Posted on 05/31/2009 5:10:46 AM PDT by IbJensen
There's something rotten in Homestead.
It's the odor in Jason and Melissa Harrell's house, which was built with defective, Chinese-made drywall redolent of strong paint or rotten eggs. The smell got so bad that the Harrells felt forced to move. They now pay rent on top of their mortgage.
''What it boiled down to is, I had to choose between my financial health and my children's physical health,'' Melissa Harrell said.
When the sulfurous stink in Gary and Andrea Suhajcik's Boynton Beach home wouldn't go away, the builder offered to rip out the walls, wiring, plumbing and molding in hopes of making it livable.
Builders and homeowners have feuded over construction defects, real and imagined, since the first slab was poured in the first house in the first subdivision somewhere in suburbia. But South Florida has never seen anything quite like the curse of the Chinese drywall. Tens of thousands of homes were built with the material, which was brought in by boat from the Far East when the demand for drywall exploded during the building boom.
Aside from the odor, scientific studies by the Florida Department of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency found that drywall made by Chinese manufacturers distinctly differs from North American-made product and emits high levels of three volatile sulfur compounds, which can corrode copper piping -- like the kind in appliances -- and blacken copper wiring in electrical outlets and light switches.
No scientific study to date has linked the drywall to any specific health problems.
And yet, Michael McGeehin, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's environmental health division, told a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance: ``There's no doubt that corrosive material is causing health problems.''
COUNTING THE COST
Buyers are suing. Occupants are fleeing. And builders are, in some cases, tearing out walls and rebuilding at a staggering cost.
Although the problem is most prevalent in Florida, the defective drywall was used in at least 18 states between 2004 and 2008. Some estimate the cost of addressing the problem could rise to $1 trillion.
Dajan Green and her mother bought a four-bedroom townhome in the Silver Palms community in Homestead, built by Lennar in 2006. By buying something new, she hoped to spare herself the problems that plague older homes, like corroded galvanized pipe.
''You know: Everything is new. You don't have any issues,'' said Green, 28.
Wrong.
The air conditioner's copper coils turned black. Jewelry, including a bracelet her brother gave her to celebrate her sweet sixteen, turned black too.
And, more disturbingly, her 7-year-old son became lethargic, a condition she blames on the home -- although there is no proof.
They would leave, Green said, but they can't pay the mortgage and rent somewhere else.
''What are we going to do? We're stuck,'' she said.
Lennar, which says it isn't commenting at this time, has litigation pending against the drywall manufacturer. At the time the suit was filed, it issued a news release declaring: ``Lennar is acting promptly to correct the problem in the homes we delivered.''
The first concerns about a possible problem arose at least five years ago. A Fort Myers environmental health firm investigated complaints but didn't link them to foreign-made drywall for about two years.
Then came the first lawsuit -- the first of many, both class action and individual. The target of the suit, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin hired its own lab, which found that the drywall emitted sulfur-containing compounds at unnaturally high concentrations but said it should not be considered a public health problem.
No word from the building inspector Mr Magoo.
That’s because he’s been busy working on the Cheerio’s box, making sure they don’t go over the line.
No worries. Chinese made aspirin is on the way.
Bummer to hear about your situation...hope it gets resolved
Someday enough Americans will rise up against all this inferior cheap Commie Chinese crap. Too many still pander Free Trade with Communist China
The same thing happened here in Hampton Roads. Chinese drywall is now banned in many local cities. The supplier who bought it during a shortage of American made drywall lost millions.
On a related China note, my wife recently had a red rash around her lower back (waistband). First thing I asked her was, a)Are those pants new? and b)Did you wash them first? The answer was yes, and no. I guaranteed her that what she was wearing was made in China and that was the case. Purchased at Kohl’s.
Chinese drywall isn’t always bad. The bad stuff comes and goes because they were trying to shave costs. The early stuff was inspected and found OK.
It appears that the county building inspectors are to blame as well.
Do you have any idea what percentage is bad?
I noticed in one of our three eight story buildings that all drywall was being ripped out and replaced.
Do you believe that the county building inspectors should know about this as they're 'inspecting?'
That’s what happens when you use the crushed bones of executed Chinese prisoners as the primer for drywall! :P
FYI, there is still no known way to tell the “bad” drywall from the good drywall.
What exactly is causing the problem is still not known, so tests to determine whether it is present are of course not available.
There are repeated reports of American-made drywall causing similar problems. This has not been confirmed.
There is absolutely no evidence at this time that the “bad stuff” was associated with attempts to cut costs by Chinese manufacturers.
My wife always washes new clothes before they are worn for the first time. I used to think she was being paranoid, now not so much.
Homes considered to potentially be affected by Chinese drywall would have been built after 2003 and meet two of the following:
1.
The presence of sulfur-like or other unusual odors
2.
Drywall labeled made in China
3.
