MyFloridaCode.com

Mon Apr 13 12:44:08 EDT 2009

Group, Will Spates from Indoor Environmental Technologies passed this
informative article along us regarding the Chinese Drywall Problem.
Please read if you are interested in the subject matter.

AP IMPACT: Chinese drywall poses potential risks

April 11, 2009 3:53 PM EDT

PARKLAND, Fla. - At the height of the U.S. housing boom, when building
materials were in short supply, American construction companies used
millions of pounds of Chinese-made drywall because it was abundant and
cheap.

Now that decision is haunting hundreds of homeowners and apartment
dwellers who are concerned that the wallboard gives off fumes that can
corrode copper pipes, blacken jewelry and silverware, and possibly
sicken people.

Shipping records reviewed by The Associated Press indicate that imports
of potentially tainted Chinese building materials exceeded 500 million
pounds during a four-year period of soaring home prices. The drywall may
have been used in more than 100,000 homes, according to some estimates,
including houses rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina.

"This is a traumatic problem of extraordinary proportions," said U.S.
Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat who introduced a bill in the
House calling for a temporary ban on the Chinese-made imports until more
is known about their chemical makeup. Similar legislation has been
proposed in the Senate.

The drywall apparently causes a chemical reaction that gives off a
rotten-egg stench, which grows worse with heat and humidity.

Researchers do not know yet what causes the reaction, but possible
culprits include fumigants sprayed on the drywall and material inside
it. The Chinese drywall is also made with a coal byproduct called fly
ash that is less refined than the form used by U.S. drywall makers.

Dozens of homeowners in the Southeast have sued builders, suppliers and
manufacturers, claiming the very walls around them are emitting smelly
sulfur compounds that are poisoning their families and rendering their
homes uninhabitable.

"It's like your hopes and dreams are just gone," said Mary Ann
Schultheis, who has suffered burning eyes, sinus headaches, and a
general heaviness in her chest since moving into her brand-new,
4,000-square foot house in this tidy South Florida suburb a few years
ago.

She has few options. Her builder is in bankruptcy, the government is not
helping and her lender will not give her a break.

"I'm just going to cry," she said. "We don't know what we're going to
do."

Builders have filed their own lawsuits against suppliers and
manufacturers, claiming they unknowingly used the bad building
materials.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating, as are health
departments in Virginia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Florida and
Washington state.

Companies that produced some of the wallboard said they are looking into
the complaints, but downplayed the possibility of health risks.

"What we're trying to do is get to the bottom of what is precisely going
on," said Ken Haldin, a spokesman for Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin, a
Chinese company named in many of the lawsuits.

The Chinese ministries of commerce, construction and industry and the
Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine did not
respond to repeated requests for comment. Chinese news reports have said
AQSIQ, which enforces product quality standards, was investigating the
complaints but people in the agency's press office said they could not
confirm that.

Meanwhile, governors in Louisiana and Florida are asking for federal
assistance, and experts say the problem is only now beginning to
surface.

"Based on the amount of material that came in, it's possible that just
in one year, 100,000 residences could be involved," said Michael
Foreman, who owns a construction consulting firm. The company has
performed tests on some 200 homes in the Sarasota area and has been
tracking shipments of the drywall.

Federal authorities say they are investigating just how much of the
wallboard was imported. Shipping records analyzed by the AP show that
more than 540 million pounds of plasterboard - which includes both
drywall and ceiling tile panels - was imported from China between 2004
and 2008, although it's unclear whether all of that material was
problematic or only certain batches.

Most of it came into the country in 2006, following a series of Gulf
Coast hurricanes and a domestic shortage brought on by the national
housing boom.

The Chinese board was also cheaper. One homeowner told AP he saved
$1,000 by building his house with it instead of a domestic product.

In 2006, enough wallboard was imported from China to build some 34,000
homes of roughly 2,000 square feet each, according to AP's analysis of
the shipping records and estimates supplied by the nationwide drywall
supplier United States Gypsum.

Experts and advocates say many homes may have been built with a mixture
of Chinese and domestic drywall, potentially raising the number of
affected homes much higher.

So far, the problem appears to be concentrated in the Southeast, which
blossomed with new construction during the housing boom and where the
damp climate appears to cause the gypsum in the building material to
degrade more quickly. In Florida alone, more than 35,000 homes may
contain the product, experts said.

In Louisiana, the state health department has received complaints from
at least 350 people in just a few weeks. Many of the affected homeowners
rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina only to face the prospect of tearing
down their houses and rebuilding again.

In another cruel twist, some of the very communities that have been hit
hardest by the collapse of the housing market and skyrocketing
foreclosure rates are now at the epicenter of the drywall problem.

Foreman warns of a "sleeping beast" in the thousands of bank-owned
condos and houses across the country, with no one in them to complain.

Outside the South, it's harder to pinpoint the number of affected homes.
And in drier climates such as California and Nevada, it may be years
before homeowners begin to see - and smell - what may be lurking inside
their walls.

