos particle was injurious to lung tissue end would produce asbestosis, and .a proportion of people with asbestosis would ultimately die. PHOTOS OF KEITH BROWN PAUL BARRY This man is Keith Osborn Brown, a director or managing director of Australian Blue Asbestos for 25 years, he was also, at the same time, a senior employee of C.S.R. In recent court cases, Keith Brown has health risks of asbestos in 1964, but, health would result only after 10 or asbestos, end then only with some people. said, he was aware he believed damage 20 years exposure of to to "Blue Death" 12 21/^/88 PAUL gAfffff He felso b e 1 i e v e d he said, that damage before >t was senous. was asked: (ACTOR'S VOICE) regular X-Rays would detect any On cross-exsms nation, Mr. Brown "Mr Brown in the period 1943-1955, did you ever hear of a possible association between asbestos and lung cancer"? PAUL BARRY And he reoliedr (ACTOR'S VOICE) **The answer's yes". PAUL BARRY In qualifying this, he said he knew in 196* that asbestosis could lead to death or incapacity. Keith Brown was also asked whether he or Australian Blue Asbestos or C.S.R. had before 1961 approached any- doctor or any public health department, or made any special enquiries about the health risks of asbestos, there the answer was "no". FILM - flyino Doctor Landing PAUL BARRY In the 1940's, the Flying Doctor was a regular visitor to Wittenoom. Based in nearby Port Hedland, one of its doctors at the time was an expert in industrial disease who would later become s Professor of Medicine. His name was Eric Saint, and his first visit to the mine marked the start of a ZO year battle between the company and officialdom over dust at the mine and mill. -- PROFESSOR SAINT When 1 first saw them I really was quite appalled. The day .. first day 1 went there 1 was shown the mine itself, snd it seemed pretty dusty and I did know something about asbestos, and the industrial hazard it constituted, but I was even sore appalled when 1 went up to the head of the gorge where they had this hopper thing where they tried to separate the stone from the asbestos fibre, yog know, crushing it and then getting the fibre....it was just a huge cloud of dust hanging over the air and this really Z felt very unhappy about indeed. FILM - Prof. Saint writing letter to Health Dept. PAUL BARRY So unhappy was Eric Saint.that he immediately addressed a letter to his superiors in the Department of Public Health in Perth. Referring to Wittenoom as this dump of dumps. Saint warned them in the bluntest possible terms of future consequences. ACTOR'S VOICE The asbestos mine at Wittenoom let the record state, operates without eny sort of dust extractor whatsoever. In a year or two, ABA will produce the richest and most lethal crop of asbestosis cases in the world's literature. 'Blue Pest*" -n 25/5/88 PAUL RARPV And, having written that, Eric Saint says he then .yarned the company. PROFESSOR SAINT I also spoke to the management and expressed y concern there, and spoke in no uncertain terms and said that this was a very hazardous occupational situation that almost inevitably there would be patients with cases of asbestosis in four/five years time. 4 * ~~ ' * A. . v<**** PAUL BARRY Vhat was their reaction? PROfESSQR SAINT It's hard for me, after forty years, to judge...they were polite people, they listened to me politely, they didn't commit themselves. I don't know what correspondence took place between them and their headquarters, but 1 made no bones about my anxiety. PAUL BARRV Whatever the company's response to Eric Saint's warning, the dust hazard did not go away. Five months after Saint had written his letter, inspectors from the West Australian Hines Department were reporting to their superiors on a recent visit to Wittenooa* They said, bluntly: 4 ACTOR'S VQ1CZ Conditions in the mill from a dust point of view were most unsatisfactory. PAUL BARRY And they went on: ACTOR'S VOICE On completion of the inspection, an interview was held with the manager end attention was drawn to the danger-to the health of the men. PAUL BARRY But that warning didn't do the trick either. Two years later, the mines inspectors filed another report on Wittenoom which said: ACTOR'S VOICE From -ar dust point of view, conditions in the mill have definitely worsened. At crib time, the men were eating more dust than food. FILM - Blasting, mine site, Wittenoom PAUL BARRY In 1952, the inspectors reported in similar terms. They did so again in 1956. And then in 1955, the Mines Department threatened to close the mill because of the disgraceful working conditions. In 1956, Australian Blue Asbestos built a new mill for treating the asbestos fibre, and with it came a brand new system of dust extraction at a cost of fifty thousand pounds. "Blue Death -n- 23/5/88 PAUL 6A88V But if that improved matters, it was not for long. Only one year after the new mill opened, tfittenoom was visited by a tosn who would later become West Australia's Commissioner of Public Health, Jim McNulty. 