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TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JUSTINE GERARDY Chris Julius, 58, looks at x-rays of his lungs at his home in Prieska on July 2, 2012. Julius, a former teacher, was diagnosed with asbestos cancer three months ago despite never having worked at the town's asbestos mill or in the nearby hills where mining started in the late 1800s along rich deposits known as the country's "asbestos mountains", which run along the vast Northern Cape. Death knows the small town of Prieska all too well. A poisonous legacy of South Africa's years as a global blue asbestos hub, the Grim Reaper has snaked through here for decades, wiping out families and striking down neighbours with deadly precision. "In most of the houses in our street, there is someone who has died of asbestos or mesothelioma" said Chris Julius. AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER JOE (Photo credit should read ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/GettyImages)

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JUSTINE GERARDY Chris Julius, 58, looks at x-rays of his lungs at his home in Prieska on July 2, 2012. Julius, a former teacher, was diagnosed with asbestos cancer three months ago despite never having worked at the town's asbestos mill or in the nearby hills where mining started in the late 1800s along rich deposits known as the country's "asbestos mountains", which run along the vast Northern Cape. Death knows the small town of Prieska all too well. A poisonous legacy of South Africa's years as a global blue asbestos hub, the Grim Reaper has snaked through here for decades, wiping out families and striking down neighbours with deadly precision. "In most of the houses in our street, there is someone who has died of asbestos or mesothelioma" said Chris Julius. AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER JOE (Photo credit should read ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/GettyImages)
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AFP ALEXANDER JOE