Braking Asbestos Story
SEATTLE--The Seattle Post-Intelligencer in a copyrighted story is alleging that industry workers performing brake jobs are being exposed to dangerous airborne asbestos fibers released during servicing procedures.
“Millions of brakes on cars and trucks--and millions more waiting on parts-shop shelves nationwide--contain asbestos fibers that can kill mechanics,” according to the piece, which was written by Andrew Schneider and Carol Smith.
Media outlets throughout the country are picking up on the story.
“Federal health and safety officials acknowledge the risks inherent in asbestos brakes. Yet the agencies, apparently relying on the auto industry to police itself, have done nothing in recent years to warn workers or check on workplace safety,” the paper reported.
“Almost everybody interviewed during the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s four-month investigation--mechanics and the government officials charged with protecting them alike--said they thought asbestos had been taken out of brakes years ago,” according to the piece.
“It’s an intolerable risk,” Dr. William Nicholson, professor emeritus at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and a leading authority on the hazards of asbestos in brakes, told the paper.
“Those most at risk--the mechanics--believe there is no longer asbestos in brakes. In interviews with 143 repair-shop managers and owners, auto-parts salesmen and mechanics across the country, 137 of them said there was nothing to worry about because the government outlawed the use of asbestos years ago.
“At a Seattle outlet for a national parts chain, a sales clerk said, ‘None of the brakes we sell have asbestos. It was banned.’ The clerk invited a reporter into the storeroom to see for herself. The first box of brakes the clerk handed her was plainly marked ‘contains asbestos.’ He told her the interview was over and asked her to leave,” the story noted.
“Tests conducted for the P-I by government-certified laboratories found alarmingly high levels of asbestos contamination in gas stations and brake-repair shops in the District of Columbia and six states, including Washington. Public health experts said the exposure levels were so high in some locations that more than one in 10 mechanics working without protective gear would likely contract cancer.
“But the government has issued no warnings to the nation’s 750,000 brake mechanics in the past decade. No alarms have been sounded by worker safety, environmental or public-health officials because no one has looked at the dangers,” the paper said.
“The government is not doing its job,” said Dr. Richard Lemen, a former U.S. deputy surgeon general, according to the article.
“During the past three months, the P-I collected samples of dust from floors, work areas and tool bins in 31 brake-repair garages in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Richmond, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Asbestos, almost exclusively chrysotile, which has been used for decades in brakes, was detected in 21 of the locations. The amount of asbestos in the dust ranged from 2.26 percent to 63.8 percent.
“Personnel working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) entering any area where asbestos contamination of material is 1 percent or higher are required to wear protective suits and full-face respirators,” the paper reported.
“If the measurements are valid, that’s a very concentrated source of asbestos in the dust,” said Aaron Sussell, an industrial hygienist with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Cincinnati. “At those levels, it’s not going to take a lot to put asbestos into the air at a hazardous level,” he was quoted as saying.
“In several repair bays, the P-I analysis found mechanics were being exposed to large amounts of airborne fibers. Most health experts agree that the primary exposure route or pathway for asbestos to cause harm is inhalation.
“In air samples taken during nine brake jobs, analysis found significant amounts of asbestos in six,” according to the story.
“Assuming the samples were properly collected, the results indicate some workers’ exposure was about 43 times higher than what is recommended,” said Dr. Christopher Weis, regional toxicologist with the EPA in Denver. “At these exposure levels the theoretical risks to those mechanics would be on the order of about 1.5 increased cancers for every 10 workers,” he reportedly told the paper.
That level of risk, Weis cautioned, is calculated on exposures continuing for a full career. “Actual worker risks may be higher or lower depending upon individual susceptibilities and environmental factors,” he added.
“I’ve been doing this for 18 years and I never thought about it,” a brake specialist told the paper. “All the manufacturers, all the aftermarket parts suppliers, everybody who sells parts--that’s all you heard--no asbestos.”
In the 1970s and 1980s, the EPA, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and the U.S. Public Health Service all worried about the asbestos-caused deaths of thousands of mechanics who worked on brakes and clutches, the paper said, adding that “an accurate death count may never be known because the impact of asbestos-related disease occurs from 15 to 40 years after exposure.”
In the past, the U.S. government has warned that:
“Asbestos released into the air can linger long after a brake job is done and since asbestos can spread 75 feet from the work area, it can be breathed in by everyone inside a garage, including customers.
“Asbestos can be carried on work clothing, contaminating the family car and home. This can cause asbestos disease among family members.”
The paper noted that government safety efforts relating to asbestos have been drastically reduced over the years. “Auto worker (service technicians) exposure was no longer a priority,” it said.
“Interviews with state and federal occupational health and safety agencies and the EPA garnered the same comments: There is no indication that auto workers are still being harmed by asbestos. But the same agencies reluctantly conceded that they hadn’t checked.”
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