Estimation of the Exposure Concentration of Antimony in the Atmosphere from Automobile Brake Pad Based on the Concept of Knowledge Updating

Abstract

Antimony and its compounds which are considered as carcinogenic substance have been used as friction material and flame-retardants. Nowadays, according to manufacturing company’s self-regulation, antimony used in brake pad has been replaced by an alternative substance. However, only few researchers have studied atmospheric concentration of antimony and assessed impact on human health after substitution. Therefore, in connection to the concept of information updating relevant to exposure and risk analysis, we performed exposure analysis for and its substitute scenario for human health risks from brake pad for Kanto area and clarified the remarkable reduction of antimony exposure. Sensitive analysis concludes that further studies to grasp more accurate parameters of brake pad prices and antimony contents ratio in brake pad could reduce uncertainties of future evaluations.