Paco Textures

Paco Textures was a California maker of drywall joint compounds and wall and ceiling textures that Kelly-Moore Paint Company bought in 1960 and ran as its Paco division, with a plant at San Carlos. It bought raw asbestos from Union Carbide, Carey Canadian and Johns-Manville for those products, and its technical director testified that it last used asbestos in March 1978, before a selling cut-off set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Our library holds no record of a Paco bankruptcy or trust; court decisions in our library over Kelly-Moore joint compound name Kelly-Moore as the defendant.

Draft. The history on this page was written from the documents in our library and has not yet been reviewed by a person.

History

Most of what our library knows about Paco comes from the testimony of Merrill, who joined Kelly-Moore's quality control laboratory in 1968 and later managed the Paco division.^2,7 In a 1984 deposition he testified that Kelly-Moore acquired the Paco division at the end of December 1960, when it made drywall products at a single plant in Richmond, California.² In the mid-1970s letters to Paco and Merrill in San Carlos went to addresses on Commercial Street and on Old County Road.^8,9,3 He agreed that the registered PACO trademark appeared on the products from the purchase onward.¹

A 1975 Union Carbide sales report lists Kelly-Moore plants in San Carlos, California; Hurst, Texas; Denver, Colorado; and a new plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.⁷ A 1973 U.S. Gypsum memo refers to "Paco Textures Company of Dallas, Texas."¹⁰

Asbestos products

Our product records list ten Paco products, among them No. 5525 Taping Compound, No. 6512 Vinyl Joint Compound, Vinyl Ready Mixed Joint Cement, No. 5580 Spray Texture and ceiling textures.¹¹ A Paco Textures Division year-end production and sales report lists ready-mix all-purpose, taping and topping compounds, wall texture and ceiling textures by product number.¹²

Merrill testified that the asbestos came from Carey Canadian from about 1968, then from Johns-Manville and Union Carbide. He said Paco began buying from Union Carbide because of a strike in Canada, in the mid-1970s, and that Atlas Asbestos supplied the paint side in the early 1970s.¹ When asked whether Paco had bought Union Carbide fiber since 1963, he said he had not heard so and did not recall.¹ Union Carbide's own invoices to Paco Textures Corporation in San Carlos run from 1964 to 1976. The earliest we read, dated August 1964, bills 20,000 pounds of standard grade opened asbestos fiber shipped from King City, California.¹³

On July 31, 1975, Union Carbide's distributor Harrisons & Crosfield (Pacific) wrote to Merrill confirming the sale of at least 80 tons of Calidria SG-210 asbestos in monthly installments.⁸ A Union Carbide call report from the week of August 11, 1975, describes a meeting with Kelly-Moore's president, Bill Moore, and Merrill to offer a contract for 50 tons a month of Union Carbide's HPO grade for the four plants, because Union Carbide had run out of SG-210 contracts.⁷ Distributor purchase orders show Calidria shipments to Paco in 1975, 1976 and 1977.¹⁴

What the documents show

In August 1973 K. S. Freeman of U.S. Gypsum reported to a colleague on a Gypsum Association committee on asbestos in joint compounds.¹⁰ The memo says U.S. Gypsum had decided in August 1972 to print the OSHA asbestos caution label on bags of powder joint compound but not on ready-mix containers.¹⁰ It notes that Paco's vinyl ready-mixed joint cement carried the OSHA asbestos caution label on its carton.¹⁰

Merrill testified in 1984 that he recalled warnings on raw asbestos bags after 1972. He said Paco's own containers carried a caution from about the end of 1972 until asbestos was taken out of each product. Wall texture was the first to lose it, with an asbestos-free version selling by about 1974.¹ In 1998 he testified that the company first tested a finished product containing asbestos probably in 1973, after the OSHA rules, and that it tested a ceiling texture for applicator exposure in a joint effort with Union Carbide.¹⁵

Union Carbide kept Merrill informed as regulators moved against asbestos in these products. It wrote to him in May 1976 about OSHA's asbestos limits for tape joint compounds.⁹ In September 1976 it wrote about the Natural Resources Defense Council's petition to ban asbestos in consumer patching compounds, thanking him for help with the industry's response.³ In May 1977 Union Carbide told him it did not believe asbestos in spackling compounds was a significant hazard to consumers, but that it would not be prudent to oppose a ban on small consumer packages.¹⁶ In December 1977 it sent him the Consumer Product Safety Commission's ban on consumer patching compounds containing respirable free-form asbestos, published December 15, 1977.¹⁷

Merrill testified that many Paco products stopped using asbestos at the end of 1977, that the San Carlos plant had used up all of its asbestos in 1977, and that March 1978 was the last time the company used asbestos. He recalled a selling cut-off in June 1978 and a recall of what remained.¹

Lawsuits

Lawsuits over these joint compounds were brought against Kelly-Moore. In Silvestro v. Kaiser Gypsum Company (2009), a California appeals court reviewed a jury's finding that Kaiser Gypsum and Kelly-Moore had failed to warn the users of their joint compounds of the risks of the asbestos in them; our summary of the case lists the product as Kelly-Moore (Paco).⁵ In Smith v. Kelly-Moore Paint Company (2010), a Texas appeals court upheld judgment for Kelly-Moore under the state's rules on proof of dose, while finding the family had raised a fact issue on how much Kelly-Moore joint compound the worker used.⁶

