It was only two years later that the first case of malignant mesothelioma was diagnosed in an asbestos worker in Australia.  The medical history of the patient indicated he had worked at an asbestos mine for two years, beginning fourteen years earlier.  The fourteen year difference between the beginning of asbestos exposure and the development of malignant mesothelioma is a perfect indicator of the latency of this cancer. 

The news became even more disturbing in 1965.  An article published in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine that year established that people who lived in the neighborhoods of asbestos factories and mines, but did not actually work in them, had contracted mesothelioma. Tragically, in the town of Wittenoom, asbestos-containing mine waste was used to cover schoolyards and playgrounds, exposing countless numbers of children.

Despite the well documented proof that the dust associated with asbestos mining and milling caused asbestos related disease, mining continued to be an increasingly booming industry. Even with the knowledge that asbestos mining and milling was causing disease, no one stepped up to demand that the workers be protected with safer work conditions.  No one intervened and the incidences of malignant mesothelioma continued to rise.  It is simply inconceivable that the mine and milling conditions continued unchecked and the workers continued to be exposed to the asbestos that could ultimately take their lives. 

It wasn’t until 1974 in Australia's Bulletin magazine that the first public warnings of the dangers of asbestos were published in a cover story called "Is this Killer in Your Home?" But it wasn’t for another four years, in 1978, that the Australian Government actually decided to phase out the town of Wittenoom where you will remember that asbestos-containing mine waste was used to cover schoolyards and playgrounds, exposing countless numbers of children.  In no time at all, the once booming town of Wittenoom became a ghost town…a town lost because of the failure of leaders to act on the knowledge that exposure to asbestos was for many leading to the development of a cancer called, malignant mesothelioma. 

The former residents of the ghost town were gone but who would help them to fight the vicious disease many were left to face?  Just one year after the Australian Government decided to shut down the town, the first lawsuits were filed for negligence related to the town of Wittenoom and the Asbestos Diseases Society was formed to represent the Wittenoom victims.  This group is still in existence today and provides counseling, support services, economic assistance, advocacy, fund-raising for medical research, and community education. 

Could it have been prevented?  Could the loss of life have been less?  Could a town have been saved?  If changes had been made in the mining and milling industries when the early research began to show a direct correlation between the exposure to asbestos and the development of malignant mesothelioma then, yes, perhaps lives could have been spared and perhaps a town saved.  We must learn from history…and work diligently so that another tragedy like Wittenoom never occurs again. 

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