Document VGq4qYOEwxjBggEq2RvY8D0Lj

FRICTION MATERIALS STANDARDS INSTITUTE, INC,, E-210 ROUTE 4, PARAMUS, N. J. 07652 '* , June 22, 1978 To: Asbestos Study Committee / Subject: Recent front-page story in THE RECORD (Hackensack, New Jersey) headlined: "Deadly dust-particles from asbestos brakes." Enclosed for your information is a copy of a recent article which appeared in THE RECORD, a Hackensack, New Jersey newspaper. The article was on Page 1, with continuation on Page 6, While this article is sent for information, it is typical of the articles which appear regularly in THE RECORD. It, perhaps, calls for a rebuttal. The authorities are, of course, Mr. Nicholson and Dr. Selikoff of Mount Sinai. There are several items which could be argued, but the main point is that the headlines do not describe the content of the story. The article does not document that there are indeed "deadly dust particles from asbestos brakes." It simply describes unsatisfactory procedures in local and regional brake repair shops. Its documentation is the "mesothelioma...years after one day of exposure," and "the wives who washed their husbands' contaminated clothes." These two are the oft-repeated examples from Mount Sinai which have no relationship to the "deadly dust from brake linings." Other parts of the text are subject to argument including the following: "...workers can also use shop vacuums that sell for $29 to $129." "Jim Ducker...said there are no safety directives on handling asbestos." - "There le no federal-law on handling asbestos dust." "...the refusal to take proper precautions seems suicidal," The tests on those who worked with insulation are not relevant to the exposure of brake repair workers, because both the types of asbestos used and the dosages to which workers are exposed differ radically. The foregoing is for your information. Comments are welcome. E. W. Drislane Executive Director FMSI 06879 GO') THE RECORD Hackensack, New Jersey June 19, 1978 Page 1 ........................./ -' . uun j Deadly dust-particles from asbestos brakes r ` l. . By Lucy Komlsar and we started getting heavy into dan "Exposure to gasoline fumes is not - Staff Wrttaf . gers from cancer." good for you either. They should use ! Mechanic Dave Femlcola walks over ' to a car that slants forward from thS' Jack set under. Its rear end and bends to touch the exposed metal wheel. He said he tried to talk his coworkerttato wearing the masks which the com pany provides, but they ignored him. . "It's uncomfortable," said 33-ycar-old - Tim Walsh of Dumont. He said he re water. Just a damp rag will take the dust out You don't want to use solvents. You're not trying to dean up oil; you're trying to dean up dust." In Passaic County, road department 1 He holds out a finger covered with o'; moves the dust by brushing it or blow- , Supervisor Alex Komar said brake charcoal-colored film. "Asbestos dust," ' tag it with an air hosC, both extremely | workers use vacuums to draw out as be said. v " dangerous, procedures.---- j . bestos partides. However they do not To remove the dust, Femicola, 28, . Michael Maresca, 18, of Ridgefield who works at Circle Brake Service in ' Park also rejects the mask. "I don't be-. Hackensack, wipes the brake drums > Jieve ta it, if you're going to die, you're with a dry rag and then tosses the rag going to die," he said. into an open barrel. ' . Like most mechanics, Femicola ig- "Real problem" wear masks or wet down the dust Even when vacuums are supplied, government workers sometimes fail to use them. Adam Caruso, master me chanic at the state police repair shop ta Trenton, said: "The men ure supposed to vacuum nores recommended procedures, a fail- Circle Brake Manager Tom CoieUa the dust off, but a lot of times if you tag that can lead to cancer or asbesto- said he can't make the men wear the don't watch them, they don't do it : sis, a chronic lung disease caused by masks. 'It's a real problem. I don't Sometimes they blow it off with a hose 'inhaling microscopic asbestos fibers. , know what to do myself," be said. ' and get it all over the shop. Some men Anyone in the garage is subject to the ' 1 John Weller, a mechanic at the Exxon use a brush, catch the dust, and throw it same hazards. " Service Center ta Oradell, described tathe garage. . A recent survey of garages in New Jersey and New York revealed routine similar hazards. "A lot of people blast "The air hose is quicker," be said. [the dust] with an air gun, let it spray "The trouble is it spreads all over the disregard of these basic safety proce- ' all over the room, and that's the way dures. Workers interviewed were all , they do it hoe. When that happens, l aware of the hazards; they simply ig- step out of the shop." noted them or took ineffective precau However Waller does not follow rec tions. ommended procedures himself. "1 light The National Institute for Occupation al Safety and Health, a federal research agency, says asbestos dust should be . vacuumed, not blown, from brake drums and floors. It rejects dry sweep ing and cleaning under any circum stances. If ventilation at the source of the dust is inadequate, workers should ly brush Off the backing plates, and the (hist falls down onto the ground," he said. He said be knows It is safer to clean off brake dust by