Patrick J. Sheehan

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

Throughout the history of automobile development, chrysotile asbestos has been an essential component of vehicle brake linings and pads. Acceptable alternatives were not fully developed until the 1980s, and these were installed in vehicles produced over the past decade. This article presents a “state-of-the-art” analysis of what was known over time about the potential environmental and occupational health hazards associated with the presence of chrysotile asbestos in brake linings and pads. As part of this analysis, the evolution of automobile brakes and brake friction materials, beginning with the early 1900s, is described. Initial concerns regarding exposures to asbestos among workers involved in the manufacture of friction products were raised as early as 1930. Between 1930 and 1959, eight studies were conducted for which friction product manufacturing workers were part of the population assessed. These studies provided evidence of asbestosis among highly exposed workers, but provided little information on the magnitude of exposure. The U.S. Public Health Service proposed the first occupational guideline for asbestos exposure in 1938. The causal relationship between asbestos exposure and lung cancer was confirmed in 1955 in asbestos textile workers in the United Kingdom, and later, in 1960, in South Africa, mesothelioma was attributed to asbestos exposure to even relatively low airborne concentrations of crocidolite. Between 1960 and 1974, five epidemiology studies of friction product manufacturing workers were conducted. During this same time period, the initial studies of brake lining wear (dust or debris) emissions were conducted showing that automobile braking was not a substantial contributor of asbestos fibers greater than 5μm in length to ambient air. The first exposure surveys, as well as preliminary health effects studies, for brake mechanics were also conducted during this period. In 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration promulgated the first national standards for workplace exposure to asbestos. During the post-1974 time period, most of the information on exposure of brake mechanics to airborne asbestos during brake repair was gathered, primarily from a series of sampling surveys conducted by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in the United States. These surveys indicated that the time-weighted average asbestos concentrations (about 1–6h in duration) during brake servicing were between 0.004 and 0.28 fibers per cubic centimeter, and the mean time-weighted average concentration was about 0.05 fibers per cubic centimeter. The data also showed that brake mechanics were not exposed to time-weighted average concentrations above workplace exposure limits in effect at the time of the study. From 1975 to 2002, more than 25 epidemiology studies were conducted examining the risks of asbestos-related diseases in brake mechanics. These studies clearly indicated that brake mechanics were not at increased risk of adverse health effects due to exposure to asbestos. Specifically, the studies found no increased risk of mesothelioma or asbestosis in brake mechanics, and no evidence that lung cancer in this occupational group can be attributed to exposure to asbestos during brake repair. This could be due to one or a number of factors: the airborne concentration of chrysotile asbestos and the duration of exposure are too small to be significant, the chrysotile fibers are too short to be biologically important, that chrysotile fibers are substantially less potent than amphibole fibers in inducing lung cancer and mesothelioma, or other yet-to-be-understood factors. Finally, there were 20 studies published during this time period evaluating asbestos exposure or asbestos-related health effects in friction product manufacturing workers. These studies indicated that these workers were historically exposed to concentrations of chrysotile fibers perhaps 10 to 50 times greater than those of brake mechanics, but the risk of asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancer, if any, was not apparent, except for those workers who had some degree of exposure to amphibole asbestos during their careers.

An Assessment and Quantitative Uncertainty Analysis of the Health Risks to Workers Exposed to Chromium Contaminated Soils

Paustenbach, Dennis J., Deborah M. Meyer, Patrick J. Shee han, and Virginia Lau (1991). An assessment and quantitative uncertainty analysis of the health risks to workers exposed to chromium contaminated soils. Toxicol. Industrial Health. Millions of tons of chromite-ore processing residue have been used as fill in various locations in Northern New Jersey and else where in the United States. The primary toxicants in the residue are trivalent chromium [Cr(III)] and hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)]. The hazard posed by Cr(III) is negligible due to its low acute and chronic toxicity. In contrast, Cr(VI) is considered a inhalation human carcinogen at high concentrations. Approxi mately 40 commercial and industrial properties in Northern New Jersey have been identified as containing chromite ore processing residue in the soil. One site, a partially-paved trucking terminal, was evaluated in this assessment. The arithmetic mean and geo metric mean concentrations of total chromium in soil were 977 and 359 mg/kg, respectively. The data were log-normal distrib uted. The arithmetic mean and geometric mean concentrations of Cr(VI) in surface soil were 37.6 and 3.1 mg/kg, respectively. The data could not be fit to a standard distribution, likely due to the large number of samples with concentrations below the method detection limit (65%). Dose was calculated for each exposure route using a Monte Carlo statistical simulation.

