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Annals of Occupational Hygiene Advance Access originally published online on June 23, 2008
Annals of Occupational Hygiene 2008 52(6):455-461; doi:10.1093/annhyg/men036
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Occupational Hygiene Society

Asbestos Fibre Concentrations in the Lungs of Brake Workers: Another Look

Murray M. Finkelstein*

Family Medicine Centre, Mount Sinai Hospital, 60 Murray Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 3L9

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1-416-326-7879; fax: +1-416-326-7761; e-mail: murray.finkelstein{at}utoronto.ca

Objective: To reanalyse data on the lung content of asbestos fibres among brake mechanics.

Methods: I re-analysed data published by Butnor, Roggli and colleagues on the lung content of chrysotile and tremolite asbestos fibres among brake mechanics and controls. Statistics of the distributions were estimated by maximum likelihood to accommodate observations below the detection limit. Mean concentrations were compared by the t-test, bootstrap resampling and interval-censored survival methods.

Results: The mean concentrations of fibres were higher among the brake workers than the controls. The concentration of tremolite fibres was higher than the concentration of chrysotile, a pattern similar to that observed among Quebec chrysotile miners and millers.

Conclusions: Re-analysis of published data does not support the interpretation that, in automotive brake repair workers with malignant mesothelioma, asbestos content is within the normal range. The alternative interpretation that brake mechanics have a greater than background burden of asbestos fibres, attributable to occupational exposure to dusts from friction products manufactured from Canadian chrysotile, appears more credible. This asbestos burden might be associated with an increased risk of asbestos-associated cancers.

Keywords: asbestos brakes • friction products • lung fibre content

Received November 28, 2007; in final form April 29, 2008


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