wetting it first, but adds, "1 can't be wasting my time. "Nobody wears a mask here," he said. "I would wear a mask if it were supplied to me, but Pm not about to go out and buy one." wear filter masks, the agency said, to.. . protect themselves from the dust. The masks cost less than $2 each. Workers in government garages pay Asbestos is used in brake linings be move attention to the asbestos danger, cause it is resistant to the heat caused but even they do not always follow pre when the lining presses against the ro tating wheel. Car repair workers can't avoid work- scribed safety practices. William Galdi, who beads the Bergen County Department of Motor Vehi tag with Asbestos, but there are ways they can protect themselves, such as us- tag masks or vacuums. .. cles, said, "We wash the dust with gaso line or a cleaning solution. It comes down into a drain pan rather than get ; An industrial vacuum costs $250, but blown into the air." workers can also use shop vacuums that However Wiliam Nicholson, associate seU for $29 to $129. ; , director of the Environmental Sripwpy Femicola, who lives in Paterson, said, "I've been wearing a mask for about four years since I took a biology Laboratory at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York, said that process is not recommended: . shop. When the workers take off their masks, they breathe the asbestos that is floating in the air." . Many workers ignore precautions be cause the danger appears so far off -- the incubation period for asbestos dis eases is between 10 and 3S years. But then the results are debilitating and of ten fataL -, Dr. Irving Selikoff of Ridgewood who heads the Mount Sinai Medical School's Environmental. Sciences Laboratory and is credited with provoking public awareness about asbestos hazards, is working with governments and unions to test workers who have been exposed to the dangerous fibers. New Jersey Health Department spokesman Mitchell Leon said the state plans to work with Selikoff within the next few months to test state employees who have been exposed to asbestos dust at the central motor pool and state po lice garages. The fibers that make up asbestos dust float ta the air unseen. Even abort expo sure can be dangerous. - There are reports of workers con tracting mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer caused by asbestos, years after course at fWUUaml Paterson College, ' . t ( i `' ` one day of exposure ta shipyards. FMSI 06880 yx '* n 1 ma UUOt 11 Vlll THE RECORD brake linings (Continued on Page 6) , _............................................ Last month New York City municipal ; Sam Meyers, president of United Auto - garage workers who belong to District Workers Local 259 in New York City, Courril 37 of the American Federation ^ said medical exams conducted by Seli- of State, County, and Muniripal Em-. i koff showed that some of the members plqyees, began a similar program Of j * of bis union have been affected by expo- " medical tests. , , ';U| sure to asbestos _ - ' Jim Docker, the union's director as l Meyers said the union was taking health and safety, said there are no j measures to ensure compliance with | safety directives on handling asbettos*^ safety rules. "If a worker in a uni < The city's way of handling brake dmt'J shop doesn't wear a mask, the uni puts workers in extreme danger, be'; delegate is called.*' i: said. "They just Wow it out with an air He said workers must water down 4 facet." - - dust and use vacuums: "Brake duSLb 1 There is no federal law on handling asbestos dust The government simply aays that employees have a right In' work in a safe environment The Ocar- indiscriminate. It goes into everybody*! ' lungs. If I'm working next toe guy and 1 the dust emanates, Jm breathing Jt:< too." ........................ patiocal Safety and Health Adnmustxn-" tion (OSHA), whicb enforces this law,' Where to call * for information The federal Office of Cancer Com munications says workers exposed to asbestos should not smoke and should get regular chest X-rays. A toll-free cancer information service number, (800) 523-3586, has been es tablished to answer questions from the public. requires that the amount of asbestos dust in the air be below a certain limit If OSHA inspectors find asbestos levels too high, it can require a company to take steps to reduce it , Firms are first supposed to seek engj- ! neering remedies such as supplying vacuums and having exhaust systems installed. If that is not sufficient; masks should be provided. The dangers of brake asbestos dust are so well known that the refusal to take proper precautions seems suiddaL At the Hudson Transit Lines bus garage in Mahwah, night foreman Ed McGuire iH, "Usually we blow the dust out or wipe it with carbon tet" Carbon Ttol trichloride is a solvent so highly cards-' ogenic that it has been banned from nonindustrial nm. .. - :. * Asbestos diseases have even struck wives who washed theirhusbands' con taminated clothes.. Asbestosis occurs when scar tissue builds up around the particles, making the lungs hard, inelastic, and unable to hold much air. Smokers who are exposed to asbestos are eight times as likely to get lung can cer as other smokers. > Dr. Nicholson of Mount Sinai said he knew of four brake workers wo had DaveFemicola wearsa mask