An Evaluation of the Historical Exposures of Mechanics to Asbestos in Brake Dust

This article presents a historical analysis of published data regarding the exposure of brake mechanics to asbestos as a result of doing brake work. Concerns about this possible hazard were first raised in the late 1960s. This analysis focuses on 30 years of data collected during the brake repair event (e.g., a brake job) and 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) personal samples. A brake job TWA represents the average concentration a mechanic experienced during brake servicing, rather than throughout the workday, and an 8-hour TWA represents the average airborne concentration of asbestos for the entire workday (which would involve brake work and other activities). Nearly 200 brake job and 8-hour TWA airborne asbestos samples were analyzed to assess how asbestos concentrations varied by type of vehicle serviced, country in which mechanics worked, time period, and brake-cleaning method. To facilitate comparisons, brake job TWAs were converted to estimated 8-hour TWAs using the durations and number of brake jobs performed per mechanic each day. Estimated and measured 8-hour TWAs for mechanics servicing automobiles and light trucks ranged from <0.002 to 0.68 f/cc, with a mean of 0.04 f/cc. In contrast, the 8-hour TWAs for mechanics servicing heavy trucks and buses ranged from 0.002 to 1.75 f/cc, with a mean of 0.2 f/cc, suggesting that these mechanics experienced higher daily asbestos exposures than automobile and light truck mechanics. Brake job and 8-hour TWAs for brake mechanics worldwide were found to be similar during the same time periods, and they were consistently below contemporaneous occupational health standards in the United States. The increased use of brake-dust control measures in some garages resulted in at least a 10-fold decrease in the TWA airborne concentrations of asbestos from the 1970s to the late 1980s.

FIELD EVALUATION OF A SAMPLING AND ANALYTICAL METHOD FOR ENVIRONMENTAL LEVELS OF AIRBORNE HEXAVALENT CHROMIUM

Hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI), has been classified as a human respiratory carcinogen. Airborne Cr(VI) emissions are associated with a number of industrial sources including metal plating, tanning, chromite ore processing, and spray painting operations; combustion sources such as automobiles and incinerators; and fugitive dusts from contaminated soil. There has been considerable interest within industry and the regulatory community to assess the potential cancer risks of workers exposed to Cr(VI) at levels substantially below the threshold limit value (TLV) of 50 micrograms/m3. To date, only the workplace sampling and analytical method (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health [NIOSH] Method 7600) has been validated for measuring airborne Cr(VI), and it can accurately measure concentrations only as low as 500 ng/m3. This paper describes the field evaluation of a sampling and analytical method for the quantitation of airborne Cr(VI) at concentrations 5000 times lower than the current standard method (as low as 0.1 ng/m3). The collection method uses three 500-mL Greenberg-Smith impingers in series, operated at 15 Lpm for 24 hr. All three impingers are filled with 200 mL of a slightly alkaline (pH approximately 8) sodium bicarbonate buffer solution. The results of validation tests showed that both Cr(VI) and trivalent chromium, Cr(III), were stable in the collection medium and that samples may be stored for up to 100 days without appreciable loss of Cr(VI). Method precision based on the pooled coefficient of variation for replicate samples was 10.4%, and method accuracy based on the mean percent recovery of spiked samples was 94%. Both the precision and accuracy of the impinger method were within NIOSH criteria. This method could be used to measure ambient concentrations of Cr(VI) in the workplace caused by fugitive emissions from manufacturing processes or chromium-contaminated soils at workplace concentrations well below the current TLV (50 micrograms/m3) or permissible exposure limit (100 micrograms/m3).

