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FILE NAME Brakes BRK DATE 1977 Jan 20 DOC BRK217 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Manville Internal Memo RE Cobra Brake Shoes a iteria iteria : Correspondence 1b iteria Correspondence Correspondence Mahville 151 es ' Eth AL102691546 Date January 20 1977 tea B. N. Penner . 2 . Baie % Caples < Rajem CODRA BRAKE SHOES As we discussed this morning it is my opinion that Manville eventually will be forced into the production of asbestos COBRA brake shoes if it in the railroad wishes to retain its dominant place friction materials industry I base this opinion on : the following points - 1. Presently there is a tremendous amount of hysteria and emotion concerning the health effects of exposure to small quantities of airborne asbestos fiber This has extended to the government regulatory agencies where NIOSH is proposing an airborne exposure limit of 0.1 ee 8 hour TWA and 0.5 cc ceiling concentration 2. Experiments by Westinghouse Air Brake have shown convert that the heat of brake application does not all fiber in the brake s1htoeistorealneaasmeodrpthooutshemaitnmeroasl- but that approximately phere as asbestos fiber 3 The United Transport Union believes that operating trainmen are being exposed to fibers releasetdhefrom has been conveyed overheated borfaTkreansshpooerstaatnidonhatvoedreetqeuremsitneedif asbestos- Department free brake shoes can be provided This union concern to WABCO and they have recommended to us the development development and production production of an asbestos- free brake shoe 4 There is a large potential market 2.0N for composition brake shoes in subway use I understand the mass transit systems in New York City and Atlanta have mandated an asbestos shoe is 3 Our competition Abex Corp. presently extensively advertisi~ advertisi~ major producing marketing and and lead free composition A COPY an asbestos of their advertisement is attached ' [; . qL. P. Kotin M.D. Page 2 January 20 1977 * 7 we et . te ap * * The containing product apparently is superior in performance to our experimental asbestos composition and to the Abex shoe but both meet the specifications of the American Association of Railroads I understand that Chet Sulewski has recommended that US prepare a program to combat this situation by convincing alt interested parties that no significant health hazard is created by the use of the present COBRA shoe I am afraid that this would be very difficult to do e E. Tinier . a