31H HcNULTY My impression of the mine was that, 1 said at the time it was the worst* I had ever seen, in terms of dust and hous^keeploga^, PAUL BARRY What in particular, apart from the dust, 1 mean you say housekeeping? JIM McNUtTY Well there" was a general poor control of dust, there was dust everywhere, you got dust in your hair, got it in your teeth, when you walked around the mill, if you put your hand on a railing, your hand came off black. After a very short time you were filthy yourself because everything you touched was dirty. PAUL BARRY Again, reports from mines department inspectors confirmed that the dust problem continued. In 19*1, they said conditions were very dusty and could be termed critical. In 1962, they found the* worse and at new record levels. 1963, they reported them worse still. And in FILM - Paul Sarrv at mine with fconlmeter. PAUL BARRY <To Camera) When the mines inspectors came to Wittenoom to check on dust levels, and come they did, they were armed with a machine called a konimeter. it works by firing a small amount of dust onto a glass plate, and then you treat that plate and you look at the reault through the microscope. You then count the individual dust particles one by one, so you can see it*s not a particularly accurate method, and it's also a method which has an upper limit. There are times when it simply can't cope because there is so much dust. It then gives the reeding of one thousand plus, and that reading was commonplace here at Wittenoom. FILM - Oust extractor. Wittenoom mine PAUL BARRY in 1963,with the problem at its height, another set of new dust extractors aas installed. But again it seams the fix was a failure. tfhen an outside consultant hired by the Mines Department visited the mill in 1965, his rtore sophisticated equipment revealed dust levels higher than ever before. 0r the bagging section, the dust floating in the air was almost twenty times the amount the WA Mines Department regarded as safe, and it was up to one hundred times the levels set down at the time in the British asbestos industry. 'Blue Death" - 15 23/5/86 PAIR BARRY < Cont - ) The consultant's damning report highlighted poor maintenance, holes in ventilation ducts, machines that, leaked clouds of dust, covers that were not in place. Anri his verdict was quite clear. KUCH Of 1 HE DUST COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED. PAUL BARRY What did you want to do with the mine back then? JIM HcNULTY Close it. *+ ^^ 4.* ' ^ a .4.**** Mt* * PAUL BARRY Eight years before the mine was finally closed, the first bunch of cases of asbestosis from Uittenoom had begun to appear. fILH - Jim McNulty and X-Rays PAUL BARRY Jim McNulty, then chest physician at Kaigoorlie, dealt with some of the victims, and subsequently fought with the Mines Department, and the people who ran Wittenoom to get something done. Even now he*s not sure whether anybody listened. JIM nemuY By 1958 it was apparent that we were going to get the crop of asbestosis which had been threatened. Quite serious and advanced disease was developing in relatively young men who had had very short exposures to dust. in the eastern states gold mines it took 25 to 30 years for a man to develop dust disease, whereas in Wittenoora it was taking between three and four years and the disease was much sore advanced and serious and disabling than the silicosis in the gold sines. PAUL BARRY Did you put those findings to the company? JIM HcNULTV 1 put the findings to the company and 1 put it to the Department itself, and in fact ay report was published in the annual report of the Commissioner of Public Health, tabled in Parliament in 1959. PAUL BARRY (To Camera) You know, whet's'so hard to understand about the whole Uittenoom sags is why it was allowed to happen. The warnings seem remarkably clear. On- the one hand there's no doubt that Australian Blue Asbestos did try to control the dust, but on the other hand, there's no question their efforts were inadequate, and, that they could be seen to have failed. Now failure is a word you can't escape in this Uittenoom story. failure by the Western Australian government and failure by the company, and not trivial failure at that. Because of it, many people have died or will die. el ye Death" 16 25/5/89 PAUL gAfffft What are your personal, reelings about a tragedy that you foresaw and warned of, and nevertheless-... PROFESSOR SAINT 1 feel very sad, very sad indeed. PAUL