Asbestos: The Wittenoom Tragedy 

thank you so much for sharing this story - my Dad was a lift operator for 7 1/2 months when he was 17 and passed away at 49 1/2 - sorry young to lose a life and we miss him dearly 😢

Dr Jim McNulty lived til he was 91, six years after making this docu. He did great work during his lifetime/

The Western Australian government won't remediate the former town because it was complicit along with the former minesite owner, Colonial Sugar Refining Company of the contamination of the site. The government didn't legislate for CSR to adhere to any form of environmental controls during the operation of the mine and turned a blind eye as the contamination was being carried out. Now due to the prohibitive cost of remediation, the government have decided that an 'out of sight out of mind' approach is the best solution. If you were to contaminate a small area no larger than a single housing block without the government being complicit, they would prosecute you to the highest level, but when they're complicit in the process it's a different story, then it becomes okay.

It's heartbreaking how many people died because of deliberate ignorance

Great documentary. Does the doctor have asbestos because you can hear him struggle to breath.

It was the wharf workers who by refusing to load the asbestos finally closed the mine

10:40, the public health department should be able to force something closed, I know my health department in the US can force a place closed

I never new the asbestos scourge is this bad an widespread.

Asbestos Really brings out the best of us 😁

Talcum powder baby powder also has it changed to cornstarch

Big shame !

So 18k people died by 2011 as a consequence of this mine?

I don’t know if I’d call it comparable to the Chernobyl disaster

What gets me about this, and it does my head in, is that they speak of this crime as if it was the first crime. This crime has been repeated for about 300 years under Capitalism. Before that, about 600 years under feudalism. Before that, it was happening under the slaves or peasants of ancient Egypt 15,000 bc. It's not what human beings do as a whole! It's what criminals do! The problem is systemic! The problem is that power has always come from the funnelling of currency, from the masses to the very few at the top of a vertical funnel and the peasants and slaves allow it. Nowadays we call this the 'one percent'! Can anyone seriously tell me that 99% of the Earth's human population cannot take out the evil 1% with the flick of a finger? I actually don't blame the 1% of evil criminals that cause this destruction because everyone knows they are evil criminals and that's what evil criminals do! I blame the apathetic 99% for not killing them as soon as they start their shit! KILL THEM or shut up whinging!!! As by the original true definition... - Capitalism means to look after Capital (rich criminals) - Socialism means to look after Society, and, - Communism means to look after Community [These 2 latter ideologies have been exploited by criminal regimes in the PAST! (Stalin, Mao, etc.) This is the fault of criminals! It is NOT the fault of the ideology itself!] In Australia (as around the rest of the world) the general population constantly whinge about not being looked after by the government. So what does the general population do about it? They vote them back in!!! The Liberals are Capitalists! The Nationals are Capitalists! The independents are Capitalists! Labour are Capitalists!!! Between these 4 parties we have a one party system... CAPITALISM!!!! The Greens are Socialist btw! You can see it in their policies! Totally different! You cannot whinge about the crimes committed by Capitalist criminals when you vote them in!!!!!!!!! What's Labour doing right now about mining??? If you vote for a Capitalist party and this tragedy happens... YOU CAUSED IT!!! STOP voting for Capitalist parties and vote for 'grass roots' parties that DEMOCRATISE THE ENTERPRISE!!! WORKERS NEED TO RUN CORPORATIONS... not a handful of criminals at the top, paying minimal wages to the people that actually PRODUCE the product, whilst they sit on their arses, making up the rules that benefit them, at the expense of us and then collect the dividends, that we produced for them, so they can share it out with the top 1% of shareholders, of whom vote themselves in as CEO's in the first place in order to do just that!!!!!!! Vote for a party that will strive for a balance between Co-operatives and business as usual. We the workers need to have a CHOICE!!! Do we work for the 'MAN'... or do we work in a DEMOCRATICALLY run enterprise run by us... called a co-op? Owned by US! With equal pay and equal shares in the profits and equal votes and equal say of where the company should be heading! Btw.... Co-ops have been around longer than slavery! Criminals put a stop to it! I've had my rant... back to listening to Midnight Oil 🤘

The jab is making this look like a drop in the ocean