Drywall construction and asbestos exposure

Abstract

The rapid development of the drywall construction trade in the United States is described. It is estimated that some 75,000 U.S. construction workers are currently employed in this trade. The use of a variety of spackle and taping compounds is shown to be associated with significant asbestos exposure; air samples taken in the breathing zone by drywall tapers during sanding of taping compounds show fiber concentrations exceeding, by several times, the maximum level permitted by United States Government regulations. These findings are given together with the result of a clinical field survey of drywall construction workers demonstrating that asbestos disease may be an important health hazard in this trade.

Mortality among unionized construction plasterers and cement masons*

“…The asbestos ®ber concentrations generated by sanding were similar to those measured in the work environment of asbestos insulation workers who had a seven-fold increased risk of cancer of the lung and of the pleura . In a clinical report of drywall construction workers, radiological evidence of pulmonary asbestosis was observed in 40.9% of the workers examined; this compared to 48.5% among insulators [Fischbein et al, 1979]. Therefore, drywall tapers may have had asbestos exposure levels similar to those of insulators.…”

“…He showed that either chrysolite or amphibole asbestos, or both, were in spackling compounds, which could contain between 5±12% by weight of asbestos minerals. Fischbein et al [1979] found that 13 of the 15 industrial drywall taping and spackling compounds analyzed contained asbestos. Tapers spend up to 10% of their working time sanding dried spackle and could have experienced intermittent asbestos exposure through the 1960s.…”

“…In the post-World War II period, asbestos was widely sprayed as an insulating and ®re-proo®ng material in commercial construction. During the early 1970s, three million pounds of ®reproo®ng mixture, 30% of which was chrysotile asbestos, was sprayed by plasterers on steel foundations [Fischbein et al, 1979]. Additionally, because of its low expense and physical characteristics, asbestos was often added as a ®ller in plastering formulations.…”

Asbestos Release from Whole-Building Demolition of Buildings with Asbestos-Containing Material

“…It is likely that the GWB in the two schools contained ACM joint compound, since the schools were built in the 1960s and that was the common method at the time of construction. (10) Because this study was released prior to the OSHA interpretation that GWB with greater than 1% asbestos in the joint compound was ACM, (11) the asbestos content of the joint compound was not reported.…”

Exposures from Chrysotile‐Containing Joint Compound: Evaluation of New Model Relating Respirable Dust to Fiber Concentrations

“…Chrysotile‐containing joint compounds (i.e., calcium carbonate‐ or calcium sulfate‐based mixtures containing chrysotile fibers; JCC) are not currently manufactured in the United States, but were commonly used in drywall construction in the United States and elsewhere from the 1940s through the mid‐1970s. The magnitude of exposure to asbestos fibers from mixing, sanding, and cleanup of these joint compounds is difficult to reconstruct from the limited published data ( 1‐4 ) due to: (i) the absence of time‐activity information, (ii) the reporting of short‐term and/or peak fiber concentrations instead of preferred task or time‐weighted averages, ( 5 ) and (iii) the use of open‐face cassettes in proximity to emission sources, which may have captured nonrespirable particles that contained asbestos fibers. ( 6 ) In addition, sample preparation methods used at that time differ from current methods, and have been shown to increase fiber counts in joint‐compound dust relative to current methods.…”