Asbestos Exposure during Gasket Removal from Aircraft Engine

We have previously evaluated asbestos exposure associated with various maintenance procedures on light aircraft. The purpose of this study was to evaluate asbestos exposure during engine maintenance on light aircraft. This test was designed to evaluate the potential for asbestos exposure to mechanics and others who remove asbestos-containing engine gaskets from reciprocating style aircraft engines. Utilized in this test was an air cooled, horizontally opposed, aviation gasoline burning engine, assembled during 1986 and operated intermittently up into 2015, having accumulated 1680 hours run time. Nearly 75% of the asbestos-containing gaskets installed during 1986 were still in place at the time of testing. Chrysotile asbestos contents of such gaskets ranged from 55% to 60% by area, for those of sheet style and 5% by area, for the spiral wound metal/asbestos style. Despite the levels of effort required to effect gasket removals, the professional aircraft mechanic was not exposed to airborne asbestos fibers at the lower limits of sampling and analytical detection achieved; all of which were substantially less than the current Occupational Safety and Health Administration Permissible Exposure Limits for asbestos. The results of this testing indicate an absence of gasket related asbestos exposure risk to mechanics who work with light aircraft engines, including those having asbestos-containing gaskets. These results are consistent with the findings of Mlyarek and Van Orden who studied the asbestos exposure risk occasioned during overhaul of larger radial style reciprocating aircraft engines [1].