The Work of Invisibility: Radiation Hazards and Occupational Health in South African Uranium Production

• Published in: International labor and working class history Vol. 81; no. 81; pp. 94 - 113
• Main Author: Hecht, Gabrielle
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.04.2012
• Subjects: Apartheid; Archives; Cold War; Colonialism; Decisions; Dosimetry; Economic regulation; Gold mines & mining; Gold mining; Hazards; Health; Health Care Services; Historical account; Job rotation; LABOR AND GLOBAL COMMODITIES; Labor relations; Laboratories; Lung cancer; Lung diseases; Mines; Mining; Mining industries; Mining Industry; Nuclear power; Occupational health; Ontology; Politics; Power; Radiation; Radiation dosage; Radiation hazards; Radon; Studies; Uranium; Work place safety regulation; South Africa
• ISSN: 0147-5479; 1471-6445
• DOI: 10.1017/S0147547912000051

This article explores the technopolitical mechanisms by which radiation hazards in South African uranium production were rendered invisible. The occupational health effects of underground uranium mining were deeply contested for decades, all over the world. From the 1950s to the 1990s, the volatile nature of labor relations under apartheid shaped how the South African mining industry responded to the presence of radon gas. With occasional help from state scientists, the industry muffled the political menace of radon gas by making its physical presence difficult to see. Sometimes this invisibility resulted from deliberate decisions, sometimes from structural suppression, sometimes from the tangle of both. This article argues that maintaining radon's invisibility took work.