OSHA Warning Regarding Asbestos in Brake Pads

November 20, 2006 - According to a report published by Andrew Schneider, a reporter at The Baltimore Sun, it took six years to get safety officials to issue warnings to auto mechanics regarding the use of asbestos in brake pads. Three weeks after the warnings were posted, a former head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, who now has ties to the auto industry, reportedly pushed to have the warnings rescinded.

John Henshaw, the former head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, asked OSHA to make changes to its warnings on August 15, 2006. However, Ira Wainless, an OSHA scientist who drafted the advisory bulletin about asbestos in brakes, refused. Mr. Wainless referred to numerous studies to show that there were medical risks to mechanics exposed to asbestos in brake pads.

Most recently, David Ippolito, an official with OSHA’s Directorate of Science, Technology and Medicine, informed Mr. Wainless that he would be suspended without pay for ten days if the changes were not made. Apparently, OSHA wants the July 26, 2006 advisory to include studies, financed by the auto industry, that say that asbestos in brakes does not harm mechanics.

Mr. Wainless, a 32-year veteran of OSHA, declined to be interviewed for the article by The Baltimore Sun.

The warnings regarding the use of asbestos in brakes was a culmination of efforts going back six years. The warnings were implemented because some mechanics wrongfully believed that asbestos was banned in the use of brake pads. Unfortunately, the United States is one of the few industrialized nations that has not banned the use or importation of asbestos in most products.

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