The most toxic town on earth is at the centre of one of the biggest class actions in legal history.
Thirteen women and children are seeking compensation for lead poisoning against an arm of British-based mining giant Anglo American.
They represent at least 100,000 victims in Kabwe, Central Zambia. Until the area is decontaminated, that figure will continue to rise as more children are born and exposed to the toxic lead.
They live in the densely populated areas of Kasanda, Makululu and Chowa, close to the disused mine, Broken Hill. Anglo American was part of the mining operation there from 1925 to 1974.
Legal and medical experts claim they left a highly toxic and dangerous legacy of high lead levels in the soil and dust.
Anglo strongly contests those claims, blaming the Zambian government who took over the mine operation in 1974.
Expert evidence describes the Villages of the Damned – where generations of children have suffered exposure to lead, a potent neurotoxin that is particularly damaging to the young. Lead at such high levels causes reduced IQ, behavioural problems, hearing impairment and developmental toxicity.
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention states a blood lead level of 3.5 micrograms per decilitre as the reference level for danger to health.
Above that, public health and medical monitoring should begin.
The Mirror met with mothers in Kabwe whose little ones had lead levels above 100 micrograms per decilitre.
Their children struggle at school, suffering behavioural problems, dreadful gastric issues and abdominal pain.
Anglo American South Africa, a subsidiary of the British multinational, is facing the court action. Their parent company reported a profit of £3.31bn in the first six months of this year. The children are represented by Johannesburg-based Zanele Mbuyisa, assisted by Richard Meeran, of Leigh Day, human rights solicitors in London, and a team with legal wins against mining giants.
Campaigners say this class action is a test case for local people seeking corporate responsibility from multinationals.
Anglo is opposing an application by a number of United Nations special representatives to intervene in the case.
Along a track, in Kabwe’s shantytown of Waya, we met the mum of “Case A3”. Her five-year-old had a lead in the blood reading of 106 in 2019, then 114 micrograms in 2020. He played outside their leaking hut where she survives on the equivalent of 50 pence earned every other day by weaving reed mats.
“The teachers ask him to do things and he refuses,” his mum said. “He feels sick, I think that is because of eating the dirt and contaminated water.
“Coughing started when he was very young. He needed medication... I think we will win, I am a Christian and it has helped to get me through all this.”
Case A1 is a five-year-old girl who had a blood level of 87 mcgs in 2020. “She complains a lot about stomach pains, headaches and pain in her legs,” her mother, who also lives in Waya, tells us.
“She has taken lead from the soil and the dust and put it in her mouth. Anglo America is responsible as this has affected not just our children but the children before our children.
“We want justice and medical help and to get rid of this lead waste. Otherwise this goes on forever. I work at a school which goes up to 10 to 12 year olds and they are struggling with memory and behaviour in class.”
Case A12 involves a 20-year-old student who was 17 when the class action began. She has left Kabwe to study in the capital Lusaka. With lead levels at 38, then 28 mcgs, she has had problems with her eyes, headaches, coughing and chest pains.
Her mum said: “I have four children and it is the same with them. My daughters are five and 12 and they struggle with concentration. It is impossible to prevent them playing in the dust.”
Barry Mulimba, 72, who advises locals on how to reduce risks from lead, is waiting on a lead test result for his six-year-old grandson.
He said: “I worry about my grandson and all the other young children who live here. It is impossible to ensure they follow advice on avoiding lead and really I do not think the people here realise how bad it is for health. The refusal by Anglo American to accept responsibility is a scandal. We need compensation and care as soon as possible. There are people who earn 100 kwacha [£5] a week, that is not enough to look after families.”
In 1972, Dr Michael John Nicklin, who worked as a doctor on the Kabwe mine, sent a letter to the British Medical Journal.
“I was alarmed to find six unrelated children under five years old who exhibited similar movements,” he wrote. “In five of them the condition progressed to convulsions, coma, and death; and the survivor was mentally retarded.
“They lived within half a mile of the smelter. The children were found to have a blood lead level between 60 and 154ug/100 ml blood.”
Dr Len Clark, another doctor at the mine, published a thesis based on research conducted prior to 1975. He too found extremely high lead levels in children living nearby, and alarming levels of lead in the soil around villages.
He concluded they emanated from the smelter and waste dumps. The levels of lead contamination reported by Clark were as high, if not higher, than those reported after 1994 when the mine closed.
Environmental engineering experts have also concluded two thirds of lead production from the mine occurred between 1925 and 1974 and most of the lead contamination and poisoning at the present time is likely to be attributable to operations that occurred then.
Soil tests in Chowa revealed extreme lead levels in 2017, frequently over 10,000 parts per million, far above the 400 ppm limit in the US at the time, when Kabwe was identified as the most toxic town on earth.
Anglo America said they were concerned about contamination but added: “These allegations date back to more than 50 years ago when, between 1925 and 1974, AASA held a shareholding in the company that operated the mine.
“We provided services to the mine, but at no stage owned or operated the mine. The mine operator was Zambia Broken Hill Development Company. So, matters relating to the operation of the mine, including employee health, would have been its responsibility.
"Conflating ZBHDC with Anglo American is simply incorrect. The claimants’ attorneys seek to hold only Anglo American liable for a mine that they acknowledge we did not own or operate, and misrepresent the facts and ignore those who did own and operate the mine over time, including in the 50 years since.”
Mr Meeran, speaking on a visit to Kabwe, said: “In terms of legal liability, the question of ownership and level of investment in the mine are a red herring. The liability of a multinational parent company for harm arising from overseas operations depends on two key factors.
“First, the actual role and involvement of the parent company, for example in managing, overseeing, supervising and providing advice on aspects relevant to the harm. Secondly, whether the parent company failed to take reasonable steps to eliminate or minimise harm it knew, or ought to have known, could arise.”
He added: “It is unthinkable a disaster of this nature impacting so seriously on generations of children and pregnant women would have been tolerated in the Western world.”
