Does drywall tape have asbestos in it?

This article series explains where asbestos is likely to be found in gypsum board or drywall systems, particularly in the taping compound and in skim coats using drywall "mud" that contained asbestos.

Asbestos Content in Drywall Tape - not found

Modern drywall and taping compound do not contain asbestos. However that was not always the case, as we detail in this article series.

If drywall or gypsum board or "Sheetrock®" was installed in your building in North America between the late 1920s and 1980 it is possible that the drywall or the joint compound used on the drywall contains asbestos.

But that does not mean that all drywall, nor all drywall products such as drywall joint tape contained asbestos.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Asbestos Use in Drywall Joint Tape?

Here we include photos and properties of common drywall tapes including traditional paper drywall tape, perforated paper drywall tape, and self-adhesive drywall tapes made of paper, fiberglass and other products.

For completeness, we include illustrations of jute-based "burlap" tape but as you'll see that material would not be recommended for drywall joint taping.

To date we have not found authoritative information confirming that an asbestos-based drywall joint tape was produced/used in buildings for the taping of drywall joints.

In our photo above, we show three of the four most commonly used drywall joint or drywall repair tapes:

• Traditional paper drywall joint tape that must be bedded in joint compound as it is applied onto the joint,
• Self-adhesive fiberglass mesh tape, widely used as it can be applied directly to the drywall joint and compound added over it in the next step, and
• At the top of our photo, an extra strong fibre-type drywall or crack repair tape that we use in trouble prone areas such as a building corner that is subject to a bit of cyclic movement from moisture or temperature changes. This example is by Adfors, sold as FibaTape.

Below, we illustrate perforated drywall joint tape, a fourth and widely used product, sold in both plain and self-adhesive forms.

'

Below are two tape products that are not intended for drywall use.

• Burlap patterned "Duck Tape"
• 6-inch fiberglass tape used not for drywall but often in certain roof repairs, in combination with roof cement or mastic.

See details about drywall installation, inspection, repair, beginning

at

DRYWALL, FIBERBOARD, PLASTER INTERIORS - home

On 2022-05-11 Reader Oliver’s question: Did Drywall Joint Mesh Tape ever contain asbestos?

I assume by the looks that it could be flax mash, also know as hessian scrim, covering the joints (filled with pink plaster) of our plasterboard ceiling (1983/84).

Samples are in a lab now for testing and I will post some pictures later.

This Q&A were posted originally

at ASBESTOS in DRYWALL

Moderator Reply

@Oliver,

Interesting question. I can't say for sure. Mostly during the era when fire-rated drywall that contained asbestos was in use these people were taping joint using paper tape. Let's both do some patent research. If you have photos of the fibrous tape that'd be great to see too.

Your asbestos test lab result will be helpful to both of us as well as other readers.Take care to look at the lab test carefully. It was common for joint compound to contain asbestos in North America and various other locales.

So an asbestos test of the mesh fabric drywall tape may be confounded. The lab will need to examine the tape fibers specifically. And from my own training at McCrone research I'd add that fiber identification is itself a specialty among microscopists.

See examples at

 FIBER & HAIR IDENTIFICATION

and at

 ASBESTOS UNDER the MICROSCOPE

Examples of Asbestos Use in Drywall Tape / Products Compared with Asbestos-Free Drywall Tape

Asbestos was explicitly cited in some early building tape and strip products

1. Asbestos-Containing Tape Products

One example of a patent category that may help find patents of asbestos-containing drywall tape would be to include in research:

B32B13/02 - Layered products comprising a a layer of water-setting substance, e.g. concrete, plaster, asbestos cement, or like builders' material with fibres or particles being present as additives in the layer

With some difficulty researching the use of asbestos in drywall tape itself we see that there was at least an awareness of that possibility in at least some specialty tapes and fabrics such as described by the following:

• Kazmierski Jr, John, Craig E. Thornton, John L. Ambrose, and Frederick S. Dmuchowski. "High temperature expansion joint." U.S. Patent 4,140,338, issued February 20, 1979. at https://inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Kazmierski-Patent-US4140338
  
  This is a use of asbestos fabric coated with aluminum, such as we find in HVAC duct dampers. This is NOT a drywall joint tape.
  
  Abstract: An expansion joint for duct work is disclosed, which comprises a pair of frames, spacer means extending outwardly from said frames, and a boot.
  
