Product Description
Muralo one-coat textured wall paint was a heavy-body interior coating marketed by the Muralo Company for the finish decoration of gypsum-wallboard, plaster, and masonry interior surfaces from approximately the 1960s into the 1970s. Designed to deliver both color and stippled texture in a single application, the product allowed painters and finish decorators to cover imperfect drywall joints, seams, and surface flaws without additional skim-coating — a labor-savings feature that made textured wall paints popular on tract-housing, apartment-complex, hotel, and commercial-buildout projects during the postwar building boom.
Plaintiffs have alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Muralo’s one-coat textured wall paint was formulated with chrysotile asbestos incorporated as a fibrous reinforcement that improved body, crack resistance, and stipple retention. According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, the product was distributed through paint stores and building-supply outlets to painting contractors and remodelers.
Workers Exposed
Plaintiffs allege the following trades were exposed to airborne chrysotile fibers from Muralo one-coat textured wall paint:
- Painters who opened Muralo cans, stirred and thinned the heavy-body coating, and applied it by roller, brush, or spray — allegedly generating airborne spatter and, during spray application, respirable overspray mist containing chrysotile fibers.
- Drywall finishers who patched and touched-up textured painted walls with Muralo, and who feathered edges into adjoining drywall assemblies.
- Carpenters and remodel workers who scraped, sanded, or demolished Muralo-textured walls during renovation decades after original application — allegedly disturbing bound chrysotile fibers and generating respirable dust.
- Laborers who cleaned spatter from floors, tarps, and ladders and disposed of empty Muralo containers — allegedly inhaling dried fiber-laden residue.