References

1. UC-5164: Deposition of Douglas Merrill (Kelly-Moore/PACO), Fairl v. Western MacArthur Co. (1984), pp. 2–15
2. UC-5165: Deposition of Douglas Wayne Merrill (Kelly-Moore/Paco), Clapper & Brayton Shipyard and Applicator Asbestos Cases (1984), pp. 3–5
3. UC-5018: Harrison B. Rhodes to Doug Merrill (Kelly-Moore Paint Co.) on the NRDC Petition (1976), p. 1
4. Asbestos Trusts A–Z
5. Silvestro v. Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. (2009)
6. Smith v. Kelly-Moore Paint Company, Inc. (2010)
7. Union Carbide 345: T. P. Norris Call Report on Several San Francisco Area Customer Calls (Week of 8-11-75), pp. 3–4
8. UC-5015: Harrisons & Crosfield (Pacific) Inc. to Douglas Merrill, Paco Textures, Confirming Sale of Calidria SG-210 Asbestos (1975), p. 1
9. UC-5017: T. P. Norris to Doug Merrill on OSHA Asbestos Regulations and Tape Joint Compounds (1976), p. 1
10. UC-5467: K. S. Freeman to J. N. Walker on Caution Labels for Joint Compounds and the Gypsum Association Asbestos Committee (1973), p. 1
11. Paco Textures, company page
12. UC-5126: Paco Textures Division Production and Sales Report, Year-End Review (1972), p. 1
13. UC-5424: Union Carbide Invoices and Sample Orders for Opened Asbestos Fiber Sold to Paco Textures Corporation (1964–1976), p. 65
14. UC-5257: Harrisons & Crosfield (Pacific) Invoices, Freight Bills, Purchase Orders and Product Certificates for Calidria Asbestos (1977–1985), pp. 448, 523, 544
15. UC-5167: Deposition of Douglas Wayne Merrill (Kelly-Moore) in Alderete v. Owens Corning (1998), pp. 2–3
16. UC-5128: John L. Myers to D. Merrill (Kelly-Moore Paint) on the CPSC Proposed Ban (1977), pp. 1–2
17. UC-5019: John L. Myers to Doug Merrill (Kelly Moore Paint Co.) on the CPSC Ban on Consumer Patching Compounds (1977), p. 1

People

People the documents tie to Paco Textures, most often named first, with the titles the documents give them.

• Douglas Wayne Merrill: Technical Director unreviewed

Asbestos products

10 products our documents name Paco Textures as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• Deco-Tex No. 6373 (Paco Textures)
• No. 5525 Taping Compound (Paco Textures)
• No. 5535 Finishing Compound (Paco Textures)
• No. 5580 Spray Texture (Paco Textures)
• No. 6512 Vinyl Joint Compound (Paco Textures)
• Paco-Tex No. 5565 (Paco Textures)
• Quik-set (Paco Textures)
• Texture Paint No. 5603 (Paco Textures)
• Vinyl Base V-100 Fine No. 6374 (Paco Textures)
• Vinyl Ready Mixed Joint Cement (Paco Textures)

In our library

2 documents in our library name Paco Textures, by collection.

Other library documents (2)

• Label: No. 5525 Taping Compound (Paco Textures) and 2 other products (publisher)
• Product photograph: Vinyl Base V-100 Decorative Ceiling Texture No. 6373 (Paco Textures) and 2 other products (publisher)

In the Union Carbide documents

Paco Textures is named in 11 Union Carbide documents dated 1972 to 1984 (2 as the source, 11 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

• Paco Textures Division Production and Sales Report, Year-End Review, with Handwritten Asbestos Purchase Records (1972) UC-5126 (mentioned, source)
• K. S. Freeman to J. N. Walker on Caution Labels for Joint Compounds and the Gypsum Association Asbestos Committee (1973) UC-5467 (mentioned)
• Harrisons & Crosfield (Pacific) Calidria SG-210 Supply Agreement Letters to Bartel, March, Merrill, Watkins, Grigg and Shock, with Union Carbide Letter to Lebeis and Exhibit A Terms (1975) UC-5256 (mentioned)
• Harrisons & Crosfield (Pacific) Inc. to Douglas Merrill, Paco Textures, Confirming Sale of Calidria SG-210 Asbestos (1975) UC-5015 (mentioned)
• Harrisons & Crosfield (Pacific) Calidria SG-210 Supply Agreement Letters to Intercoastal, Rich-Tex, Gilsonite and Paco Textures, with Terms and Conditions (1975) UC-5255 (mentioned)
• T. P. Norris Call Report on Several San Francisco Area Customer Calls (Week of 8-11-75) Union Carbide 345 (mentioned)
• Harrison B. Rhodes to Doug Merrill (Kelly-Moore Paint Co.) on the NRDC Petition to Ban Asbestos in Patching Compounds (1976) UC-5018 (mentioned)
• Deposition of Douglas Merrill (Kelly-Moore/PACO) on Asbestos Fiber Suppliers, Warnings and Products, Fairl v. Western MacArthur Co. (1984) UC-5164 (mentioned)
• Compilation: Union Carbide Article 'Beyond Safety Regulations' by R. W. Wesson, Adhesives Age OSHA Checklist (Dec. 1976), Allenwest Hazardous-Materials Label Catalog and Price List (May 1978), and Drywall Industry Trust Fund Texture Brochure UC-5001 (mentioned)
• Paco Textures Corp. Material Receiving Records for Calidria, Asbestos and Other Materials (1972-1973) UC-5002 (mentioned, source)
• Routing Note on Cover Letter for 'Asbestos Customers' List of Northern California Accounts, with Proof of Service (undated) UC-5250 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Paco Textures, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Paco Textures Division · Paco Textures Corp · Paco Textures Company · Paco Textures Division, San Carlos, California · Paco Textures Corp., Receiving Department · Paco Textures, San Carlos.

Where this comes from

This page brings together every document in our library that names Paco Textures, across collections. Titles and affiliations are taken from the documents themselves, and units and subsidiaries are grouped under the company they belong to.