RE: Asbestos in brakes: exposure and risk of disease

Our plain-English summary of RE: Asbestos in brakes: exposure and risk of disease, by M.J. Teta (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2004).

The study

• Author: M.J. Teta
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 2004;46(3):312-4; author reply 315-8
• Type of article: Comment, Letter
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not a new study. The author responded to a 2004 review by Lemen, which had called the epidemiological evidence on brake work and mesothelioma equivocal. The author described an earlier Connecticut case-control study by the author and colleagues (Teta et al., 1983). It identified one case and five controls in automotive repair and related services, an odds ratio of 0.65 (95% CI 0.08 to 5.53). The author acknowledged that such individual studies can be imprecise because of small numbers, and that the 1983 work histories may be incomplete. The author argued three points: the best risk estimates from analytical studies were consistently below the null for vehicle mechanics; Lemen mischaracterized or left out several studies; and a reanalysis of the Spirtas data by the author's group was negative overall. The author concluded that relying on case reports while ignoring or misrepresenting epidemiological evidence cannot be defended. The letter discloses that the author has served as an expert witness in friction brake litigation, with the author's employer receiving funding for this work from Ford, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler.

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 a published review (Lemen, 2004); no new data collected
• Who was studied: No new study population. The letter discusses the author's earlier case-control study of mesothelioma in Connecticut, 1957–1977, and other published studies of vehicle mechanics and brake repair workers
• Exposure: Work as a vehicle mechanic or in brake repair; no specific fiber type is named
• Main results:
  • In the author's 1983 Connecticut study, one case and five controls had worked in automotive repair and related services, an odds ratio of 0.65 (95% CI 0.08 to 5.53)
  • The odds ratio of 0.65 and its 95% confidence interval for the automotive repair category in the 1983 study
  • In the same 1983 study, the author reports an odds ratio of 3.87 for plumbers and pipefitters
  • The author states that the best risk estimates from the available analytical studies are consistently below the null value for vehicle repair
  • The author reports that a reanalysis of the Spirtas et al. (1985) data by the author's group (Hessel et al., 2004), adjusting for other occupational exposures, was negative overall and showed no rise in risk with longer brake work
  • The author states that surveillance-database studies not included in Lemen's review all reported PMR/PIRs below 1.0
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that relying on case reports of mesothelioma in men who had worked as vehicle mechanics, while ignoring or misrepresenting the epidemiological evidence, cannot be defended
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author acknowledges that individual studies, including the author's own, may be imprecise because few subjects had a history of vehicle repair
  • The author acknowledges that work histories in the 1983 study came from city directories and death certificates and may not be complete
  • The author acknowledges that occupationally exposed cases and controls may have been missed, with possible random misclassification

Topics

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

Related studies

• Asbestos in brakes: exposure and risk of disease — R.A. Lemen (2004)
• Environmental and occupational health hazards associated with the presence of asbestos in brake linings and pads (1900 to present): a "state-of-the-art" review — D.J. Paustenbach, B.L. Finley, et al. (2004)
• 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)
• Environmental and occupational health hazards associated with the presence of asbestos in brake linings and pads (1900 to present): A "state-of-the-art" review — S.S. Paskal (2004)
• Personal exposures to asbestos fibers during brake maintenance of passenger vehicles — M.F. Cely-García, M. Sánchez, et al. (2012)

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