Data Available for Evaluating the Risks and Benefits of MTBE and Ethanol as Alternative Fuel Oxygenates

The wide-scale use of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) in gasoline has resulted in substantial public controversy and action to ban or control its use due to perceived impacts on water quality. Because oxygenates are still required under federal law, considerable research has focused on ethanol as a substitute for MTBE. In this article, we summarize the currently available literature on the air and water quality risks and benefits of MTBE versus ethanol as alternative fuel oxygenates. We find that MTBE-fuel blends are likely to have substantial air quality benefits; ethanol-fuel blends appear to offer similar benefits, but these may be at least partially negated because of ethanols propensity to increase emissions and ambient concentrations of some air contaminants. Releases of gasoline containing either MTBE or ethanol could have an impact on some drinking water sources, although the impacts associated with MTBE tend to relate to aesthetics (i.e., taste and odor), whereas the impacts associated with ethanol generally relate to health risk (i.e., greater exposure to gasoline constituents such as benzene). It is likely that these water quality impacts will be outweighed by the air quality benefits associated with MTBE and perhaps ethanol use, which affect a much larger population. A lack of data on environmental exposures and associated health impacts hinders the completion of a comprehensive quantitative risk-benefit analysis, and the available air and water quality data should be evaluated in a broader risk-management context, which considers the potential life-cycle impacts, costs, and feasibility associated with alternative fuel oxygenates.

Cumulative asbestos exposure for US automobile mechanics involved in brake repair (circa 1950s–2000)

We analyzed cumulative lifetime exposure to chrysotile asbestos experienced by brake mechanics in the US during the period 1950–2000. Using Monte Carlo methods, cumulative exposures were calculated using the distribution of 8-h time-weighted average exposure concentrations for brake mechanics and the distribution of job tenure data for automobile mechanics. The median estimated cumulative exposures for these mechanics, as predicted by three probabilistic models, ranged from 0.16 to 0.41 fibers per cubic centimeter (f/cm3) year for facilities with no dust-control procedures (1970s), and from 0.010 to 0.012 f/cm3 year for those employing engineering controls (1980s). Upper-bound (95%) estimates for the 1970s and 1980s were 1.96 to 2.79 and 0.07–0.10 f/cm3 year, respectively. These estimates for US brake mechanics are consistent with, but generally slightly lower than, those reported for European mechanics. The values are all substantially lower than the cumulative exposure of 4.5 f/cm3 year associated with occupational exposure to 0.1 f/cm3 of asbestos for 45 years that is currently permitted under the current occupational exposure limits in the US. Cumulative exposures were usually about 100- to 1,000-fold less than those of other occupational groups with asbestos exposure for similar time periods. The cumulative lifetime exposure estimates presented here, combined with the negative epidemiology data for brake mechanics, could be used to refine the risk assessments for chrysotile-exposed populations.

A Probabilistic Assessment of Household Exposures to MTBE from Drinking Water

The oxygenate methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) has been added to reformulated gasoline in the U.S. to meet national ambient air quality standards. Although MTBE has provided significant health benefits in terms of reduced criteria and toxic air pollutants, detections of MTBE in some groundwater and drinking water sources have raised concerns about potential environmental contamination and human exposures. In this paper, we examine the frequency and concentration of MTBE detections in drinking water sources in California from 1995 to 1999, and provide a preliminary analysis of the distribution of household exposures to MTBE from water-related activities. Using published data on the toxicity and possible cancer hazard posed by MTBE, we estimate the likely cancer and non-cancer risks for the general population in California from past and potential future MTBE exposures. More highly exposed subgroups were also addressed. Our findings indicate that less than 2% of all sampled drinking water sources in California had detectable levels of MTBE in 1999, with average MTBE drinking water concentrations ranging from 0.09 to 4.9 ppb for this year. Both the detection rate for MTBE and average MTBE concentrations have remained relatively stable since 1995, despite increased sampling of drinking water sources in California. The probabilistic exposure analysis suggests that drinking water exposures to MTBE are unlikely to pose a significant health risk for the general population or more highly exposed individuals in California.

