NATION'S MECHANICS AT RISK FROM ASBESTOS
Deadly Fibers Are Found in Brakes, but Officials Have Kept Silent
Thursday, November 16, 2000
By ANDREW SCHNEIDER AND CAROL SMITH
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS
seattlep-i.nwsource.com
Millions of brakes on cars and trucks -- and millions more waiting on parts-shop shelves nationwide -- contain asbestos fibers that can kill mechanics.
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.
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.
"It's an intolerable risk," said 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.
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 government is not doing its job," said Dr. Richard Lemen, a former U.S. deputy surgeon general.
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.
"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."
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.
"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."
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.
Mount Sinai's Nicholson, who has been researching the link between asbestos and disease for 30 years, agreed with Weis' assessment.
"For it (asbestos) still to be hanging around in the year 2000, in products it need not be in, is just amazing. It really is a concern that must be addressed."
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