MILLBOARD ASBESTOS

Asbestos-based millboard, commonly used 30 years ago, becomes a health hazard when it is cut or sanded, or old and deteriorating

April 26, 2010 - Before the 1980s, asbestos millboard was used in the construction of walls and ceilings, where insulation and fire protection were required. Most varieties of asbestos millboard typically contained 85 percent asbestos.

In 1977, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the use of asbestos in most construction materials because asbestos-containing products were formally recognized as carcinogenic, and often posing deadly health hazards to construction workers.

When inhaled by unprotected on-site laborers, airborne asbestos fibers will lodge into lung tissue and stay there for decades until asbestos disease develops. Thousands of construction workers have died of asbestos-related mesothelioma in just this way.

Three-thousand cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed in the United States every year. It is incurable. Life expectancy is short after a formal diagnosis of mesothelioma; often less than a year.

If your home is more than 30 years old, it may have been built using asbestos millboard or other asbestos-containing construction materials. But as long as the materials remain in good condition and are not disturbed, the chance is low of asbestos fibers becoming airborne and asbestos exposure occurring.

Millboard asbestos hazards

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the best thing to do with asbestos material in good condition is to leave it alone. Disturbing it may create a health hazard where none existed before. Always consult a professional asbestos abatement contractor before removing old asbestos millboard.

Places in the home where asbestos hazards may be found:

Some roofing and siding shingles are made of asbestos cement.
Houses built between 1930 and 1950 may have asbestos as insulation.
Asbestos may be present in textured paint and in patching compounds used on wall and ceiling joints. Their use was banned in 1977.
Older products such as stove-top pads may have some asbestos compounds.
Walls and floors around woodburning stoves may be protected with asbestos paper, millboard, or cement sheets.
Asbestos is found in some vinyl floor tiles, asbestos tile workers report.
Hot water and steam pipes in older houses may be coated with an asbestos material or covered with an asbestos blanket or tape.
Oil and coal furnaces and door gaskets may have asbestos insulation.

Time to seek compensation

Weitz & Luxenberg has protected the legal rights of asbestos-injured workers for 25 years. And in that time the firm's mesothelioma lawyers have won several billion dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients and their surviving family members.

Please notify us through the communication form at left if you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, and seek a free consultation on asbestos claims. We will help you obtain the maximum compensation you are entitled to.

Please know, there are no legal fees at all until we obtain a settlement or a verdict in your favor.