Custom Search

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Chinese-made drywall blamed for house problems

Please click onto the COMMENTS for the story.

posted by Bob at Sunday, April 12, 2009

1 Comments:

Anonymous Topic requested said...

Chinese-made drywall imported during the housing boom could be corroding pipes, blackening jewelry and silverware, and sickening residents.

By BRIAN SKOLOFF and CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press

Last update: April 11, 2009 - 5:38 PM

PARKLAND, FLA. -- At the height of the U.S. housing boom, when building materials were in short supply, 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. Most of the drywall came into the country in 2006, and it 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 Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., 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.

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, working with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether there is a health hazard. So 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 they 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.

In a 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. Michael Foreman, who owns a construction consulting firm, warns of a "sleeping beast" in the thousands of bank-owned condos and houses across the country, with no one in them to complain.

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

10:09 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home