MESOTHELIOMA RISK FOR AUTO MECHANICS

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Hundreds of former mechanics and auto shop employees are known to have developed mesothelioma after working on auto equipment, specfically brakes, clutches and gaskets, which contained the most common form of the mineral — chrysotile, or white, asbestos. Many have sued auto manufacturers and parts makers, litigation that reflects the unceasing burden of asbestos disease in the United States.

“What we’re seeing now are auto mechanics, body shop workers, and assembly line workers, who are getting mesothelioma, often without any other associated asbestos disease.”, said California based lawyer Michael Mandelbrot, who’s handled hundreds of mesothelioma cases over the last decade.

Although asbestos use in the U.S. plummeted from a peak of 885,000 tons in 1973 to 1,609 tons in 2008, the nation’s epidemic is far from over. As many as 10,000 Americans still die of asbestos-related diseases each year.

Once broadly utilized by U.S. industry — not only in brakes but also in construction, insulation and shipbuilding — asbestos was heralded for its remarkable resistance to fire and heat. Strong and inexpensive, the fibrous mineral acquired a darker reputation in the 1960s as its health effects became widely known.

Internal documents showing corporate knowledge of the mineral’s carcinogenic properties began to surface, and by 1981 more than 200 companies and insurers had been sued. The following year, the nation’s biggest maker of asbestos products — Johns Manville Corp. — filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to hold off the tide of litigation.

From the early 1970s through 2002, more than 730,000 people filed asbestos claims in the U.S., resulting in costs to the industry of about $70 billion, according to a 2005 study by the RAND Corp., a research center. About $49 billion of that went to victims and their lawyers, and the remainder toward other legal costs.

Asbestos use has largely moved overseas, fueled by an aggressive industry campaign that’s pushed up consumption in fast-growing countries such as China, Brazil and India. Banned or restricted in 52 countries, asbestos products can still be sold in the U.S. but rarely are, and are largely limited to auto and aircraft brakes and gaskets. China, the world’s leading consumer, used 690,000 tons of asbestos in 2007.

The decline in usage in the U.S., however, has done little for those who’ve already been exposed and perhaps for those who continue to be.

Long latency periods for mesothelioma and lung cancer ensure that there’ll be victims for years to come, health experts say. Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 18,068 Americans died of mesothelioma from 1999 through 2005, with the annual toll edging toward 3,000. Another 1,500 or so die each year of asbestosis, a rate that’s apparently plateaued, according to the CDC. The number of asbestos-related lung cancer deaths is harder to pin down, given the ubiquity of smoking, but it could be as high as 8,000 per year.

The Environmental Protection Agency tried to ban asbestos in 1989 but was stopped by an industry lawsuit. Legislation to impose a ban has failed to pass since Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash, introduced it in 2002.

Murray has pointed out that imported asbestos brakes are still being sold for older vehicles, putting professional mechanics and weekend tinkerers at risk, and that asbestos can be found in a variety of items.

Experts say that the current U.S. workplace standard for asbestos — 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter of air, which the Occupational Safety and Health Administration adopted in 1994 — still allows a worker to inhale more than 1 million fibers over the course of a day. The CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health estimates that exposures at this level will produce five lung cancer deaths and two asbestosis deaths for every 1,000 workers over a lifetime. Federal officials think that 1.3 million workers in general industry and construction and 45,000 miners are still exposed to asbestos in the U.S.

Mindful of their potential liability on brake linings, GM, Ford and Chrysler have fought the current round of mesothelioma lawsuits with vigor.

Court records show that the three have paid nearly $43 million since 2001 to scientific experts at two consulting firms — ChemRisk and Exponent — who’ve testified that the amounts of asbestos fibers released from handling brake shoes (used in older drum brakes) and pads (used in newer disc brakes) either were harmless or in insufficient quantities to cause disease.

Several of these experts — most notably Dennis Paustenbach, the president of ChemRisk and a former vice president of Exponent — have published papers in peer-reviewed journals concluding that brake mechanics are not at increased risk of developing mesothelioma or lung cancer.

In an unrelated amicus brief filed with the Michigan Supreme Court in 2007, more than 50 physicians and scientists took aim at industry consultants retained in the brake litigation.

“It is in no way surprising that the experts and papers financed by these manufacturers conclude that asbestos in brakes can never cause mesothelioma,” the brief says.

The brief contends that Paustenbach’s work on asbestos follows a “business model” under which he publishes exculpatory papers on compounds — such as hexavalent chromium, the groundwater pollutant at the center of the 1990s Erin Brockovich case in California — that are the subject of lawsuits. Paustenbach strongly denies the charge. Records show that the big three automakers paid ChemRisk almost $12 million from 2001 to 2009.

Warnings about asbestos in brakes go back decades and remain in effect.

In 1948, a newsletter from the National Safety Council, a public service organization, cautioned, “Asbestos used in the formulation of brake lining is a potentially harmful compound.” A bulletin the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health issued in 1975 warned that brake work could produce “significant exposures” to asbestos and recommended that employers use dust-control measures. Nearly 1 million workers were at risk, the institute said. It held meetings on the subject in 1975 and 1976; among those present were representatives of Ford, GM and Johns Manville, then the nation’s biggest manufacturer of asbestos products.

However, that message never made it to the public.  “It’s an atrocity against the health of the American laborer and consumer that must be accounted for, so that it will not happen again.  It’s on of the reasons why I believe so strongly in representing mesothelioma patients and their families”, continued Mandelbrot.

Mr. Mandelbrot can be reached at 1-800-970-DUST(3878), or online at mandelbrot@asbestoslegalcenter.org.