Seriously? Gluten In The Drywall?

[pricklypear1971]

Went to the old house today to work out paint colors. Got home and now my DH areas are itching.

They were CRYSTAL CLEAR this morning, and I took my own lunch.

I'd heard there was gluten in some building materials....this is the first time I noticed a reaction but it makes sense. The first time I broke out in DH was 2 months after I started working around homes under construction!!!!!!

Hadn't been to the house in over a month!!!! There's drywall dust EVERYWHERE.

[GlutenFreeManna]

Went to the old house today to work out paint colors. Got home and now my DH areas are itching.

They were CRYSTAL CLEAR this morning, and I took my own lunch.

I'd heard there was gluten in some building materials....this is the first time I noticed a reaction but it makes sense. The first time I broke out in DH was 2 months after I started working around homes under construction!!!!!!

Hadn't been to the house in over a month!!!! There's drywall dust EVERYWHERE.

I read about it but I wasn't sure it was true until I had a reaction myself. While house hunting we looked at a house that was being renovated and had big holes punched throught the drywall. Drywall dust everywhere! I should have known to stay out but I didn't, I went and toured it and two days later I was sick as can be with all my typical sympotms of a glutening. I don't have DH but I wouldn't be surprised if the drywall dust triggered yours. Try getting a mask and wearing long sleeves if you have to go to job sites a lot.

[Lisa]

I have heard this over the years. It would be good to contact a generally used manufacturer of dry wall/sheet rock or whatever to get the facts on their ingredients. Inquiring minds and such....

[captaincrab55]

I have heard this over the years. It would be good to contact a generally used manufacturer of dry wall/sheet rock or whatever to get the facts on their ingredients. Inquiring minds and such....

Just wondering if the Product MSDS sheet is required to list Gluten ???

[pricklypear1971]

An MSDS would probably list it, but the house is 10 years old. Good luck.

There are old threads on this board about it....joint compound is particularly risky, evidently.

The house flooded, now is under restoration - so there's crap everywhere.

[Takala]

Probably they don't care what sort of starch is used, but I'm not sure. They might, since wheat starch is going to be gluten contaminated, and therefore stickier, and they're using it to stick the plaster filler to the paper coating.

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wikipedia, Drywall Manufacture

A wallboard panel is made of a paper liner wrapped around an inner core made primarily from gypsum plaster. The raw gypsum, CaSO4·2 H2O, (mined or obtained from flue gas desulfurization (FGD)) must be calcined before use to produce the hemihydrate of calcium sulfate (CaSO4·½ H2O). This is done in kettle or flash calciners, typically using natural gas today. The plaster is mixed with fiber (typically paper and/or fiberglass), plasticizer, foaming agent, finely ground gypsum crystal as an accelerator, EDTA, starch or other chelate as a retarder, various additives that may increase mildew and/or fire resistance (fiberglass or vermiculite), wax emulsion or silanes for lower water absorption and water. This is then formed by sandwiching a core of wet gypsum between two sheets of heavy paper or fiberglass mats. When the core sets and is dried in a large drying chamber, the sandwich becomes rigid and strong enough for use as a building material.

Drying chambers typically use natural gas today. To dry 1 MSF ( 1,000 square feet (93 m2) ) of wallboard, between 1.75 and 2.49 million BTU is required. Organic dispersants/plasticisers are used mainly to reduce the amount of water, hence reduce the eventual drying time, needed to produce gypsum slurry flow during wallboard manufacture.[13]

Starch, wiki

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Starch or amylum is a carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by all green plants as an energy store. It is the most common carbohydrate in the human diet and is contained in large amounts in such staple foods as potatoes, wheat, maize (corn), rice, and cassava.

Pure starch is a white, tasteless and odorless powder that is insoluble in cold water or alcohol. It consists of two types of molecules: the linear and helical amylose and the branched amylopectin. Depending on the plant, starch generally contains 20 to 25% amylose and 75 to 80% amylopectin.[1] Glycogen, the glucose store of animals, is a more branched version of amylopectin.

Starch is processed to produce many of the sugars in processed foods. Dissolving starch in warm water gives wheatpaste that can be used as a thickening, stiffening or gluing agent. The biggest industrial non-food use of starch is as adhesive in the papermaking process.

.... with about 40% of starch being used for industrial applications....

