Asbestos-Containing Construction Material in Buildings in the United States: At Least until the Late 1980s. Maybe Later.

Having played around on the Internet the last few weeks, I am concerned over a number of postings which claim that buildings constructed in the United States after 1978 shouldn’t contain asbestos. That is just not true and unknowing people may be relying on those statements. Hence, this post.

First of all, the EPA ban on many products didn’t go into effect until 1989. https://www.epa.gov/asbestos/epa-actions-protect-public-exposure-asbestos. But that is only a starting point.

To see what building components continued to use asbestos fibers into the late 1980s, we have a very timely June 1985 publication by the EPA titled Guidance for Controlling Asbestos-Containing Materials in Buildings, https://theasbestosblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1985-EPA-Guidance-for-Controlling-Asbestos-Containing-Materials-in-Buildings.pdf, which is available electronically to anyone with access to the Hathi Digital Trust. I discussed this source of historical documents in a recent blog which you can locate at https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=10630.

I happen to have a hard copy of this EPA publication, having purchased it a few years ago from eBay. Appendix A to the publication, as shown above, has a listing of “Asbestos-Containing Materials Found in Buildings,” including stating the time frame of such use. I note however, that the bottom of page A-1, the EPA states that this listing was taken from a 1981 publication “with modification.” I am not sure exactly what “with modification” means, but I believe it fair to presume that at least some of the listed asbestos containing components were still being used at the time of the June 1985 publication and later into the 1990s. See https://www.worksafebc.com/en/health-safety/hazards-exposures/asbestos/think-asbestos. In addition, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry states on its webpage at https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/asbestos/where_is_asbestos_found.html that:

“Asbestos is still used in some construction materials. Some previously marketed asbestos-containing products, such as amphibole-contaminated vermiculite insulation, remain in many homes and other buildings in the United States.”

In summary, if you are purchasing an older house or building, rely on the professional asbestos inspectors and not an arbitrary date. There is just too much at risk.

Let me know if you have any comments or questions either in the comment section or by email to TheAsbestosBlog@gmail.com. Thank you. Marty