Asbestos content of dust encountered in brake maintenance and repair

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos content of dust encountered in brake maintenance and repair, by M.L. Newhouse (Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1977).

The study

• Author: M.L. Newhouse
• Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine
• Published: 1977;70(4):291
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 002245).

In plain English

This item is a letter to the editor, not a research study. It reports no new measurements or data. The author commented on an article by Rohl and colleagues about asbestos dust during brake maintenance and repair. The author noted that the subject had been reviewed in Great Britain in 1970. Dust control with vacuum brushes and vacuum funnels had then been suggested and had greatly reduced fibre in the air, but these methods did not seem to have been widely accepted. The author wrote that exposure in truck brake repair, including bevelling new linings, could be controlled. The main difficulty was gaining the cooperation of workers who often worked alone or in small unsupervised groups. Citing earlier animal studies by other researchers, the author discussed whether very short, fine fibres matter for mesothelial tumours, mentioning crocidolite, chrysotile and fibre glass. Under the counting rules of the time, fibres shorter than 5 micrometres were not counted. The author agreed with Rohl and colleagues that these criteria should be looked at critically.

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: Letter to the editor commenting on another published article; no original data
• Who was studied: No population was studied; the letter responds to an article by Rohl et al. on asbestos dust concentrations during brake maintenance and repair
• Exposure: Asbestos dust in brake maintenance and repair, especially truck brake repair and bevelling new linings
• Main results:
  • Commentary, not a finding of this letter: vacuum dust-control methods suggested in 1970 British reviews did not seem to have been widely accepted
  • Commentary: the author wrote that exposure in this work can be controlled, and that the chief difficulty is gaining the cooperation of workers who often work independently or in small groups without supervision
  • Commentary citing other studies (Stanton and Wrench 1972; Wagner and Berry 1969): the author wrote that crocidolite has the highest carcinogenicity, and that very small fibres may explain mesothelial tumours in animal experiments with fibre glass and chrysotile
  • Commentary: under the exposure-assessment rules of the time, fibres shorter than 5 micrometres were not counted
• The authors' conclusion: The author agreed with Rohl and colleagues that the fibre-counting criteria should be looked at critically

Related studies

• Asbestos content of dust encountered in brake maintenance and repair — A.N. Rohl, A.M. Langer, et al. (1977)
• Asbestos content of dust encountered in brake maintenance and repair — W.J. Smither (1977)
• Asbestos exposure during brake lining maintenance and repair — A.N. Rohl, A.M. Langer, et al. (1976)
• Asbestos dust exposure during brake repair — K. Rödelsperger, H. Jahn, et al. (1986)
• Pulmonary asbestos and dust content in East Anglia — P.G. Stovin, P. Partridge (1982)
• Asbestos fiber concentrations in the lungs of brake repair workers: commercial amphiboles levels are predictive of chrysotile levels — G.M. Marsh, A.O. Youk, et al. (2011)

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