Johns-Manville Asbestos Roofing Shingles and Felt

Product Description

Johns-Manville Corporation was one of the largest manufacturers of asbestos-containing building materials in the United States throughout much of the twentieth century. Among its extensive product line, asbestos roofing shingles and roofing felt represented a significant category of commercial and residential construction materials that were sold and installed across the country for decades.

Johns-Manville produced asbestos roofing shingles as a composite material designed to offer durability, fire resistance, and weather protection. These shingles were marketed for both residential homes and commercial structures, where they were presented as a long-lasting alternative to wood or other organic roofing materials. Alongside the shingles themselves, Johns-Manville manufactured asbestos roofing felt — a base underlayment material that was applied beneath the finished roofing surface. This felt, sometimes called roofing paper or tar paper, was saturated with asphalt and reinforced with asbestos fibers to improve tensile strength, moisture resistance, and dimensional stability under temperature changes.

Both products were widely specified by architects, builders, and contractors during the mid-twentieth century construction boom. Johns-Manville’s roofing materials were distributed through building supply dealers, contractors, and direct commercial accounts, making them a standard component of roofing systems installed on schools, government buildings, commercial properties, and private homes throughout the United States.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1982, citing mounting asbestos-related personal injury litigation. That reorganization ultimately produced the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, established to compensate individuals harmed by Johns-Manville asbestos-containing products.

Asbestos Content

Johns-Manville incorporated asbestos into its roofing shingles and felt primarily because of the mineral’s physical properties. Asbestos fibers are heat-resistant, chemically stable, and provide significant reinforcement to composite materials. In roofing shingles, asbestos fibers were mixed into a cementite or asphalt matrix to create the finished shingle product. The asbestos content in these shingles gave the finished material its characteristic rigidity and fire-resistant qualities that were used as key selling points to builders and property owners.

Roofing felt manufactured by Johns-Manville similarly relied on asbestos fiber content to provide the reinforcement that held the saturated felt together during installation and under long-term exposure to weather cycling. Both chrysotile (white asbestos) and, in some product lines, amphibole asbestos types were utilized by Johns-Manville across its manufacturing operations, consistent with industry practices of the era.

Internal company documents produced during litigation and bankruptcy proceedings have established that Johns-Manville’s corporate leadership was aware of the health hazards associated with asbestos fiber exposure well before such risks were publicly disclosed or regulated. Despite this knowledge, the company continued to manufacture and sell asbestos-containing products, including roofing materials, without adequate warnings to workers or consumers.

How Workers Were Exposed

Industrial workers and tradespeople encountered asbestos fiber release at multiple points in the lifecycle of Johns-Manville roofing shingles and felt — during manufacturing, during installation, and during later repair and demolition work.

Manufacturing workers at Johns-Manville production facilities handled raw asbestos fiber directly and worked in environments where airborne asbestos dust was generated during the mixing, pressing, cutting, and finishing of shingle and felt products. These workers sustained some of the highest occupational exposures documented in trust fund and litigation records.

Roofing contractors and installers were exposed when cutting shingles to fit rooflines, dormers, and penetrations. Cutting asbestos-cement shingles with saws, snips, or scoring tools released respirable asbestos fibers into the breathing zone of workers on rooftops and in enclosed attic spaces. Roofing felt was similarly cut and trimmed on job sites, releasing fibers during handling and cutting operations.

General construction laborers working on job sites where roofing installation was underway could be exposed to airborne fibers released by nearby cutting and handling activity, even when not directly involved in the roofing work.

Renovation and demolition workers faced significant exposure risks when removing or disturbing existing Johns-Manville asbestos roofing materials. Older asbestos-containing roofing shingles that have weathered and become brittle are particularly prone to releasing fibers when broken, sawed, or stripped from roof decking. Workers involved in reroofing projects — who might cut through or break existing shingles — were at elevated risk compared to workers installing new materials.

Building maintenance personnel who patched, repaired, or inspected roofing systems containing Johns-Manville asbestos shingles or felt could also be exposed during the course of routine work, particularly when disturbing aged or deteriorating materials.

OSHA standards now regulate occupational asbestos exposure, and AHERA governs asbestos-containing materials in schools, including roofing products. These regulatory frameworks confirm the recognized hazard that asbestos-containing roofing materials pose when disturbed.

Documented Product Identification

The following details are drawn from public asbestos litigation records, manufacturer catalog pages, technical manuals, and corporate history materials. Each item reflects the product as documented in those sources.

Corporate context: J-M Manufacturing Company, Inc. operated as a manufacturer and distributor of pipe products including Transite (asbestos-cement) pipe and PVC pipe products. The company maintained distribution networks across multiple U.S. regions through the 1980s.

Brand identification: Transite

Documented asbestos components: asbestos-cement pipe.

Industries served: municipal water utilities, waterworks, plumbing supply, agricultural irrigation, sewer and drainage, construction.

Documented product lines:

  • Transite Water Pipe. Asbestos-cement water transmission and distribution pipe — asbestos components: asbestos-cement pipe.
  • Transite Underdrain. Asbestos-cement pipe for agricultural and drainage applications — asbestos components: asbestos-cement pipe.
  • Perma-Loc PVC Sewer/Drain Pipe (1983). PVC pipe system for sewer and drainage applications

J-M Manufacturing distributed Transite asbestos-cement water and underdrain pipe through an extensive network of waterworks and plumbing distributors primarily in the Central, Western, and Southern United States during the 1980s.