BARRY Setting aside who, do you think there are people who^ should be biased? -- '1 ------ ' ---------- PROFESSOR SAIKT X don't like the word 'blame.' I think blame is a matter for the courts. I find it sad that no action was taken at the time by those in positions of responsibility. FILM - Shots of Perth and mining house PAUL BARRY Xhe city of Perth and Western Australia are built on the wealth of mining. Minerals made this town. 8e it gold, iron ore or even asbestos, most of the money here started life underground. UA*s mining heritage may well explain why Wittenoom was never eleened up or closed down, end ..it say too affect the aftermath...the massive legal battle for compensation that's now taking place. Of the 300 damages claims concerning Wittenoom now before the Courts here, not one so far has been successful. Wally Simpson's case against Australian Blue Asbestos, now called Hidalcc, is still under appeal. But the judge has ruled that Simpson, who worked in the sine in the early 1960's does not have an asbestos-related disease. Joan Joosten's case in 1979 against Australian Blue Asbestos failed. She had worked at Wittenoom in the 1950's end later contracted mesothelioma. The judge ruled that her employers could not have foreseen damage to her health, not least because the office she worked in was 100 yards from the asbestos mill, and her exposure to high levels of dust had not been demonstrated. BIND PEDROTTt This morning three months, for me. I ssked myself, this is not.....I could be gone six months, nine months but there is not a future PAUL BARRY Rino Pedrotti's case against Australian Blue Asbestos didn't fail, but nor did it succeed. Before the court could convene at his hospital bed, he died of mesothelioma. FRANK HAAS When they took an X-ray, one meant that the whole lung outside............. half wars of the X-ray was blank which filled with fluid or the `Sloe Death'* 17 - 25/5/86 PAUL BARRY And mesothelioma decided this man's esse too. frank Mass, another former Wittenoom worker, died in July 1977 shortly after starting proceedings. FRANK MAAS ....and then 1 was told, and then they did a biopsy, and after pathology reports caree through, it was a malignant tumour. TIM BARROW - -- Ah, mesothelioma, it's in the right lung. for me. -* =~--. ^ Um, there's no hope PAUL BARRY Two more mesothelioma victims have a case now before the courts in Perth. One of them, Tim Barrow, worked at Wittenoom in the late 1940's, in the store next to the mill, TXH 8ARRQW I'd sooner have my health than the compensation. PAUL BARRY the other, his co-plaintiff, is Peter Heys. The defendants in the Heys-Barrow esse are Australian Blue Asbestos and CSR, but CSR argues It has no responsibility at ell ih lew to heys or anyone at Uittenoom because it did not employ the men and did not run the mine. The issues in the Heys-Barrow case are extremely complex but the defendants both argue that in the 1950s they could not have foreseen Keys and Barrow would contract mesothelioma because the disease was only discovered in 1960. The plaintiffs on the other hand maintain that serious damage to Heys and Barrow's health was foreseeable because, the lethal risks of asbestosis and lung cancer were known about in the 1960*8. FILM - WA Supreme Court and lawyers leaving. PAUL BARRY The case is already the longest-running in Vest Australian legal history, and it nay well become a landmark. If the plaintiffs -- fail, there may not be more money to fight another case. If the plain-tiffs succeed, a flood of claims could be unleashed. Many millions of dollars are at stake. NETA HEYS I think we'd all be very do lose this one because to take the blame. very angry and very disappointed if I feel that there is just cause for they them PAUL BARRY And it's likely to be the last, if you do lose isn't it? "Blue Death" 18 25/57SS NHft HBYS l ' d say so, yes. PAUL BARRY How great a verdict? danger is it that you'IX die before there is 3 PETER HEVS Before the case finishes? Weil, quite frankly, I don't know. It you had of asked me that three months ago, 3 would have said, nelly I'd still "he reasonably well by the 'end 't'w finishing which was due to finish in March, but it appears at this stage it still has at least two to three months to 90, snd I'm getting more breathless you know as time goes on. I*m not really very active at all at the moment. PAUL BARRY Peter Heys died on Good Friday. not been reached. Judgement in his case has still Hie death will substantially reduce the damages payable if his claim is successful. More to the paint, unless his claim succeeds against CSR, there aey be no money at all. Australian Blue Asbestos hasn't enough to pay. FILH - funeral -- PAUL BARRY So far, the tally