Dying for a piece of land to live on…

to windblown mineral dust.

“Episodic dust events generate particulate matter and specifically quartz dust concentrations that are unhealthy at distances of up to 2km downwind from TSFs.”

The paper by Melanie Kneen, of the University of Texas; Matthew Ojelede from Digby Wells Environmental; and Harold Annegarn, a professor at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, documents residential development from 1952 to 2011.

“Overall, housing development has experienced a growth of 700% since 1952 at a rate of 14% per year. Analysis has confir med multiple occurrences of quartzrich inhalable dust in residential settings at levels that exceed occupational health standards.”

The Witwatersrand’s 270 TSFs, are “intertwined with built-up areas and other mine features.

“With sparse vegetation cover and the reworking of older TSFs for their residual gold content, exposure to wind-generated mineral dust presents an intermittent but persistent environmental hazard for nearby residents.

“Whil e inter national standard practice and local mining regulations prohibit or avoid locating residential areas closer than 500m from TSFs, the earliest aerial photographic images of the areas within that distance… clearly show housing development has been continuing despite the recent data on the emerging increase in health hazards”.

Buffer zones around the TSFs, as prescribed under mining regulations, have not been enforced.

The combined human population within a radius of 2km of the three researched TSFs, Crown Gold Recoveries Complex, Durban Roodepoort Deep and East Rand Proprietary Mine, exposed to airbor ne dust from the TSFs, grew from 138 959 in 1952 to 585 600 in 2011.

“The implication of so many residents downwind of what is now potentially an important health risk pollutant source, justifies ongoing monitoring efforts, resource allocation for dust control measures and education programmes about the causes, prevention and treatment of silicosis.

“No further development of residential areas should be permitted within a distance of less than 2km from the edge of the TSFs.

“Similarly, relocation of the current residential population would be desirable, but is unlikely to be feasible within the economic and political landscape.”

The researchers call for more emphasis on preventing wind erosion of TSFs as “likely to be the most cost-effective solution to this increasing hazard which affects half a million residents in South Africa”.