  The boot has five layers: an inner asbestos/aluminum/silica material, a fibrous insulation batt, a middle asbestos/aluminum material, a vapor barrier, and an outer asbestos/fluoroelastomer material.
• Fox RA, Mortimer BT, Inventors; Standard Oil Company, Assignee. Asbestos-free tape sealant. United States Patent US 4176097. 1979 Nov 27. at https://inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Mortimer-Patent-US4176097
  
  Excerpt:
  
  Asbestos incorporated into sealant systems is well-known in the industry. One such system, incorporating asbestos, is preformed sealant tape which can be used in applications such as a bedding and face glazing compounds which make seals to such substrates as metals, glass, ceramics and plastics.
  
  Typically, such asbestos-based sealant tape uses a base stock containing an inorganic filler such as calcium carbonate and a suitable binder such as a polybutene or a mixture of polybutene and polyisobutylene. Formulations of filler, binder and asbestos vary according to a specific application.
  
  For example, a bedding compound useful in forming metal to metal bonds such as those produced in the manufacture of mobile homes, typically uses only polybutene as a binder.
  
  However, a high quality tape sealant, useful in the automotive industry, which needs greater bond strength, good aging properties and the ability to adhere to porous and nonporous substrates typically contains, as a binder, substantial quantities of polyisobutylene together with polybutene.
  
  Because of environmental and health problems associated with asbestos, there is an immediate need in the sealant industry for asbestos-free sealant systems which have good sealant properties and which can be manufactured at reasonable cost.
  
  Systems incorporating substantial amounts of butyl rubber will perform adequately, but generally are commercially unacceptable because of high cost. It is an object of our invention to produce an asbestos-free sealant system which demonstrates adequate sealant properties at reasonable cost.
• Wencz ,George, John. "Sealing strip for buildings." U.S. Patent 1,950,014, issued March 6, 1934. at https://inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Wencz-Patent-US1950014.pdf
  
  This was a sealing strip for buildings illustrated as applied between logs in a log wall - NOT drywall tape.
• French, David W. "Asbestos paper coupling." U.S. Patent 3,227,476, issued January 4, 1966.
  
  This was an asbestos paper used at duct or pipe couplings, not specifically for drywall.

2. Examples of asbestos-free drywall tape or panel joining tapes

This patent describes a mesh-type self-sticking drywall tape that does NOT contain asbestos:

• Loscuito, Salvatore M. "Self-sticking drywall tape." U.S. Patent 5,246,775, issued September 21, 1993. at https://inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Loscuito-Patent-US5246775.pdf

And an older US Patent describing asbestos in mesh tape:

• Quinn, Robert G. "Manufacture of reinforced asbestos paper." U.S. Patent 2,401,314, issued June 4, 1946. (not a drywall product per se)
• Gleeson, James A., and Weiling Peng. "Panelized wall system utilizing trough-edge building panels." U.S. Patent 6,988,343, issued January 24, 2006.

3. Patents documenting the use of asbestos in drywall joint compound.

Note that these refer to the compound, not the tape itself.

• Gardner, Harry F. "Plastic composition for wallboard joints." U.S. Patent 2,353,822, issued July 18, 1944.
  at
  https://inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Gardner-Patent-US2353822.pdf
  
  Excerpt:
  Such filling ingredients may include asbestos shorts or fioats for securing smooth working and to prevent shrinkage cracks, mica to secure the working properties and to control or reduce somewhat the stickiness of the case in suspension.
• Earl, Maynard, and Mitchell P. Ptasienski. "Substantially dry joint compound comprising calcium sulfate, polyvinyl acetate and starch." U.S. Patent 3,297,601, issued January 10, 1967.
• Elden, Howard S. "Dry powder for wallboard joint treatment." U.S. Patent 3,303,147, issued February 7, 1967.
• Bruschtein, F., and D. Lyftogt. "Wallboard tape joint composition employing a water-soluble polymeric binder containing polyacrylamide, cellulose ether, limestone, mica and asbestos." U.S. Patent 3,793,269, issued February 19, 1974.
• Bruschtein, Fabio B., and Dennis L. Lyftgot. "Wallboard tape joint composition and adhesive therefore containing water soluble polyacrylamide, limestone, asbestos, mica and cellulose ether." U.S. Patent 3,900,434, issued August 19, 1975.
• Desmarais, Armand J. "Joint cement compositions utilizing water-insoluble carboxymethylated cellulose derivatives as asbestos substitutes." U.S. Patent 3,891,582, issued June 24, 1975.