of deaths from Wittenoom is around three hundred. No one knows exactly. But with mesothelioma, the disease has yet to get into its stride. Tony Uhiteaker runs a funeral business in a town two hours south of Perth. But he once lived and worked at Wittenooa. TONY WH1TEAKER A lot of the people that l worked with have died. four members of one family 1 buried....Ron Jones, hie brother-in-law, Rossi, Don Ekott, and Mrs. McKenna. Her husband was the mill supervisor in Uittenoom for years. PAUL BARRY Your own family's been effected by it as well haven't you? TONY WHITEAKER Yes, lost one...one sister up there and she died when little kiddies. through she wss it. She 28 years was a old. school Mather kiddie of two PAUL BARRY What did she die of? TONY WH1TEAKER Mesothelioma. She was only a baby when she went there, but she went to school in Wittenoora and all the school grounds and everything was just asbestos tailings cause 1 used to cart a Jot of the tailings into town when 1 was driving the trucks. 'Blue Death" 19 - 25/5/88 TQN'Y WHITE AKER (Cont . ) The roads"were made of it, the sporting orounCs, Pricks for the hotel were made of it, the shopping centre, a lot of the buildings, everything that wgs... everything concrete was made with asbestos tailings from the mill. VAUR3C DOYLE This is again...are my two children, David and Bronwyn, This was taken after they had been playing in the yard, and got absolutely dirty, as you can see. PAUL. BARRY And that., the dust there was very full of asbestos wasn't it? VALERIE DOYLE Yes, in the tailings, yes. play but in that. There was nowhere else for them to PAUL BARRY Do you worry about their future st sll? VALERIE DOYLE Yes I do. 1 think anybody who had children up there would worry about the because they played in it, all children played in it. There wg6 nothing else for you to do, you didn't know the dangers so you just let your children play'in it. riLS - Klnas Perk, family Picnic PAUL BARRY On a sunny Saturday, Perth's Kings Park is the perfect place for a picnic. One can only wish that there were sore days just like it because for Barbara Tyler, there may not be. Bob Lament, Barbara's father, was the town policeman at Uittenooia in the nineteen fifties. He took his wife end three children to live there too. Now aged 36, with two young children of her own, Barbara has been told she has mesothelioma. She'll be lucky to live out the year. PAUL BARRY TO BARBARA TYLER What about the kids, have you told them? BARABARft TYLER Not everything at the moment. PAUL BARRY What do they know, or what do they think? BARBARA TYLER They know l*m sick and I have to watch my diet and 2 can't do hat I could before, and that's about all. Blue Death*' - 20 25/*/88 PAUL 8ARRY And are you going to tell the?*? BARBARA TYLER Yes, if we feel it`s necessary, we will. PAUL BARRY When did you first find out you had this thing? BARBARA TYLER .. Six months ago* PAUL BARRY And how? What sort of..-.did you feel ill presumably? BARBARA TYLLR . No, 1 couldn't breathe, and obviously I had fluid on the lungs, and then after some more tests, they told me. PAUL BARRY And how have you coped with it? BARBARA TYLER I*ve coped very well. I'm very positive and there's nothing ouch doctors can do but I will try, 1 w4 ill get through it. PAUL BARRY How? What are you going to do? BARBARA TYLER Urn, 1*11 get through it, I*m positive...meditation, alternative medicine, diet... PAUL BARRY You must feel desperately unlucky? BARBARA TYLER That'd be the word.... unlucky, well no, because someone or something did it to me. otherwise you don't get it. 1 feel really sick Something caused it, PAUL BARRY So you feel angry? BARBARA TYLER Very angry at someone. PAUL BARRY Barbara Tyler isn't likely to win damages from anybody, nor will others at Wittenoom who didn't work either in the mine or the sill- And there will be others like her. She was not the only child there. MUSIC ('Don't fence Me In') ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE - Wittenoom 'Blue Death" 21 25/s/es PAUt BARRY (V/G Music) In the years to come, there Australia's greatest industrial more victims. will be tragedy. many more victims of Perhaps seven hundred There will be families torn apart, children orphaned, lives destroyed. And as the legal wrangle about responsiblity goes on, one can only ask how was it ever allowed to happen. AMOftEW QLLE (Studio) ' "fc . *-- The tragedy of Wittenoom, Australia's worst Industrial and environmental disaster, yet most of us were barely aware it existed. Paul Barry's very moving report should help change that. Next week, our deferred report on the politics of Cocaine. It's worth waiting for. See you next Monday, goodnight. CIOS INC THEME AMD CREDITS *