LEAD: Asbestos-containing parts used in 1.64 mil. Japanese vehicles+

Suzuki Motor Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and seven other Japanese manufacturers used asbestos-containing components to build a total of 1.64 million cars, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles between 1996 and November this year, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Tuesday.
But there is no risk of the carcinogenic material getting airborne from those vehicles and thereby harming humans, given asbestos was kneaded into resin or sealed for use in gaskets, packing and resin materials of the motor vehicles that also included buses, fire engines and tractors, it said.Suzuki Motor had 1.01 million vehicles using such parts, the largest number among the nine, while Toyota had 27,000 vehicles. None of the nine companies plans to recall the parts in question, it said.The seven other companies are Isuzu Motors Ltd., Nissan Motor Co., Nissan Diesel Motor Ltd., Hino Motors Ltd., Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. and Yamaha Motor Co., according to the association.The association announced in October 1996 all of its member companies removed the asbestos from any parts used in their products.But it was revealed in October that Nissan Motor had used asbestos-containing parts from 1995 and 1999. The association then told its member companies to conduct further checks.Asbestos, a naturally occurring mineral fiber, is known to cause a rare form of cancer called mesothelioma, lung cancer and other health problems when inhaled.