People/whistleblower, scientist

Dr Eric Saint

Dr Eric Saint, whistleblower, scientist, from Australia. Linked to asbestos.

The downfall

In a 1948 letter to the Commissioner of Public Health he predicted that the blue asbestos mine at Wittenoom would soon produce the richest and most lethal crop of asbestosis cases in the world's literature.1

Legacy

Court cases in the 1970s and 1980s established the danger was widely known long before the mine closed in 1966. The state government effectively abandoned Wittenoom in 1979.1

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 1966Asbestos mining at Wittenoom ends2
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Where next

Mines

InvestigatedWittenoom (Colonial Mine)A doctor predicted in 1948 that Wittenoom would produce the world's worst asbestosis toll.1

Events

InvestigatedAsbestos mining at Wittenoom endsA doctor warned in 1948 of Wittenoom's asbestos toll, long before the mine closed.1

Sources

  1. Asbestos (Mining and Energy Western Australia exhibition) State Library of Western Australia
  2. Mining and Energy Western Australia: Asbestos (exhibition page) State Library of Western Australia

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0.