Observed copper corrosion, indicated by black, sooty coating of un-insulated copperpipe leading to the air-conditioned
4.
Documented failure of air conditioner evaporator coil (located inside the airconditioning unit)
5.
Confirmation by an outside expert or professional of the presence of premature copper corrosion on un-insulated copper wires and/or air conditioner evaporator coils (inside the air conditioning unit)
At this point nobody knows what makes it "bad," so there is of course no way to test whether a particular piece or batch is bad or not.
The EPA just came out this week with some tests that knock some holes in the previously generally accepted theories of what is causing the problems.
Hey maybe they will find out it’s mold resistant.
See, it’s okay to let other countries manufacture stuff and pollute the air, just so long as we can feel good about ourselves back here. Of course, we soon won’t have any jobs, but don’t the air look purty? Now shut up and read your politically-corrected Bible by the light of your 52 watt flourescent bulb.
Clever these Chinese.
Money grubbers these unscrupulous contractors.
Myopic these county building inspectors.
Screwed these Florida home buyers.
I don't disagree with you in general about (some) contractors and inspectors.
I think it's important to keep pointing out that absolutely nobody knew at the time there was anything wrong with the Chinese drywall. Drywall has been around almost 100 years and has never caused problems of this type. In fact, it generally causes no problems at all as long as it stays dry.
It’s strange though how the problems have surfaced and are related to the influx of the Chinese product.
I’m told that Chinese sheet rock contains combustion ash from fluidized bed (limestone injection to control SO2) combustion. It can be quite reactive.
or they could just be using US currency in the mix! :P
There is little argument that the Chinese drywall is the problem. Or some of it, anyway.
There is great argument about why this is the case. Despite extensive testing over the last six months there is still no answer why these problems are happening.
This is heavily reported in the media, but is not accurate.
They are confusing two issues. Fly ash is the particulate matter from unburned coal in power plants. It is widely used as an additive to concrete, where it doesn’t seem to cause any problems.
Synthetic gypsum, OTOH, is a byproduct of the removal of sulfur gases from the smokestack. It is chemically a good deal more pure than the gypsum they dig out of the ground. It is used in both Chinese and US drywall. It is widely considered a “green” product. It is produced entirely separately from the fly ash and could not be mixed with it during production. Somebody could add it later, of course.
EPA tests that just came out this week found no fly ash in the Chinese drywall. But the tests were of only two samples.
Lord only knows what the Chinese put into drywall. But people should be aware that six months of testing has found nothing that is obviously the cause of the problem.
Never thought of that. Execution victims’ body parts are more valuable than the monopoly money our communist government prints. Those body parts can be made into a delicious dog food.
Drywall is made from gypsum, which naturally contains sulfur compounds. If the drywall was exposed to humidity at sea, the process of evaporation that occurs as the drywall dries could be responsible for the odors coming from the material. According to a report on Environmental Expert.com, the problems appear to be related to the presence of iron disulfide (FeS2 pyrite) in the material. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbonyl sulfide, sulfur dioxide (SO2), and carbon disulfide (CS2) are also suspected as culprits, the Web site said.
The possibility that the Chinese drywall is emitting hydrogen sulfide fumes is disturbing. Exposure to 50 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide for more than ten minutes can cause extreme irritation. Inhalation of 500 to 1,000 parts per million can cause unconsciousness and death through respiratory paralysis and asphyxiation, according to environmental experts.
Why do we buy any products from China. They are so corrupt, they don’t care about safety. We need to rebuild our manufacturing base in this country and produce our own products.
I agree fly ash can be nasty stuff. I have just seen no evidence to date that it is in drywall, Chinese or US. Since it is very easy to detect, this is important.
Is there a competent chem lab working on this? If the problem is that obvious (visible damage to exposed copper pipes) then the effect cannot be very subtle and a couple of good chemists ought to be able to figure it out in no time.
Figuring out what is outgassing, wet and dry, should be pretty simple.
This might require the resources of a high end like at one of the National Laboratories (Argonne or Oak Ridge), but this is potentially a mult-billion dollar problem and the EPA certainly has access to them.
Quality control always hangs by a thread in China. At any given time, under the pressure of pricing and profit and curruption a supplier can fall off the standard.
Every product sold in America..from pine nuts to lug nuts need to be labeled as to country of origin..not just packaging.
Just to keep these numbers in perspective.
50 ppm is 50,000 parts per billion (ppb).
To date the highest levels measured in affected homes of which I'm aware are in the low hundreds ppb. Human exhalation can have hydrogen sulfide in the 500+ ppb range. I suspect human flatulence much higher than that.
People can detect the odor of hydrogen sulfide in the less than 5 ppb range.
Not saying there should not be health concerns. Just saying that the extreme acute effects you describe aren't likely. Or anyway there's no evidenc they're likely.
The state of FL has very good chem labs working on this. My company is working with the same lab.
