ASBESTOS HAZARDS IN BRAKE REPAIR

Barry Castleman, ScD, Environmental Consultant, Statement to Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee March 1, 2007

I have been warning mechanics about asbestos hazards in brake repair since 1972, as a local health official in Baltimore. Since then, I have been involved as a public health worker in a wide range of issues involving asbestos in the U.S. and around the world. I support banning asbestos product manufacture and importation in the U.S.

U.S. imports of brake shoes from countries that mine asbestos and manufacture asbestos products are growing and now total over $100 million annually. There is no surveillance to assure that asbestos brake imports from China, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico even carry the cancer warning labels "required" by OSHA.

We also are importing a lot of asbestos-cement sheet from Mexico. These products are no longer made in the U.S., and they compete against safer products made here.