Re-Creation of Historical Chrysotile-Containing Joint Compounds

Chrysotile-containing joint compound was commonly used in construction of residential and commercial buildings through the mid 1970s; however, these products have not been manufactured in the United States for more than 30 years. Little is known about actual human exposures to chrysotile fibers that may have resulted from use of chrysotile-containing joint compounds, because few exposure and no health-effects studies have been conducted specifically with these products. Because limited amounts of historical joint compounds are available (and the stability or representativeness of aged products is suspect), it is currently impossible to conduct meaningful studies to better understand the nature and magnitude of potential exposures to chrysotile that may have been associated with historical use of these products. Therefore, to support specific exposure and toxicology research activities, two types of chrysotile-containing joint compounds were produced according to original formulations from the late 1960s. To the extent possible, ingredients were the same as those used originally, with many obtained from the original suppliers. The chrysotile used historically in these products was primarily Grade 7RF9 from the Philip Carey mine. Because this mine is closed, a suitable alternate was identified by comparing the sizes and mineral composition of asbestos structures in a sample of what has been represented to be historical joint compound (all of which were chrysotile) to those in samples of three currently commercially available Grade 7 chrysotile products. The re-created materials generally conformed to original product specifications (e.g. viscosity, workability, crack resistance), indicating that these materials are sufficiently representative of the original products to support research activities.

Evaluating the risk to aquatic ecosystems posed by leachate from tire shred fill in roads using toxicity tests, toxicity identification evaluations, and groundwater modeling

The risk to adjacent aquatic systems posed by leachates from scrap tires used in engineering applications has not been characterized adequately. Toxicity testing, toxicity identification evaluation (TIE), and groundwater modeling were used to determine the circumstances under which tire shreds could be used as roadbed fill with negligible risk to aquatic organisms in adjacent water bodies. Elevated levels of iron, manganese, and several other chemicals were found in tire shred leachates. However, chronic toxicity tests with Ceriodaphnia dubia and fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) showed no adverse effects caused by leachates collected from tire shreds installed above the water table. Exposure to leachates collected from tire shreds installed below the water table resulted in significant reductions to both survival and reproduction in C. dubia. The TIE results indicated that exposure to soluble metals (likely ferrous iron primarily) and the formation of iron hydroxide precipitates on this invertebrate species likely were the causes of the observed effects. The available chemistry data show that iron concentrations in the affected groundwater decreased substantially within a short distance (0.61 m) downgradient of tire shred fill. Based on geochemical modeling, the use of tire shreds in applications below the water table is appropriate in settings where dissolved oxygen is greater than 2.0 mg/L, pH is greater than 5.8, and a downgradient buffer of approximately 3.0 m exists between the fill and the surface water. For settings with lower dissolved oxygen concentrations or lower pH, results of groundwater modeling indicate that a greater buffer distance (approximately 11 m) is needed to dilute the leachate to nontoxic levels under various soil and groundwater conditions solely through advection and dispersion processes.

An evaluation of short-term exposures of brake mechanics to asbestos during automotive and truck brake cleaning and machining activities

Historically, the greatest contributions to airborne asbestos concentrations during brake repair work were likely due to specific, short-duration, dust-generating activities. In this paper, the available short-term asbestos air sampling data for mechanics collected during the cleaning and machining of vehicle brakes are evaluated to determine their impact on both short-term and daily exposures. The high degree of variability and lack of transparency for most of the short-term samples limit their use in reconstructing past asbestos exposures for brake mechanics. However, the data are useful in evaluating how reducing short-term, dust-generating activities reduced long-term exposures, especially for auto brake mechanics. Using the short-term dose data for grinding brake linings from these same studies, in combination with existing time-weighted average (TWA) data collected in decades after grinding was commonplace in rebuilding brake shoes, an average 8-h TWA of approximately 0.10 f/cc was estimated for auto brake mechanics that performed arc grinding of linings during automobile brake repair (in the1960s or earlier). In the 1970s and early 1980s, a decline in machining activities led to a decrease in the 8-h TWA to approximately 0.063 f/cc. Improved cleaning methods in the late 1980s further reduced the 8-h TWA for most brake mechanics to about 0.0021 f/cc. It is noteworthy that when compared with the original OSHA excursion level, only 15 of the more than 300 short-term concentrations for brake mechanics measured during the 1970s and 1980s possibly exceeded the standard. Considering exposure duration, none of the short-term exposures were above the current OSHA excursion level.