Asbestos Use in Hair Dryers and Irons

Asbestos use in hair dryers, clothing irons & curling irons

Asbestos in Hair Dryers

Hair dryers containing asbestos were sold in the U.S. by many companies including AEC, American Electric, Bonair, Clairol, Conair, General Electric, Gillette, Hamilton Beach, J.C. Penny, Korvettes, Montgomery Ward, Norelco, North American Philips, Shick, Sears Roebuck & Co., Sperry Rand (Remington), Sunbeam and others up to 1979 or 1980 when US CPSC recalls were issued.

In the U.S., following a U.S. CPSC study finding dangerous amounts of asbestos release from hair dryers from eleven hair dryer manufacturers, those companies issued a voluntary refund and return policy and they stopped manufacturing asbestos-containing hair dryers.

There have been, however, few documented cases of actual mesothelioma traced to exposure to asbestos-containing hair dryers. (Dahlgren 2015).

Asbestos is not likely to be found in a hair dryer manufactured after 1980.

Furthermore, in the U.S., companies who produced hair dryers that contained asbestos agreed to a recall in May, 1979. The CPSC documents we provide below list the manufacturers and the hair dryer models concerned.

It is a violation of federal law to sell a product that has been recalled by the US CPSC.

Some hair dryers such as the commercial Rocket Blower (Bonat) shown here were retrofitted to address asbestos hazards in those appliances.

Research on the History of Asbestos in Hair Dryers

• Cohn, Murray S., Paul D. White, and Peter W. Preuss. "Consumer product safety: Risk assessment of exposure to asbestos emissions from hand-held hair dryers: Response to rebuttal of William Hallenbeck." Environmental Management 5, no. 2 (1981): 91-93.
• Dahlgren, James, and Patrick Talbott. CASE REPORT: PERITONEAL MESOTHELIOMA FROM ASBESTOS IN HAIRDRYERS [PDF] International journal of occupational and environmental health 21, no. 1 (2015): 1-4., retrieved 2021/06/22 original source: NCBI, U.S. National Library of Medicine, NIH, National Institute of Health, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4273513/
  
  Abstract:
  The relationship between mesothelioma and exposure to asbestos is well established. As a result, the use of asbestos in buildings, construction sites, and mines, as well as the implications of disease for the workers has received considerable attention.
  
  However, asbestos was also used in household equipment and consumer products, including hairdryers. To examine one case of peritoneal mesothelioma in a hairdresser and review the relevant literature on asbestos exposure from hairdryers.
  
  The subject's medical and occupational records were obtained and reviewed and a physical examination was performed. The results indicate that the subject developed peritoneal mesothelioma from her occupational exposure to asbestos containing hairdryers in accordance with the literature.
  
  Hairdryers are possible sources of asbestos exposure in patients with mesothelioma, and the asbestos exposure risk is higher for those who use hairdryers occupationally.
• Geraci, C. L., P. A. Baron, J. W. Carter, and D. L. Smith. Testing of hair dryers for asbestos emissions. No. PB-89-165237/XAB. National Inst. for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH (USA). Div. of Physical Sciences and Engineering, 1979.
• Hallenbeck, William H. "Consumer product safety: Risk assessment of exposure to asbestos emissions from hand-held hair dryers." Environmental Management 5, no. 1 (1981): 23-32.
  Abstract:
  
  The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is concerned that consumer exposure to asbestos from consumer products may present an unreasonable risk of injury. Recently, CPSC has obtained agreement by industry to cease production and distribution of hair dryers containing asbestos heat insulation.
  
  CPSC intends to broaden its investigation by selecting consumer products containing asbestos for “priority attention.” The Commission does not intend to make quantitative estimates of cancer risks posed by exposure to asbestos fibers in making regulatory decisions.
  
  This position may lead to a serious waste of resources for the Commission, industry, and society. The Commission should focus its initial attention on those products for which the release of asbestos is significant enough to cause an unreasonable health risk.
  
  To make a risk assessment for a particular use of asbestos, CPSC must acquire or request data on asbestos emissions and define “unreasonable risk to health.”
  
  In an attempt to give some meaning to the phrase “risk assessment,” the primary goal of this paper is to present a detailed risk assessment of exposure to asbestos from hand-held hair dryers.
  
  Several scenarios of use are presented using various assumptions regarding time of operation, mixing of fibers in a small room, rate of fiber emission, and time of exposure.
  
  The worst case analysis of the health risk of exposure to hair dryer emissions is based on several conservative assumptions and shows that the increased number of deaths per year due to respiratory cancer is 4 for the entire United States population.
  