Bottom line: no evidence found of asbestos-based drywall tape

1. Hemp, jute, cotton, if that's your drywall tape material, are not asbestos products, but asbestos could certainly have been in the joint compound used to apply such tapes.

2. I have not found clear documentation in research or patent disclosures that specifically describe asbestos-based or asbestos-use in drywall tape itself, though I did find a few confusing citations that muddy that water. (Given below)

3. Citations that cite hazards of sanding drywall tape that might contain asbestos surely derive from the likely use of asbestos-containing drywall joint compound or "mud" when applying those tapes, and in my OPINION it would be rather difficult to separate, during lab analysis, such asbestos particles (including both fibres and shorts or fines) from the fibres of the tape or mesh itself (paper, or fabric).

Details:

Hemp and similar fabrics have a long history of use in construction including in stucco wall coverings. It's certainly possible that someone used such material when taping joints in drywall where there was a particular concern with building movement and drywall cracking, or where a repair was being made to existing walls.

But for sure the longer tradition was using rolls of paper tape.

Later inventions to speed the drywall installation process include two products that I used in the U.S. beginning in the 1970s, adhesive-coated perforated paper tape and later, adhesive-coated mesh fabric tape, typically made of fiberglass.

This article:

• Jacobs, Neva FB, Kevin M. Towle, Brent L. Finley, and Shannon H. Gaffney. "An updated evaluation of potential health hazards associated with exposures to asbestos-containing drywall accessory products." Critical Reviews in Toxicology 49, no. 5 (2019): 430-444.
  
  cites asbestos in drywall tape. Excerpt: The asbestos content of drywall finishing products (e.g. joint compound, texture, and tape) historically ranged from approximately three to 15% chrysotile by weight.

But I found nothing in the rest of the article that actually states clearly that it was the drywall tape itself that contained asbestos.

See a copy at https://inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Drywall-Asbestos-Hazards-Jacobs.pdf

Most of the articles we find in searching for "asbestos" + "drywall" + "tape" do not cite use of asbestos fibers in drywall tape itself, though I have seen a few asbestos test lab websites asserting that there was asbestos fiber based drywall tape.

It's possible that the confusion comes from the ocean of articles on the occupational exposure of asbestos experienced by drywall tapers, so the words "drywall", "tape", and "asbestos" often appear together.

One needs to actually read the article - such as

• VERMA, DAVE K., and Charles G. Middleton. "Occupational exposure to asbestos in the drywall taping process." American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal 41, no. 4 (1980): 264-269. at https://inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Asbestos-Exposure-Drywall-Tapers-Verma.pdf
Abstract:
Studies of airborne asbestos fiber concentrations associated with various operations of the drywall taping process have been undertaken in the province of Alberta, Canada.

The results show that mixing, sanding and sweeping created high levels of airborne asbestos dust. The measured concentrations were frequently in excess of occupational health standards. Sanding in particular was assessed the most hazardous operation.

The results are discussed in light of present and proposed Occupational Health Standards, and in terms of its implications for other workers, household contacts, and consumer's risk. Measures to reduce and control the health hazards associated with the process are described.

That article makes clear the authors are discussing asbestos and hazards and people, not asbestos-drywall-tape.

For other readers: flax mash or hessian scrim are jute or cotton fabrics, not asbestos.

A nice early history of the production and use of these fabrics is in this early U.S. DOC publication

• W. A. Graham Clark, LINEN, JUTE, AND HEMP INDUSTRIES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM WITH NOTES ON THE GROWING AND MANUFACTURE OF JUTE IN INDIA - Commercial Agent of the Department of Commerce

Reader Follow-up: test report: asbestos not detected in old fibrous drywall tape

I got two 2 x 2 centimeter pieces of the plasterboard tested by SCOPES Asbestos Analysis Service in the UK. The samples included plasterboard, brown flex mesh tape and a layer of surface plaster (house location Ireland, build in 1983/84).

Due to the pink color of the material I assume that the joints were filled with plaster instead of joint compound (was this the reason for mesh tape to be used used instead of paper tape?). Both test showed "no asbestos detected in sample".

Moderator Reply:

Good news and thank you for taking time to add that update - that'll help other readers.

...

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• ASBESTOS in DRYWALL TAPE?
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• ASBESTOS in PLASTER
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