Former Federal Official Tries to Alter OSHA Asbestos Warnings

November 20, 2006 - The Baltimore Sun reports that just three weeks after the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration issued new warnings to auto mechanics as to the hazards of working with asbestos, often found in brakes, a former federal official with ties to the automotive industry tried to have the warnings altered.

However, the OSHA scientist who was responsible for writing the advisory refused to make the changes.  His refusal resulted in the threat of suspension for 10 days without pay for his non-compliance. Nonetheless, Ira Wainless – who has conducted a myriad of studies on the industry and asbestos exposure - refused again, and his advisory remains online for mechanics to read.

"It is outrageous that OSHA would try to intimidate one of its own scientists for doing his job with integrity," said Ed Stern of Local 12 of the American Federation of Government Employees.  According to Stern, OSHA wants the July 26 advisory to include studies, financed by the auto industry, that say that asbestos in brakes does not harm mechanics.

"It becomes clear that you have selected [him] as a scapegoat and whipping boy to justify revising the [warning] in response to big industry. Mr. Wainless, like every other OSHA employee, is supposed to serve the public interest, not industry lobbyists," Stern said in a letter to OSHA.

While most mechanics thought asbestos was banned and that they were no longer in danger, a 2000 article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer outlined the continued use of asbestos in brakes.  This prompted the warnings, which took six years to issue because auto industry lawyers kept blocking their release.

"Asbestos causes cancer, whether it is pulled out of a mountain, scraped off a steam pipe or shed from a brake shoe," says Dr. Michael Harbut, who has examined thousands of autoworkers for asbestos disease under a project funded by the Occupational Health Legal Rights Foundation, which is financed by units of the AFL-CIO.

"To withhold these warnings to mechanics who have no knowledge of asbestos or believe it's banned is unconscionable," said Harbut, co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit.

The United States remains one of just a few industrialized countries that hasn’t banned the use and importation of most asbestos products.  Many replacement brakes used by garages are manufactured elsewhere and imported to the U.S.