"Ain't Necessarily So!": The Brake Industry's Impact on Asbestos Regulation in the 1970s

Our plain-English summary of "Ain't Necessarily So!": The Brake Industry's Impact on Asbestos Regulation in the 1970s, by D. Rosner, G. Markowitz (American Journal of Public Health, 2017).

The study

• Authors: D. Rosner, G. Markowitz
• Journal: American Journal of Public Health
• Published: 2017;107(9):1395-1399
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Canada is proposing a ban on asbestos, and the US Environmental Protection Agency has listed it among the first 10 materials it is investigating under the new Toxic Substances Control Act revisions. However, this effort is currently running up against enormous industry and political opposition. Here, we detail the activities in the early 1970s of the Friction Materials Standards Institute, an industry trade association, to stifle earlier attempts to regulate asbestos use in brake linings, one of the oldest and most obvious sources of asbestos exposure to mechanics, among others. (Am J Public Health. 2017: 1395-1399. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.303901).

In plain English

This article is a history, not a medical study. The authors used internal documents of the Friction Materials Standards Institute (FMSI), a brake and clutch industry trade association, to describe how its Asbestos Study Committee responded to OSHA asbestos exposure limits in the early-to-mid 1970s. Many of the documents were gathered through asbestos lawsuits. In June 1972 the committee heard that dust from blowing off brakes exceeded the 5 fibers per cubic centimeter limit. The industry said publicly that "locked-in" asbestos could not be released into the air. Committee papers, however, noted that cutting, drilling and grinding could exceed exposure limits. A proposal to put warning notices in brake boxes was rejected as a "red flag." In 1973 the committee chair, an engineer, called labelling a moral obligation. In 1976 the committee planned to oppose a proposed 0.5 fibers per cubic centimeter limit by "every possible means." The FMSI and the Asbestos Information Association adopted a garage warning sign like NIOSH's 1976 wording but without the word "cancer." The authors concluded that this opposition significantly delayed a lower OSHA limit and played down the danger to workers.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Historical analysis of internal corporate and trade-association documents, many gathered in asbestos litigation and posted at toxicdocs.org
• Who was studied: The Friction Materials Standards Institute (FMSI), a US brake and clutch industry trade association, and its Asbestos Study Committee, early to mid 1970s
• Exposure: Asbestos in brake linings and clutch facings. The committee chair said most FMSI members used substantial amounts of chrysotile. The article also covers OSHA exposure limits: an emergency limit of 12 fibers per cubic centimeter in 1971, 5 a year later, 2 by 1976, and a proposed 0.5.
• Main results:
  • In June 1972 the Asbestos Study Committee received a report that dust concentrations during blowing off of brakes exceeded the 5 fibers per cc limit.
  • The industry publicly said that asbestos "locked in" to finished products was not a danger because it could not be released into the air.
  • The FMSI executive director wrote to the committee that later operations such as cutting, grooving, drilling and grinding could produce asbestos fiber levels above the exposure limits.
  • A committee member's suggestion to put a notice in boxes of brake linings or clutch facings was rejected by another member as a "red flag".
  • In mid-1973 the committee chair, an engineer with Raybestos–Manhattan, told members that labelling containers of asbestos-containing friction material was the least the industry could do.
  • At a NIOSH meeting, the industry learned that the medical literature showed at least four mesothelioma cases in people employed in automobile brake servicing. These cases come from other research reported at the meeting, not from this article.
  • In 1976 the committee planned to oppose OSHA's proposed 0.5 fibers per cubic centimeter standard. The article says the standard was not reduced until the mid-1980s.
  • NIOSH's 1976 suggested garage sign said breathing asbestos dust may cause asbestosis and cancer. The FMSI and AIA adopted similar wording but left out cancer, using "Breathing Asbestos Dust May be Hazardous to Your Health."
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that FMSI and AIA opposition significantly delayed the lowering of OSHA's exposure limit, and that leaving cancer out of their warnings trivialized the dangers to workers.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Auto mechanics and brake work, Chrysotile.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Brake Lining, Asbestos Exposure.

Related studies

• Evaluation of exposure to the airborne asbestos in an automobile brake and clutch manufacturing industry in Iran — H. Kakooei, H. Marioryad (2010)
• Airborne asbestos concentration from brake changing does not exceed permissible exposure limit — C.L. Blake, D.R. Van Orden, et al. (2003)
• Exposure to chrysotile asbestos associated with unpacking and repacking boxes of automobile brake pads and shoes — A.K. Madl, L.L. Scott, et al. (2008)
• Reduction of the biological potential of chrysotile asbestos arising from conditions of service on brake pads — A.M. Langer (2003)
• Evaluation of the size and type of free particulates collected from unused asbestos-containing brake components as related to potential for respirability — M.A. Atkinson, M. O'sullivan, et al. (2004)
• Re: Evaluation of the size and type of free particulates collected from unused asbestos-containing brake components as related to potential for respirability — D.J. Paustenbach, B.L. Finley, et al. (2006)

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