asbestos fibers

Jul 23, 2006 2 Replies

A number of years ago, we were at a dinner party, and one of the guests was an oncologist from Sloan Kettering in NYC. The conversation got on to the discussion of asbestos and lung cancer and asbestosis.



According to this doctor, there is only "one fiber length" of asbestos that causes lung cancer, he stated that the odds of coming in contact with this fiber length was very remote, but, the longer you are exposed to asbestos, the greater the chance of inhaling one of these specific length fibers.



As far as it being present in Studebakers, I have never come across any, except when removing old brake shoes from the 40's thru 60's. un-restored cars.



According to this, anything over 5 micrometers is considered a risk:

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Five micrometers is 0.00020 inches. (Two ten thousandths)

John,

I read the link; it's purpose was to announce a meeting to look into REVISING the then-current standard, dating from 1986 which considered all fibers over 5 uM to be hazardous.

Obviously, there is an upper limit. Pretty hard to snork a 2" fiber into your lungs.

I seem to recall the medical community figures short-fiber to be riskier.

In any case, the is no asbestos that I've ever seen in late-model Studebakers, other than the brake shoes and clutch linings.

Gord Richmond

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