The drywall furor is the latest in a series of scares over potentially
toxic imports from China. In 2007, Chinese authorities ratcheted up
inspections and tightened restrictions on exports after manufacturers
were found to have exported tainted cough syrup, toxic pet food and toys
decorated with lead paint.

Scientists hope to understand the problem by studying the chemicals in
the board. Drywall consists of wide, flat boards used to cover walls. It
is often made from gypsum, a common mineral that can be mined or
manufactured from the byproducts of coal-fired power plants.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuits, as well as U.S. wallboard manufacturers, say
the tainted drywall was made with fly ash, a residue of coal combustion
more commonly used in concrete mixtures.

Fly ash can be gathered before it ever reaches the smokestack, where
technology is used to remove sulfur dioxide from the emissions. The
process of "scrubbing" the smokestack emissions creates calcium sulfate,
or gypsum, which can then used to make wallboard, experts say.

Haldin, the Knaupf Tianjin spokesman, says some domestic drywall is also
made from the less-refined fly ash.

But Michael Gardner, executive director of the U.S. Gypsum Association,
said American manufacturers gather the gypsum from the smokestacks after
the scrubbing, which produces a cleaner product.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has dispatched teams of
toxicologists, electrical engineers and other experts to Florida to
study the phenomenon. The commission is also working with the
Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention to determine whether there is a health hazard.

A Florida Department of Health analysis found the Chinese drywall emits
"volatile sulfur compounds," and contains traces of strontium sulfide,
which can produce the rotten-egg odor and reacts with air to corrode
metals and wires.

But the agency says on its Web site that it "has not identified data
suggesting an imminent or chronic health hazard at this time."

"We're continuing to test," said Susan Smith, a spokeswoman for the
department, which has logged 230 complaints from homeowners.

Dr. Patricia Williams, a University of New Orleans toxicologist hired by
a Louisiana law firm that represents plaintiffs in some of the cases,
said she has identified highly toxic compounds in the drywall, including
hydrogen sulfide, sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide and carbon disulfide.

Prolonged exposure to the compounds, especially high levels of carbon
disulfide, can cause breathing problems, chest pains and even death; and
can affect the nervous system, according to the CDC.

"It is absolutely shocking what is happening," Williams said.

Dr. Phillip Goad, a toxicologist hired by Knaupf Plasterboard Tianjin,
sampled drywall from 25 homes, some that contained the company's
wallboard and some that did not.

"The studies we have performed to date have identified very low levels
of naturally occurring compounds," Goad said. "The levels we have
detected do not present a public health concern. The chemicals are
naturally occurring. They're produced in ocean water, in salt marsh air,
in estuaries."

But those who are living with it are convinced that something is making
them sick, including dozens of homeowners in a single subdivision in
Parkland, about 50 miles north of Miami. They are now faced with a
daunting choice: Tear down and rebuild, or move out and be stuck with a
mortgage and a home they cannot sell.

"We are particularly concerned about the safety and well-being of our
children," said Holly Krulik, who lives down the street from Mary Ann
Schultheis.

She and her husband, Doug, are suffering sinus problems and respiratory
ailments, and their young daughter has repeated nose bleeds.

"If a shiny copper coil can turn absolutely black within a matter of
months, it certainly can't be good for human beings," Krulik said.

Neighbor John Willis is moving out, even though he can hardly afford to
walk away from a house he's owned for just three years. He cries as he
speaks of his 3-year-old son's respiratory infection, which eventually
required surgery.

"They basically took out a substance that looked like rubber cement out
of my 3-year-old son's sinuses," he said. "My wife and I are now faced
with the choice between our children's health and our financial health.
My children are always going to win on that."

The subdivision's builder, WCI Communities, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy
restructuring and can do little more than log complaints, said
spokeswoman Connie Boyd.

The federal government does not regulate the chemical ingredients of
imported drywall.

Plasterboard Tianjin said it has been making drywall for 10 years in
accordance with U.S. and international standards.

Another Chinese company facing lawsuits, Taishan Gypsum Ltd., also
insists that it meets all U.S. standards.

Determining what is causing the problems could take months. Researchers
will try to recreate in a lab the conditions that caused the sulfur
compounds normally found in drywall to give off noxious gases.

Meanwhile, people like Lisa Sich, 43, are left with more questions than
answers. Sich has not felt well since moving into the Henderson, Nev.,
apartment she rents less than a year ago, and her silverware quickly
tarnished.

"I can hear myself wheezing," said Sich, who is having environmental
experts test the apartment, built in 2007. "My eyes are constantly
itchy, extreme fatigue."

And while Sich is not even certain she's got the bad wallboard, she has
not felt like herself in months. She's missed five weeks of work just
since Thanksgiving.

"I'm just tired all the time," she said. "It doesn't make sense."

---

Associated Press Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this
report. Burdeau reported from New Orleans.

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Will Spates [wspates at ietbuildinghealth.com]

R.J.Koning - Director

Contractors Institute

rjkoning at contractorsinstitute.com
<mailto:rjkoning at contractorsinstitute.com> 

8301 Joliet Street

Hudson, Fl 34667

727-863-5147

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