China Boycott

 

Chinese drywall was used widely during the building boom in South Florida beginning with construction in 2004. Now it seems the drywall may be making people ill. Toxic drywall has been used to build many homes and the imported Chinese drywall is having a detrimental effect on copper plumbing and air conditioning coils.

How many dangerous products imported to the U.S. from China is unknown but so far the list includes toothpaste, pet food, toys, tires, infant formula, heparin, and now drywall is added to the list. When are we going to stop importing hazardous Chinese products and materials? How can the consumer trust anything coming from China these days?
It is now known that the toxic drywall was used in some homes during the building boom in 2004 – 2005 especially in and around South Florida. The drywall market had dried up in the U.S. because of the proliferation of construction projects and so it was imported from China.

One drywall is the same as another drywall – its drywall, plain and simple – how hard can that be?  At least that’s what we all thought until health problems started to appear.

It’s all about what the drywall is made from. Dave Reid, from the Intuitive Environmental Solutions of Fort Meyers, Florida, has determined that at least some of the drywall imported from China was produced using waste materials from scrubbers on coal-fired power plants. Although Chinese drywall meets ASTM standards, the theory is that the wastewater used to mix the gypsum was laced with toxic chemicals, including sulfur.

The chemicals are leeching out of the drywall causing health hazards for people and pets who live in homes built with this drywall. Beyond human health hazards, it ruins the plumbing in a house. South Florida homes have lots of plumbing because of the reliance on air conditioning. The chemicals in the toxic Chinese drywall bleed out as gasses and mix with the moisture on air conditioning coils which turns into sulfuric acid.

It is the acid that eats away at the solder joints and copper tubing. This causes leaking water in the pipes, blackened copper coils and finally shut down of the system.

The smell of sulfuric acid is absolutely rank. Just ask Karen Kuenz, a retiree living in a house at The Legends, a subdivision located in south Lee County.  Kuenz has been complaining of the smell of sulfur in her house "for years" she says. The building contractor has tried to find the root of the problem several times but to no avail. She says there is one room of her house in which “the stinky sulfur is just nasty."

If just the smell weren’t bad enough, Kuenz has experienced vague symptoms and unusual coughing for which there seemed to be no obvious medical reason. That is, until the question of toxic drywall came to the forefront.

Another homeowner in Lee County, Richard Cesta noticed the smell of sulfur in his condominium. Right now he’s trying to put up with the smell and meanwhile his air conditioning coils keep turning black, and he has replaced them three times within a few months. Dealing with the effects of toxic drywall can cost big bucks, perhaps hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

The problem of drywall that makes your house smell like rotting eggs has only recently gained wider attention. But it is not a new per se; it is said that builders have been surreptitiously paying out settlements for at least three years.

Three years coincides with the timeline of the home building boom that hit the inflated South Florida real estate market between 2004 and 2006. Drywall used in U.S. construction is usually supplied by U.S. manufacturers. However, in the years when home building was happening at a furious rate in Florida and in some other regions of the country, the drywall market dried up. Demand had outstripped supply. So since drywall had to be found to keep building, construction companies were left with little choice than to find alternate sources. Drywall from China was one of those sources. Sometimes in a housing project just the Chinese drywall was installed but in others it was mixed with drywall manufactured in the US.

To date, the big problems with the ‘tainted’ drywall are being seen in Lee County mostly but other areas of South Florida are affected too. There is a lawsuit against German based Knauf Group and its subsidiary Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. Ltd. of China put forward by Lennar Homes, a prominent house construction company. Taishan Gypsum, also a drywall manufacturer based in China, is also thought to be involved.

Lennar wants restitution from 12 subcontractors for installing substandard Chinese drywall in Lennar houses. Lennar apparently did not know the product was inferior.

Lennar Homes has undertaken the task of testing its homes in South Florida through Environ International. What was found is frightening: carbon disulfide, carbonyl sulfide and dimethyl sulfide. The subsequent report said that the more dangerous hydrogen sulfide which gives off the rotting egg smell was not found by Environ in air tests, but was present in tests of the drywall itself.

The Florida Health Department is now doing its own testing on the problem and results should be available soon. Why even the Lieutenant Governor for the State of Florida has said that his house in Fort Myers was built with constructed with toxic drywall from China.

Some people in the construction industry have said that when the drywall is taped, sanded and sealed properly, there should be no evidence of the sulfur. But in the real world, many South Florida homeowners have found out the hard way that either the drywall has not been properly sealed or that the chemicals are too corrosive for the normal sealing materials.

In Fort Myers, a class-action lawsuit was filed recently in U.S. District court.

If you are unfortunately an owner of a relatively new home in South Florida who has had unusual health symptoms and gross odors in your home, it may well be due to the use of Chinese drywall in your building. If that turns out to be the case, call an attorney. You need an advocate to help deal with the problem imposed on you as a result of the installation of Chinese drywall. Not only is toxic drywall affecting individual home owners but the known existence of it in the South Florida region is worsening the fallout from the housing and economic crisis. Home prices are dropping dramatically as it is. Take a stand and get a lawyer so that you can seek remedies for a place that reeks through none of your own doing.