Blame the Egyptians who used it in papyrus first.

Yes, today, your home's walls may be full of wheat. Whoever said the @$%%^&**(())_ !!! stuff was the most common substance in our world, because it was everywhere, wasn't far off.

[Lisa]

Interesting:

Open Original Shared Link

Do any of these ingredients contain gluten?

Portland Cement, Fly Ash,Expanded Clay Aggregate, Or Expanded Shale Blend of Proprietary Mineral Based Ingredients, Fiber Glass Scrim, Crystalline Silica

Also:

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And on Wheat Starch:

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Wheat starch

Products made from wheat starch are commonly eaten by celiac patients in some European countries. Wheat starch inherently is not harmful to celiac patients, but proteins adhering to the starch granules that make up a predominant part of wheat flour would be if the adherent proteins were gluten proteins, which is the case for some starch preparations.. Recent well done studies from Finland (Peraaho et al. 2003; Kaukinen et al.1999) indicate that use of the purified starches made in Europe for the purpose of producing "gluten-free" products are not causing harm to celiac patients. Such products are rarely used in the US, however, in part because the suitability of wheat starches readily available in the U.S. for gluten-free products hasn’t been evaluated.

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My conclusion is that drywall does not contain measurable amounts of gluten (specifically in if wheat starch is used) which could be inhaled. Although wheat starch for consumption would differ with that for industrial use. The other components of drywall would create a more dangerous risk if inhaled.

[weluvgators]

Interesting:

Open Original Shared Link

Do any of these ingredients contain gluten?

Portland Cement, Fly Ash,Expanded Clay Aggregate, Or Expanded Shale Blend of Proprietary Mineral Based Ingredients, Fiber Glass Scrim, Crystalline Silica

The MSDS and ingredients that you reference is for Durock cement board, most commonly used for tile applications, not typical wallboard. Here is an MSDS for Sheetrock gypsum panels, a more common wallboard material,

Open Original Shared Link .

I spoke with USG safety this morning, and they were wonderfully helpful. The person that I spoke with agreed that having better designation on their products for those without gluten ingredients would be helpful. I encouraged them to denote that information in the MSDS listings (he wondered if designating "hypoallergenic" products in marketing would be more appropriate, but I explained that "marketing" information tends to be far too generic and confusing for those who really need to know this type of information). For USG Sheetrock, the starch used is from corn and is currently purchased directly from domestic (USA) corn processors (I was asking if they imported starch which can make it more difficult to determine source). The person that I spoke with agreed that there most likely are products in their line up with gluten ingredients, but without digging through thousands of pages of information, it is difficult to determine what those products are . . . and it varies for each region! We were speaking specifically about Illinois, at the heart of corn country. He was able to identify that their ready mix compound should be appropriate and gluten free as the ingredients are petroleum based. He urged caution with dry powders in their product portfolio. USG has been the most helpful company that I have called in my research on this issue. So if you call with the products that you want to use, they should be able to help you evaluate the risks. He also recommended that we do small samples of product application to ensure no reactions before proceeding with the entire project. He seemed to really understand my concerns and was happy to help me identify products with the best chance of success for our project!

Now what has been used in an existing home that is being remodeled is an entirely different problem to tackle! My last project that I attempted with drywall resulted in gluten reactions (the company for the products that we were using was completely useless in helping me determine the risk of gluten in their products). So for my future projects, I will try a more solid specification to assure that I have the best chance possible of completing a project without gluten reactions. Since our family has gluten allergy in addition to celiac, we have found conservative measures for gluten exposure are most appropriate for us.

I hope that your DH spots heal quickly. Remember to also decontaminate yourself when returning from possible exposures (shower, remove clothes for laundry, etc.) and consider wearing a mask and safety glasses in these cirumstances (I am also a fan of hard hats that also help reduce hair contamination).

[pricklypear1971]

Thanks. I am not doing the remodeling but we do need to go back to the house and clean some stuff out. And after the remodel, clean the house and prepare it to rent.

I also need to do touch up work like paint, etc. This is VERY inconvenient.

DH areas have calmed down but it was the same reaction I get with too much iodone. But it actually got itchier and redder than I've seen it since I went low iodine. Effing rash!!!!

[nora-n]

I am in Europe, and we very sensitive celiacs and DH sufferers definitely get sick from wheat starch! Especially those with DH.