I know in the past drum brakes used to have asbestos because of its heat resistant quality. I don't know if this topic has already been covered before but does anyone know when did they stop using asbestos to make drum brakes? I brought this topic to a mechanics class i took a couple of years ago and the instructor said that they stop using asbestos sometime in the 80's but even in the newer cars you have to be careful about inhaling the brake dust when your maintaining the drum brakes. If newer cars don't use asbestos on their drum brakes then what other health risk are there in brake dust?

 

Google has plenty of hits on this subject, apparently it is still around.

 

google it...

Most cars today uses disk brakes, front and rear. brake drums is becoming a thing of a past already.
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drums are asbestos free, but the dust associated with any brake pad - ceramic, semi-metallic/composite etc. is still not good when inhaled, but they're just not typically called a carcinogen.