Beggars BeliefâŚ
Eerie detail in pic of toddlers playing in blue sandpit would see both die in their 30s
Wittenoom was the site of a blue asbestos mine between 1943 and 1966, and it was only discovered recently that children who lived in the town were developing a range of cancers and dying as a result
Philip Noble and Ross Munroe were just four years old in the picture
An eerie detail in this picture of two toddlers playing in a blue sandpit would end in both of them dying horrible deaths in their 30s.
The two boys lived in a mining town called Wittenoom north-east of Perth, Australia, in the 1950s and children in the area would play in blue sandpits made from scraps from the mines.
But, horrifyingly, these mines were blue asbestos mines â and the asbestos tailings were being smeared across the town in roads, school playgrounds and the faces of innocent Philip Noble and Ross Munroe playing in their backyard sandpit.
Wittenoom was the site of a blue asbestos mine between 1943 and 1966, and it was only discovered recently that children who lived in the town at the time were developing a range of cancers and dying as a result.
A sack race at the Wittenoom racecourse which was covered in asbestos tailings
Philip Noble and Ross Munroe were four years old when they were pictured in the blue sandpit in 1953. They would sadly both would go on to die from mesothelioma, a kind of cancer that attacks the lungs. Philip was a footballer before dying aged 36, while high school principal Ross died at 38.
Residents would buy the asbestos tailings, which were also used to reduce dust around the house, without knowing how deadly the killer substance was â with experts not realising how dangerous it was until the 1990s
Associate Professor Alison Reid, of the WA Institute of Medical Research, performed a study on people who spent their childhoods exposed to asbestos in Wittenoom and what cancers they had developed, reports the publication.
She found that girls up to the age of 15 who lived in the town had been more likely to develop mesothelioma, ovarian and brain cancers, and have had increased death rates. Boys had similar results, with elevated rates of mesothelioma, leukaemia, prostate, brain and colorectal cancer, diseases of the circulatory and nervous system and excessive death rates.
The study further discovered that 2,640 former Wittenoom children had been exposed to blue asbestos before the age of 15 â with the average age being just three.
By the end of 2007, 228 of the former residents had died of a range of causes and by 2009 there were 215 cases of cancer in 207 individuals.
âWe will continue to follow this group to provide important information on the long-term implications of exposure to asbestos during childhood,â said Associate Professor Alison Reid of the 2012 study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
The town is now declared a contaminated area and at 50,000 hectares it is the largest contaminated site in the southern hemisphere.