  A more representative case analysis shows the increased number of deaths to be on the order of 0.15 per year.
• U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. 1979. Consumer products containing asbestos; advance notice of proposed rulemaking.Federal Register 44(202): 60057–60061.
• U.S. CPSC, NEW INFORMATION on HAIR DRYERS; CPSC HOT-LINE SWAMPED by CALLS, 22 August 1979 [PDF]
• U.S. CPSC, CPSC ACCEPTS CORRECTIVE ACTIONS FROM MAJOR HAIR DRYER COMPANIES, 21 May 1979, [PDF] excerpted below:
  
  WASHINGTON, D.C., May 21, 1979 -- The Consumer Products Safety Commission voted unanimously yesterday to approve voluntary corrective action proposals by the 11 major manufacturers and private labelers of hand-held hair dryers manufactured with asbestos.
  
  The corrective actions by these companies, which account for an estimated 90 per cent of all domestic hair dryer sales annually, provide for either repair, replacement or refund for hand-held hair dryers containing asbestos. The companies which have agreed to accept returns of hair dryers containing asbestos from consumers are: Conair Corp.; General Electric Co.; Gillette Co.; Korvettes, Inc.; Montgomery Ward; North American Philips Corp. (Norelco); J.C. Penney Co.; Scovill Manufacturing Co. (Hamilton-Beach and Dominion); Sears, Roebuck & Co.; Sunbeam and Schick, Inc.
  
  Attached are news bulletins providing details of the corrective actions being taken by 10 of the 11 major companies. Although the Commission has accepted the corrective action proposal of Schick, Inc., a news bulletin announcing Schick's program is not available at this time.
• U.S. CPSC, ADDITIONAL HAIR DRYERS MADE WITH ASBESTOS to BE REPAIRED by THEIR TWO MANUFACTURERS, 22 April 1980 Op. Cit. 22 April 1980
• U.S. CPSC HEAT GUNS CONTAINING ASBESTOS RECALLED, 17 April 1979
• U.S. CPSC COMMISSION APPOVES CORRECTIVE PLANS for 26 MANUFACTUERS of ASBESTOS HAIR DRYER, 1 November 1979 [PDF]
• U.S. CPSC, COMMISSION ACCEPTS ASBESTOS CORRECTION PLAN FROM COMMERCIAL HAIR DRYER MANUFACTURER, 20 September 1979
  
  The U.S. CPSC and [Bonat] the manufacturer of the "Rocket Blower", a commercial hair dryer used nationwide in beauty salons patronized primarily by blacks, today announced a voluntary program for the removal and replacement of asbestos heat shields in the hair dryers. The correction program has been accepted by the Commission as adequate.
  

Asbestos in Clothing Irons & Hair Curling Irons

Asbestos was used as early as 1900 in irons that were heated on stovetops where asbestos formed part of heat-resistant handles on those irons.

Asbestos was also used in electric irons manufactured into the 1950's: asbestos appeared in an iron sold by Sears Roebuck between 1957 and 1958 - source: U.S. Congressional Record, V. 149, Pt. 11, June 20, 2003 to June 19, 2003

Asbestos was used in iron rests such as Craftmade™ iron rests (Norton Accessories Manufacturers, NY) until 1960.

Asbestos was also used in home and commercial pressing pads and in larger ironing machines and manglers.

Asbestos was used in hair curling irons. ( Droogenb1965).

We found patents citing use of asbestos in steam irons and clothing irons as late as 1980. ( McMullen 1980).

• Droogenb, Jean Francois Dit Rog, and Antoon Joseph Johan Iren Camil. "Implement for setting hair." U.S. Patent 3,220,421, issued November 30, 1965.
  Excerpts:
  In the example illustrated, the element 4 is constituted by a spring having joining convolutions and inside which is housed a cylindrical asbestos wick ...The sheath 2 is provided with one or more rows of ports or perforations 16 located at suitable points so as to allow the outlet of the vapors produced by the liquid contained in the sheath and imbibing the asbestos.
• Joseph, D. Alessandro. "Flat-iron provided with a steam ejection device." U.S. Patent 3,184,871, issued May 25, 1965.
• Melvin, Gershon. "Press pad." U.S. Patent 2,482,412, issued September 20, 1949.
• McMullen, Alan R. "Steam iron with low temperature soleplate." U.S. Patent 4,233,763, issued November 18, 1980.
• Oivind, Meidell Birger. "Steam developing device for flatirons." U.S. Patent 1,963,858, issued June 19, 1934.

Asbestos in ironing boards, various manufacturers, using asbestos based cloth, possibly also asbestos based heat insulating padding.