From: News

More than 200 new Chinese drywall complaints have been filed with the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) since last month, according to the agency’s August Status Report.

Since December, a total of 877 Chinese drywall complaints from 24 states and the District of Columbia have been received by the CPSC. Most complaints have come from Florida (658) and Louisiana (105). Other states with Chinese drywall reports include: Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

To date, CPSC staff has confirmed 6,211,200 sheets of Chinese drywall were imported into the U.S., plus 28,778 sheets imported into Guam, Saipan, and American Samoa during 2006. The staff is continuing to verify more shipments, the status report said.

              

From: News

Another Virginia community has banned the use of Chinese drywall. The ban, adopted unanimously by the Virginia Beach city council last night, comes a week after the Norfolk city council adopted a similar measure.

Virginia is just one of several states where homeowners have complained about Chinese drywall that fills homes with a putrid, “rotten-eggs” odor, causes metals to corrode, and leads to sinus and respiratory problems in people living with the material. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the U.S. imported roughly 309 million square feet of drywall from China during the housing boom from 2004 to 2007.

Last week, during a Senate subcommittee hearing convened to discuss the issue, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) voiced concerns that the Chinese drywall problem could turn out to be much worse than first thought. “I fear that we’re just at the tip of an iceberg of what could be a… national disaster, that is both a health care disaster and for many families is going to be a financial disaster,” Warner said.

Though many people - including some federal officials investigating the problem - have reported respiratory and sinus symptoms while inside homes built with Chinese drywall, it’s not clear exactly what health hazards might be posed by the material. Several days before the Senate hearing, the Environmental Protection Agency released results of tests it conducted that compared Chinese drywall to American-made material. The tests found sulfur and two organic compounds associated with acrylic paint in the Chinese drywall that were not present in the American wallboard. During last week’s hearing, an official from the Centers for Disease Control testified that the symptoms reported so far are similar to those found when sulfur compounds have contaminated industrial settings.

              

By MICHAEL CORKERY

Complaints about foul-smelling Chinese-made drywall that first emerged in a few dozen homes in Florida in January have spread to hundreds of homes in several states, fueling controversy over the Chinese import.

Fearing that the construction material is making them sick, homeowners are moving out of their houses, filing lawsuits and demanding help from lawmakers. Two U.S. senators have proposed a temporary ban on certain Chinese drywall imports. A Chinese government agency is also investigating, according to a Chinese news report.

The actual health effects of the drywall, which is commonly used to construct interior walls, are still unknown. While homeowners attribute bloody noses, sinus problems and headaches to the drywall, the Florida health department said there is no evidence that gases being emitted from the construction material pose a serious health risk.

"It seems most likely that it's a nasty odor problem, as opposed to something acutely toxic," said Morton Lippmann, a professor of environmental medicine at New York University, who reviewed recent Florida health department's findings on Chinese drywall for The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Lippmann isn't involved in any of the lawsuits that have been filed against drywall manufacturers.

Other researchers said the sulfur-based gases coming from the drywall may exacerbate existing sinus issues and cause respiratory problems. The type of drywall at issue is made primarily from the naturally occurring mineral gypsum. Some of the drywall has been traced to a mine in the Shandong province of China, according to a spokeswoman for one drywall manufacturer, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co., a subsidiary of a large German construction-material company, Knauf International GmbH, that used the mine.

"Sulfur compound gases, even at low levels, have been found to cause respiratory problems," such as asthma, said Nachman Brautbar, a toxicologist and clinical professor emeritus at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, who also reviewed the health-department findings for the Journal, and isn't involved in the legal dispute. "This clearly needs more study."

In China, some industry officials defended their drywall's quality and suggested the controversy may be stoked by protectionism.

"The U.S. credit crisis has caused the real estate market to collapse, and as a result domestic drywall manufacturers have seen their sales suffer and their product is relatively expensive compared to the Chinese-made drywall, so we should also consider these issues," Xu Luoyi, head of the National Building Materials Industrial Technology Supervisory Research Center, said in a recent Chinese news report.

A big obstacle facing U.S. authorities investigating the matter is that the Chinese manufacturer isn't always clearly identified on the drywall.

Executives at one Chinese manufacturer named in a drywall-related lawsuit, Taishan Gypsum, couldn't be reached for comment. Meanwhile, Knauf Tianjin said it has been cooperating with U.S. and Chinese authorities. Knauf Tianjin officials said the company has been unfairly singled out because it has acknowledged the issue, while other manufacturers have been less forthcoming.

The U.S. imported roughly 309 million square feet of drywall from China during the housing boom from 2004 to 2007, according to the Gypsum Association, a trade group. While that is a fraction of the drywall used in the U.S., it is enough to build roughly 35,000 houses. The number of houses containing Chinese product could be higher, however, because some houses use a mix of domestic and imported drywall.

Not all of the Chinese drywall is likely to lead to the type of problems that homeowners in Florida, and now Virginia, Alabama and other states are reporting. Drywall problems are also surfacing in the New Orleans area, in homes that were refurbished after Hurricane Katrina.

Some homeowners who have found Chinese-imported drywall in their newly built houses, say their jewelry, pennies and electrical wiring have turned black. Researchers believe the sulfur-based gases from the drywall may be corroding the metal.

The drywall issue is touching nerves that have been frayed by the housing crash. "When the housing market comes back, my home's value isn't coming back," said Rene Galvin, who has moved out of her Bonita Springs, Fla., home that she bought for her retirement and is suing her builder and the drywall manufacturer because of drywall concerns.