to guard ac been hospitalized for asbestosfinked diseases. And he said, he had heard of many others. . .. Tests an those who work with insula tion, many forms of which contain as bestos, have already shown a high rate of asbestosis and cancer. Researchers are now testing brake mechanics. FMSI 06881 2)a ft y-- A'<f7 v/'iTx- 7-- Gentlemen: This concerns the June 19 article in THE RECORD headlined "Deadly dust-particles from asbestos brakes." As Secretary for the Friction Materials Standards Institute, a trade association representing most domestic manufacturers of brake linings, I would like to comment on this article. It is a shame that the article as written, which accurately described conditions in local brake repair shops, had to be headlined with the scare headlines. The article might better have been headlined "Brake repair shops do not follow recommended precedures," but that wouldn't rate a page one headline. Your headline indicated that there was to be documentation that there are deadly dust particles from asbestos brakes. The article centered on what are apparently unsatisfactory procedures need in local and regional brake shops. There is a vast difference in exposure t-e-eebootoc duct from brake lining where a shop drills, bevels, grinds or otherwise machines friction materials, and the shop that normally installs brakes without machining operations. The most hazardous procedure in most brake^shops is the cleaning of dust from used brakes. While the Institute and most manufacturers recommend the use of respirators and high efficiency vacuum cleaning equipment, exposures in brake shops, the comer garage, the dealership and the mass merchandiser can in no way be compared with that in the municipal or industrial garage where friction materials are machined regularly throughout the day. There are disagreements among knowledgeable people as regards the health hazard from brake lining wear debris. Some, such as Mount Sinai claim that these submicron particles can be hazardous to those exposed to that dust. Others indicate that a majority of the asbestos has been reduced to forsterite, a FMSI 06882 . "2- , relatively non-fibrous material. The health effects of exposure to used brake lining dust have not been evaluated, and will be difficult to evaluate. There firm. &****- ^; io a vaot difference between-exposures in (1) an industrial atmosphere where raw asbestos is used, (2) the brake facility which machines brake linings, and (3) the garage which cleans out worn brakes. Mount Sinai's example of workers contracting mesothelioma years after one day of exposure at shipyards is not relevant to the dust from brake linings. It is an entirely different type of dust, and the concentrations were extreme in the shipyards. The type of asbestos used in the shipyards (amosite and /tir'd -L,r-&rSL*_ crocidolite) has^ncveg been used in American made brake linings. The Mount Sinai example of the wife who washed her husband's contaminated clothes involved exposure to raw asbestos brought home from a factory. It has nothing to do with those exposed to the dust from used brake linings. There is a /ma.aJbr&vast difference from raw asbestos, which is quite fibrous, and the used brake lining wear debris which contains materials other than asbestos and in which the asbestos has been broken down primarily into a material called forsterite. While Mount Sinai alleges that the submicron fibers in brake lining wear debris may be carcinogenic thara is no dornmantation-t-o this-ef-feet. As a matter of fact, there is a study currently underway by the National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) which is working closely with Mount Sinai in an attempt to document exposures to brake lining dust. If this study concentrates on commercial and municipal garages it will not document exposure of mechanics in the comer garage, dealer or mass merchandiser, where there is very little machining of brake lining materials. We also do not agree with statements such as the following: "Workers can also use shop vacuums that sell for $29 to $129." Garages should use vacuums with high efficiency filter systems and I doubt that any can be bought at prices FMSI 06883 -3 such as that. An authority is quoted as saying that there are "no safety directives on handling asbestos." NIOSH, the Institute and several manufacturers have distributed recommended procedures for servicing brakes. I've enclosed copies of NIOSH and Institute recommendations. THE RECORD article states that "there is no federal law on handling asbestos dust." The regulations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) based on authority granted by the Williams-Stieger Act certainly have the effect of a federal law as regards handling asbestos dust. While wa strongly advocate the usa of respirators-and good high filtration vacuum equipment in chops doing-brake work, we suggest that your statament '-'the. cefweal--to take proper preeautiono ooomo ouieidal" io a-oearc statement in--harmony with the headlines. Brake shops should adopt the precautions recommended by NIOSH, the Institute, and several manufacturers. The use of scare headlines and unrelated "documentation" is not the way to promote safe procedures in the brake shop. EWD/lmc E. W. Drislane Secretary FMSI 06884