United States Gypsum Company plant at Detroit, Michigan

The United States Gypsum Company made plaster at Detroit, Michigan: in its sworn answers in a 1986 lawsuit, USG listed three basecoat plasters with Detroit as their manufacturing location: Red Top Wood Fiber Plaster - Regular, first produced in 1945 and last produced in 1963; Red Top Cement Plaster for Machine Application, 1962 to 1966, later renamed Red Top Gypsum Plaster for Machine Application; and Red Top Structo-Lite Gypsum Plaster for Machine Application, 1955 to 1962 and again 1971 to 1972.¹ USG's sworn answers in a 1988 case in the Northern District of Oklahoma give the same list and years, though the first product's name is cut off on the page.²

A 1990 notice from United States Gypsum, giving production years by product and plant, counts Detroit among the 12 plants that made Red Top Firecode Plaster (D) from 1959 to 1964, and among the 16 plants that made Red Top Firecode "V" Plaster from 1962 to 1969; both appear on this site as FIRECODE D & V.³ The notice calls it a "fireproofing plaster."³ An insurance company's list, compiled from other companies' answers in lawsuits, gives FIRECODE D & V as made from 1959 to 1970; those years describe the product in general, not Detroit in particular.⁴

Location

Pictures of products made here

Labels, packages, photographs and catalog pages from our library of products documents say were made at this plant. Each picture has its own page and library number.

• Label: RED TOP FIRECODE PLASTER (UNITED STATES GYPSUM COMPANY)Red Top (U.S. Gypsum)Label or package · ACL Doc 15060
• Label: red top Patching Plaster (United States Gypsum Company)Red Top (U.S. Gypsum)Label or package · ACL Doc 15087
• Label: RED TOP Gypsum Cement Plaster (United States Gypsum Co.) and 1 other productRed Top (U.S. Gypsum); Imperial (U.S. Gypsum)Label or package · ACL Doc 15061

Asbestos products made here

The products documents say were made at this plant, with the years a document gives for the product here. Each product's page has what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• Firecode D & V (U.S. Gypsum) · 1959–1969³
• Red Top (U.S. Gypsum) · 1945–1966^1,2
• Structo-lite (U.S. Gypsum) · 1955–1972^1,2

Asbestos claims

If you or a family member worked at this plant, lived with someone who did, or worked with its products, and later developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, a claim may be paid by the United States Gypsum Asbestos PI Settlement Trust. Free case review.

What each document says

Every statement about this plant in the documents, in each document's own words.

Other names

Documents call this plant “Detroit, MI”, “Detroit MI”.

See also

• United States Gypsum Company: the company's history, documents, people, products and plants
• Asbestos exposure sites in Michigan

References

1. United States Gypsum's Answers to Plaintiffs' Interrogatories in Dikun v. Armstrong World Industries (September 8, 1986), pp. 47–48.
2. United States Gypsum's Answers to Plaintiffs' Master Interrogatories in the Northern District of Oklahoma (June 20, 1988), pp. 40–41.
3. Asbestos; Publication of Identifying Information (February 13, 1990), pp. 18–19.
4. The Travelers Insurance Company's Product Information Booklet for Its Asbestos Seminar (1980–1981) (April 30, 1981), p. 5.