Doctors are reporting what they believe is the first documented Australian case of asbestosis in a 76-year-old man exposed to asbestos through brake linings.

Their patient, an ex-smoker (10-pack years), presented with progressive breathlessness and dry cough, after working as a motor mechanic for over 40 years.

A detailed occupational history revealed asbestos exposure between 1969 and 2011, primarily while grinding and cutting asbestos brake linings and clutch plates, report the respiratory physicians from Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital.

“He used a compressed air hose to clean off the brake shoes once old linings had been removed, generating clouds of fine respirable asbestos dust,” they wrote in The Medical Journal of Australia.