You are quite correct, IMO, that a simple chemical reaction should be figured out quickly. Since it hasn’t, my suspicion is that it isn’t simple and therefore not purely chemical in nature.
I’m presently leaning to the hypothesis that it is a combination of contamination with bacteria and/or mold combined with poor humidity control associated with negative building pressure. That might explain, to some extent, why the problem popped up first in the most humid areas of the US.
This is how I get most of my exercise: jumping to conclusions.
80% of the garlic consumed in the USA is from China.
Hmm. Garlic gets its odor and flavor from organic sulfur compounds. Maybe the Chinese are putting surplus garlic into their drywall. To cover up the odor of decaying ground-up remains of dissidents, perhaps.
Low cost, which trumps all other concerns (quality, safety, employment of our fellow citizens, etc.).
However, exposure to hydrogen sulfide will eventually dull the olfactory sensitivity, to the point that people may not be able to detect it at low levels.
I imagine that if the sulfur is coming from the drywall, metal in or near the walls, like copper pipes and wires, would be exposed to higher levels that people in room spaces. Also, solution of hydrogen sulfide in condensation of water on pipes, could enhance corrosion of plumbing.
What is an FB unit ? Is that the scrubber system to reduce CO2 or whatever gasses from coal fired electric generation ?
At the end of this article which dwells on the consumers woes and ills dwelling on the stuff comming from China.
But not on the sources which would have been helfull,
The article concluds after umpteen paragraphs with finnally mentioning Knauf Plasterboard (a German plasterboard manufacturer) of Tiayin China as the source of the questionable gypsum. But were they the co-owners of the plant making the stuff or a was this a subcontracted deal with the plant which manufactured the stuff under their label. In either case Knauf is responsible for the products quality but it got off lightly in this report...must have been a big Obama contributer (sarc)
Indeed. The Safety Data sheet for a U.S. made board where flyash is used, says the stuff is stable under normal conditions. However, if met with a source of ignition, HEAT or HUMIDITY, hazardous effects are produced. I wonder why no one questioned what would happen if this stuff was used in hot and humid climates, or even, in rooms where hot steam is created like bathrooms, kitchens and laundry rooms. Hydrogen sulfide gas was decteted in many of the homes on my street with it and the families, living for years exposed to chronic low levels have been suffering chronic health problems related to higher exposure levels. The immune system will loose tolerance to low levels and then worse symtpoms can manifest at low levels. It’s nasty stuff. Worse, it is going to take more then gutting the place down to block and studs. My house has been gutted to that level for 7 weeks now, airing out, and reeks really bad. You can choke on the gases coming out of open windows. Everything, including all of our porous furnishings, have been cross contaminated. We had to get rid of the furniture after we moved out. It was contaminated to the core and still able to cause the exposure symptoms. These homes all need to be torn down and rebuilt. BTW, it wasn’t just used in new construction homes. A local fast food chain here, used it when they remodeled 9 of there stores about 8 months ago. This problem has devasted hard working families who were playing by the rules, and trusted in our regulations, and consumer product saftey checks. Realtors in Florida are forcing people to disclose the problem, repaired or not. These homes are worthless. Banks smartly, won’t give loans on them. The check is, blackening to black copper wiring and repeated AC evaporater coil failures. After about two years time, the backs of bathroom mirrors begin corroding along with chrome in the bathrooms showing signs of blackening and pitting. One woman in NC who had chronic pnueomonia, living in a CDW house, went in for surgery to remove chronically infected tonsils. The Doctor said he never saw anything like them. Her tonsils had black holes in them too. Gross.
Not paranoia. All clothing (not just Chinese made) has stuff sprayed on them to keep them from wrinkling in shipment and on display. Some people are more sensitive than others. I too have to wash new clothing before I can wear it, or I get a rash.
Ma'am, we're from the government, we need to do a DNA analysis on your dry wall.
Evaporator coils drip constantly from surface condensation as the cycle extracts moirure from objects in the conditioned space; sulphur fumes in the presence of this ‘sweating’ converts to sulphuric acid, I guess.
True. However, this takes place at 150 to 250 ppm, or 150,000 to 250,000 ppb, not the <500 ppb that has been detected to date in affected homes.
Dosage does matter.
The two types of materials exit the power plant as two separate waste streams. Somebody could have mixed fly ash back into the synthetic gypsum at some point, but analysis of Chinese drywall has to date found no fly ash, which is quite easy to detect.
I believe our problem chiefly is the odor caused in enclosed areas like linen and clothes closets.
Your statement is based on rather short-term tests, I think. I suspect that lower levels of exposure could dull the sense of smell over time. People can lose perception of all kinds of low-level sensory inputs (e.g. their own body odor) with chronic exposure. Incidentally, really high levels of hydrogen sulfide apparently kill the olfactory sense for H2S permanently.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.