Asbestos and Brake Repairs

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February 6, 2008

For at least eighteen years asbestos has been identified as a cancer causing agent, inducing thousands of cases of mesothelomia among people who have been exposed to it. The large majority of mesothelomia victims have been people who worked directly with asbestos coated products, with asbestos construction materials or within factories that produced the many types of asbestos products.

In June of 2007 however, a case was filed in New Jersey claiming damages for a woman who died of mesothelomia after being exposed to asbestos by virtue of auto brake repairs performed by her husband and children in the driveway of their home. These amateur brake jobs took place from the 1960s through the 1980s. The alleged victim of this exposure was diagnosed in 2002, which is in keeping with the long period of latency typical of mesothelomia.

The asbestos exposure came about when she laundered clothes used by the amateur mechanics, shaking out the dusty clothes and rags before tossing them in the laundry. The nature of this case cannot help but bring up memories of the many times we may have seen dust-covered brake drums in a shop or a neighbor’s garage – or found them ourselves when replacing brake shoes or pads.

This case is an example of one of the hundreds of insidious ways people may have been exposed to a lethal dose of asbestos in fiber or dust form. Brake shops and backyard mechanics often cleaned up that dust by blowing it away with an air compressor or sweeping it up and depositing it in a dustbin. This type of exposure is sufficiently widespread that the EPA issued guidelines in 1986 for people replacing clutches or brakes.

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