Spackle Plaster
Spackle plaster is used to repair and patch holes in plaster walls. It is also often used as decorative plaster coating on a wall, applied with a trowel and textured. Until the 1970s, spackle plaster often contained asbestos to take advantage of its unique fire retardant, insulating and textural properties. Asbestos was commonly added to plaster and used in plaster wallboard and other plaster products. Some plaster and spackle products today still use asbestos, though it is usually of the chrysotile variety, and bound in a form that is not supposed to become friable. Spackle plaster may also have been known as repair plaster, patching plaster, drywall repair, putty and spackling caulk.
Is there asbestos in your home?
If your home was built prior to 1980, chances are that there is a good deal of asbestos in your walls, floors, ceilings, pipes, roof - in fact, nearly any part of your home. Asbestos was widely used in nearly 3600 different construction products, including floor tiles, ceiling tiles, roofing tiles and linoleum. It was mixed with cement and plaster to make walls and floors. It was blended with adhesives used to apply floor tiles. It was bound into sheets or palletized and blown between walls and attic joists to serve as insulation. In short, there are few parts of your home that would contain no asbestos at all.
That, however, doesn't mean that your home is a death trap just waiting to strangle your lungs with mesothelioma. Asbestos is most dangerous when it is inhaled or swallowed, and that only happens when the materials binding it are deteriorated or disturbed. If you tear up a linoleum floor that was tacked with an asbestos containing adhesive, for instance, you'll be uncovering the old, dried adhesive and releasing asbestos dust into the air. When you sand the floor, you'll be releasing even more adhesive dust into the air. Breathing that asbestos dust increases your risk of developing a deadly cancer, mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma and Home Renovation
Because asbestos was so widely used in home construction from the 1930s to 1980, there are many home repair, renovation and remodeling projects on older homes that run the risk of creating asbestos dust. Because of this, workers in the construction, demolition and renovation trades have a risk of developing mesothelioma that is five times higher than the general population. Avid do-it-yourselfers who are renovating their own homes also run the risk of inhaling asbestos fibers and starting the long, slow road that leads to mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma is a slow-growing disease. In many cases, the diagnosis for mesothelioma doesn't come till as much as fifty years after the initial exposure to asbestos. And while the disease is most common in people who had extended and repeated exposure to asbestos over a number of years, there are also many cases where the exposure happened over a much shorter period of time - even a few cases that have been traced back to a single intense exposure such as might happen if you are refinishing an asbestos floor in a closed room.
That's why the EPA sets guidelines for refinishing and remodeling work on homes built before 1980. If you are considering doing renovations or repairs to a pre-1980 home, your first step should be to contact a professional inspector to find out if your home contains asbestos that could be released during your project.
If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you may have legal recourse to compensate you for your injuries and expenses. Because the companies that mined, produced and manufactured asbestos products actively hid the dangers of asbestos from the public to protect their profits, the courts have often awarded large settlements to plaintiffs with mesothelioma who can prove their exposure. If your doctor has told you that you have mesothelioma, you should contact an experienced asbestos lawyer or law firm to find out if you have a case against a manufacturer or other asbestos company.
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