An article published Wednesday in The New York Times has brought a national spotlight to claims that mass amounts of tainted drywall imported from China are causing serious health and safety problems for homeowners around the U.S. whose homes were constructed with suspect material.
Reports about tainted drywall imported from China have been circulating in the local and national news for nearly a year after thousands of homeowners began complaining of headaches and nosebleeds, foul odors, and extreme metal corrosion. The drywall is thought to off-gas sulfur compounds, which cause the laundry list of symptoms.
According to The New York Times, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating the issue and will reslease results from a study it is conducting to determine the cause and potential cleanup solutions.
News from the FineHomebuilding.com community
The topic of tainted drywall has been a hot topic in the FineHomebuilding.com’s Breaktime forum for the past year. Earlier this week one community member posted a link to an article in Eco Home Magazine that presents a potential fix for the problem. It involves bombing the home with Chlorine dioxide gas. Other Breaktime posts have reported that the issues may not be isolated to imports from China.
READ MORE ABOUT TAINTED CHINESE DRYWALL IN BREAKTIME (free registration required):
Toxic Drywall in Sarasota County, Florida, January 1, 2009
Chinese Drywall, Here We Go Again, April 18, 2009
Anyone Get or Use Contaminated Drywall?, April 13, 2009
More Chinese Drywall, May 12, 2009
Chinese Drywall (video link), May 6, 2009
Toxic Drywall (video link), June 5, 2009
Do you have information or opinions about tainted drywall products imported from China? Share a comment below.
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There are a number of firms working on class action lawsuits against the suppliers and the builders that go back to the repairs made after Katrina in New Orleans. At least with the bad sheetrock the risks are less life threatening than the defective gas pipe that has come into the country. This is the downside to global trade with the true source or manufacturer often impossible to identify and often no recourse for the homeowner, with builders no longer in business and raw materials coming from the local lumber yard or Home Depot. It really is going to depend upon the vigilance and integrity of the builder and the sheetrock contractor. At least my guys use adjustable hole cutters with their shields when cutting into drywall (and cement board) to minimize the health hazards.
The Chinese have managed to "poison us" in a myriad of ways...Toothpaste tainted with glycol alcohol...Candles with metallic lead strand within wick to support wick when burning (Across river, in IL,family became deathly ill...Analysis...LEAD POISONING...Traced to "contaminated" candle wicks...Lead oxide "vapors" so contaminated house it had to be condemned and destruction treated as HAZMET !!!...Insufficiently-fired lead glazing on ceramicware...Lead contamination of toys via paints...Interesting that where flagrant abuse is traced to management greed, etc. the violator gets the firing squad treatment...No "slap on the wrist."...At "our end", the USA, we have the "greed factor" at work...Outsourcing strictly by cost...Then no quality control/lab analysis by importer...Apparently also no US inspectors on site...OR "bought off"...$$$$$$$$$ ...Old song...He who has the bucks rules...At the same time, though, there care many fine products from China and other foreign nations...Trouble is, all these "exported jobs" leave fewer and fewer folks with jobs and money to buy anything...We need to reconstruct manufacturing in the USA...manual labor, skilled labor jobs...Not everyone is college material, for any number of reasons...
"The Chinese have managed to "poison us" in a myriad of way"
OK, but the Chinese are far, far behind our domestic industries in the number of ways we have been poisoned. You have hear of toxic waste? Air and water pollution? Asbestos?
Let's not get all xenophobic because a couple of drywall makers in China have cut some corners.
No, I think we DO need to get all xenophobic. Not because a few bad apples spoil it for all the responsible businessmen, rather, because I just received my Chamber of Commerce monthly magazine which shows business people from my own state kneeling in front of a line of Chinese executives in front of their extensive facilities in a facility we financed. They accompanying article speaks to how hard working and affable those peculiar people are and how we shouldn't, as a nation, erect barriers to trade which will hurt the Chamber's members "back home."
