Mining Migrant Worker Recruitment Policy and the Production of a Silicosis Epidemic in Late 20th-Century Southern Africa.

These new data support the hypothesis of a silicosis epidemic driven by increasing cumulative silica dust exposure in a new cohort of circular migrant workers from the 1970s. They inform current programmes to improve surveillance of this neglected population for silicosis and related disease and to provide medical examinations and compensation to a large number of former gold mines. The analysis highlights the lack of information on cumulative employment and silicosis risk among migrant miners in previous decades. The findings have global relevance to the plight of such migrant workers in hazardous occupations.