Asbestos in BMW brake pads?

Is there asbestos in the parking brake pads on a '86 BMW 323i (disc brakes all around). If so, is it necessary to take any special precautions, or is it not enough to make a difference?

Thanks,

Ulf

Reply to
Ulf
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Just don't breathe the dust.

If you can manage to do the job without stirring up the dust, you shouldn't have anything to sorry about. If you can't do it without stirring up the dust, then you can wear a dust shield. Either way, there isn't much to be concerned with doing your own brakes. If you were doing brakes all day long, day after day, week after week for years, then you would need to worry about taking in brake dust.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

There *might* be depending on the country. But breathing in *any* dust is stupid.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Well, I did the brakes last weekend, so it's too late now. The reason I'm asking is that I felt a bit funny afterwards, so it would be nice to know if it was from breathing asbestos, or just ordinary dust. Of course, I did go over the brakes with a steel wire brush to remove all the rust, which maybe wasn't that smart...

I'm okay now though.

Ulf

Reply to
Ulf

The dust isn't going to kill you on the spot. It takes years for it to have an effect. When I was a kid, before they found out that asbestos was a bad thing, we had that crap all around us, and we lived to tell about it. The trouble is, it is known to cause cancer, so they gathered it all up so we wouldn't be surrounded by it anymore. If you breathe a little, it won't hurt you. If you made sheets from it, and slept with it for years, then it would do some serious harm.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

Breathing asbestos dust is about as dangerous as smoking a sigarette. If you do it daily for a lifetime you'll die of lung cancer.

Reply to
MW de Jager

I'd be careful about that comment. Some types of asbestos cling to the lungs and stay there for ever. They won't cause immediate problems, but may in the future.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

In most countries they haven't put asbestos in brakes for many years, but if you remove old ones sometimes you don't know how long they've been on the car for so there could be a risk. I work in banking and insurance and have had more than half a dozen clients die from asbestos related illness and am currently dealing with another who is about to. It is considerably more dangerous than smoking a cigarette, as just one exposure can be enough to kill you over time, as happened with one of my clients last year (it took about 15 years though). If you smoke a cigarette your body can get rid of most if not all of the pollutants you put into your lungs from the cigarette, but dust and fibres from asbestos tend to lodge in there permanently and can give you lung cancer, especially if you also smoke Personally, although I don't wear a seatbelt or a proper motorbike helmet and keep loaded guns in the house, smoke dope and drink full-fat milk, I always take precautions when dealing with asbestos or anything that looks like it after having seen what it can do.

Steve

"MW de Jager" wrote in message news:d44u8i$j9b$ snipped-for-privacy@ctb-nnrp2.saix.net...

Reply to
Tbird-Steve

IIRC, the type used in brakes is not the dangerous one. Underground stations used to be full of the stuff from the train brakes, with millions of people breathing it in twice daily for years.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Is the OP confusing *brake dust* with asbestos? Its widely known that All TUV pads, including all OE BMW pads, are required to have GRAPHITE in them, and the reason why Pagid, Jurid, Textar and other TUV approved German pads are so dusty. This heavy black brake dust should not be confused with asbestos.

Reply to
bfd

Brake pads used to contain asbestos, but IIRC it was banned from this use about 20 years ago in the EU. Other countries might still allow it, but it's presumably illegal to import such pads to a country which has banned it?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Oh, I dunno... Still the view from up here in heaven is pretty nice...

Former Undergound Commuter...

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

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