The US Chamber of Commerce is an organization dedicated to buying and selling as much as possible as cheaply as possible, even when it's from a Marxist communist country that our military geniuses in Washington insist is the reason we need to reinforce our defenses and fight goofy-assed wars to contain.
I've been a builder for 40 years and a citizen for 56 and have watched this ridiculous procession long enough. Are we simply powerless to stop the march of gluttonous profiteers in Texas and Georgia who are content to sell our nation out? Is the future of the homebuilding industry in the hands of Dan Ryan?
Perhaps Fine Homebuilding could become a forum for an honest reevaluation of our industry and our trades? We could, perhaps, rename it... Pretty Good Homebuilding, or... OK By Me Homebuilding. After all, this is, apparently, a matter of money and markets and shouldn't we try and be a "Big Tent" to attract the most customers to the circus?
I'm ashamed of what we've done to ourselves and would like to engage with others who believe that America isn't just a place where unprincipled people go to make more money. A little xenophobia is way too long overdue.
No, I think we DO need to get all xenophobic. Not because a few bad apples spoil it for all the responsible businessmen, rather, because I just received my Chamber of Commerce monthly magazine which shows business people from my own state kneeling in front of a line of Chinese executives in front of their extensive facilities in a facility we financed. They accompanying article speaks to how hard working and affable those peculiar people are and how we shouldn't, as a nation, erect barriers to trade which will hurt the Chamber's members "back home."
The US Chamber of Commerce is an organization dedicated to buying and selling as much as possible as cheaply as possible, even when it's from a Marxist communist country that our military geniuses in Washington insist is the reason we need to reinforce our defenses and fight goofy-assed wars to contain.
I've been a builder for 40 years and a citizen for 56 and have watched this ridiculous procession long enough. Are we simply powerless to stop the march of gluttonous profiteers in Texas and Georgia who are content to sell our nation out? Is the future of the homebuilding industry in the hands of Dan Ryan?
Perhaps Fine Homebuilding could become a forum for an honest reevaluation of our industry and our trades? We could, perhaps, rename it... Pretty Good Homebuilding, or... OK By Me Homebuilding. After all, this is, apparently, a matter of money and markets and shouldn't we try and be a "Big Tent" to attract the most customers to the circus?
I'm ashamed of what we've done to ourselves and would like to engage with others who believe that America isn't just a place where unprincipled people go to make more money. A little xenophobia is way too long overdue.
Its not just the building industry that gets subpar products that were once made here. The explotation of these third world countries making goods for us and the rest of the western world is hurting our economy. Its ironic how the goods are made there, mean while those making the goods live in unbelivable conditions. It all comes down to greed and explotation. MADE IN THE USA actually meant something
You're right, Duke, it's not just our industry that's sold out. There was a time not 30 years ago when buying from American firms and using union labor was a good guarantee of receiving a quality product. The enemies of unions moved their operations to unregulated southern states and then value engineered the 'value' out of everything. For a buck.
I recently tore out a wall and found a lot of old denim clothing in the stud bay; probably the earliest form of denim insulation. They'd been there a long time, since the thirties or before I speculate, and carried the JC Penney union made label.
The seams were triple stitched with cotton thread and with such finely woven stitches and tightly loomed material I would have washed and worn them off into the sunset if they'd been a little bigger.
At the time I looked down at my own shabby work clothes made in China and India and the boots pressed out in Brasil and it made me want to spit nails. All these years of hard work and patient craftsmanship so I can buy crap manufactured by children or slaves in factories built specifically to be far away from regulation or oversight of any kind? American citizens willing to spend hours online with technical support in Mumbai so some greasy haired 25 year old "En-tre-pren-eur" can buy a Humvee and own a 52" television???
The newspaper says the Chinese own so much of our nation's debt they have a major say in our government; the last President holds hands with Saudi princes and pretends he's just promoting "globalism." How stupid can we be? Enough already.