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====Making When was mesothelioma first diagnosed by making the Connection connection between Pleura Tumors and Asbestos?====Finally in 1959, three South African physicians, J.C. Wagner, Kit Sleggs, and Paul Marchand published a medical paper linking the deadly form of cancer mesothelioma to asbestos.<ref>Wagner, J.C., Sleggs, C.A. and Marchand, P., "Diffuse pleural mesothelioma and asbestos exposure in the north western Cape Province, <i>BR.J.Ind.Med</i> 1960;17:260-71.</ref> In 1956, Dr. Wagner faced was confronted with a series of patients that appeared to be suffering from tuberculous and emphysema in and around Kimberely, South Africa. Once these patients were identified it was decided that these patients had the best chance to survive if they were sent to a tuberculous hospital managed by Dr. Kit Sleggs in Kimberly. These patients were brought in from an enormous area surrounding Kimberely (currently famous the enormous open pit diamond mine next to the town).  The doctors quickly learned that patients who lived east of Kimberely recovered from their illness, but patients who west of Kimberly did not respond and died. The physicians realized that the patients west of Kimberely were suffering from a different and far more dangerous disease than tuberculous or emphysema. After patients died, the autopsies showed that all of the patients from west of Kimberly suffered from extremely rare mesothelioma tumors.<ref>Wagner, J.C., "The discovery of the association between blue asbestos and mesotheliomas and the aftermath," <i>British Journal of Industrial Medicine</i>, 1991; 48:399-403</ref> The doctors realized it was unlikely that these tumors were simply random.

A pathologist who worked with Wagner in Kimberly, informed Wagner and Kleggs that he had seen similar mesothelioma tumors in Johannesburg, South Africa. Kleggs and Wagner contacted Dr. Paul Marchand, the physician who had treated many of the Johannesburg patients. The three physicians immediately suspected that blue asbestos might of the tumors. After taking another look at the samples of lung from deceased patients, they found fragments of asbestos mineral. Initially, the physicians struggled to link asbestos and mesothelioma for two reasons: First, many of the patients (both black and white) denied working in asbestos mines. Second, mesothelioma tumors were typically fatal within a year or two within diagnosis, but these patients were developing tumors 10-20 years after their first exposure to asbestos. The physicians needed to establish that the tumors were not a result of some other source.  Eventually, the doctors realized that their patients had lied to them because their was social stigma attached to working with asbestos. The patients had worked in and around asbestos, but were loath to admit. Eventually, patients began to reveal that they had worked in asbestos mines or mills. In some cases, these patients described living in "a blue haze" in their communities that were located next to mines and mills. The mills and mines west of Kimberly worked with blue asbestos.<ref>Wagner, J.C., "The discovery of the association between blue asbestos and mesotheliomas and the aftermath," <i>British Journal of Industrial Medicine</i>, 1991; 48:399-403 and Tannapefel, <i>Malignant Mesothelioma</i>, p. 15.</ref>