Cemesto Board (Celotex)

Cemesto Board was a building board made by Celotex: a core of Celotex insulating board, faced with asbestos cement.^1,2,3 Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, announced it in June 1931 as "a new insulating Board" designed by the Celotex Company of Chicago, explaining that Celotex was made from bagasse, or sugar cane, and that the board had a 1/8 in. layer of asbestos cement on one or both sides.¹ The next month the magazine said the core came in thicknesses from 1/2" to 2", and that it was bonded to the asbestos cement with a special waterproof adhesive while the asbestos cement sheet was still wet.⁴

Where it was used

In 1931 the magazine said the board was useful for low temperature dryers, industrial partitions and wainscoting, air ducts, and "all types of exterior surfaces where a combination of insulation and fire protection is desired."⁴ It reported Cemesto Board used as both the inside and outside wall of 600 houses going up at the Glenn L. Martin airplane plants outside Baltimore in 1942, and in the defense housing at Arlington Farms, Virginia, in 1943.^3,5 In July 1945 it reported that a builder of prefabricated buildings, Modulok, Inc., had fifteen Navy projects all using Cemesto Board, including three Navy hospitals in California.⁶ A 1946 item in the magazine, taken from Western Building, described a house whose panels of Cemesto board formed both the inside lining and the outside sheathing; that item does not name Celotex.⁷

When it was made and what it contained

A 1990 EPA notice that published what Celotex reported says Cemesto Board was produced from the 1930s to the early 1960s.⁸ It gives no asbestos figure for Cemesto itself, saying only that it was similar to Thermo-bord, which Celotex described as non-asbestos insulation covered with asbestos-cement sheets of 20% asbestos.⁸ An insurance company's 1981 list of asbestos products, compiled from other companies' answers in lawsuits, lists Cemesto Board as a wallboard of "cane fiber & asbestos-cemnt," made from 1930, with no end year.²

Asbestos claims

If you or a family member worked with or around Cemesto Board (Celotex) and later developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, a claim may be paid by the Celotex Asbestos Settlement Trust. Free case review.

What each document says

Every statement about Cemesto Board (Celotex) in the documents, in each document's own words.

Kind of product

We list Cemesto Board (Celotex) with asbestos-cement pipe, board and sheet, from how the documents describe its form. That page explains how such products exposed workers.

Trades that worked with products like it: Carpenters and Construction Workers.

See also

• Celotex: the company's history, documents, people, products and plants
• Celotex on our products page: what the documents say about the company's asbestos products, with sources

References

1. Asbestos Magazine, 1931, June 1931 (June 1, 1931), p. 50.
2. The Travelers Insurance Company's Product Information Booklet for Its Asbestos Seminar (1980–1981) (April 30, 1981), p. 4.
3. Asbestos Magazine, 1942, March 1942 (March 1, 1942), p. 25.
4. Asbestos Magazine, 1931, July 1931 (July 1, 1931), p. 6.
5. Asbestos Magazine, 1943, June 1943 (June 1, 1943), p. 41.
6. Asbestos Magazine, 1945, July 1945 (July 1, 1945), p. 6.
7. Asbestos Magazine, 1946, July 1946 (July 1, 1946), p. 6.
8. Asbestos; Publication of Identifying Information (February 13, 1990), p. 6.
9. Travelers Asbestos Products Printout, July 1981 (July 1, 1981), p. 19.