CPSC:  Chinese drywall poses potential risks to southeastern homes

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) - At the height of the U.S. housing boom,
when building materials were in short supply, American 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. The drywall 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 U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat 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.
    “I’m just going to cry,“ she said. “We don’t know what we’re
going to do.“
    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, as 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 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.
    The Chinese ministries of commerce, construction and industry
and the Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and
Quarantine did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Chinese news reports have said AQSIQ, which enforces product
quality standards, was investigating the complaints but people in
the agency’s press office said they could not confirm that.
    Meanwhile, governors in Louisiana and Florida are asking for
federal assistance, and experts say the problem is only now
beginning to surface.
    “Based on the amount of material that came in, it’s possible
that just in one year, 100,000 residences could be involved,“ said
Michael Foreman, who owns a construction consulting firm. The
company has performed tests on some 200 homes in the Sarasota area
and has been tracking shipments of the drywall.
    Federal authorities say they are investigating just how much of
the wallboard was imported. Shipping records analyzed by the AP
show that more than 540 million pounds of plasterboard - which
includes both drywall and ceiling tile panels - was imported from
China between 2004 and 2008, although it’s unclear whether all of
that material was problematic or only certain batches.
    Most of it came into the country in 2006, following a series of
Gulf Coast hurricanes and a domestic shortage brought on by the
national housing boom.
    The Chinese board was also cheaper. One homeowner told AP he
saved $1,000 by building his house with it instead of a domestic
product.
    In 2006, enough wallboard was imported from China to build some
34,000 homes of roughly 2,000 square feet each, according to AP’s
analysis of the shipping records and estimates supplied by the
nationwide drywall supplier United States Gypsum.
    Experts and advocates say many homes may have been built with a
mixture of Chinese and domestic drywall, potentially raising the
number of affected homes much higher.
    So far, the problem appears to be concentrated in the Southeast,
which blossomed with new construction during the housing boom and
where the damp climate appears to cause the gypsum in the building
material to degrade more quickly. In Florida alone, more than
35,000 homes may contain the product, experts said.
    In Louisiana, the state health department has received
complaints from at least 350 people in just a few weeks. Many of
the affected homeowners rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina only to
face the prospect of tearing down their houses and rebuilding
again.
    In another 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.
    Foreman warns of a “sleeping beast” in the thousands of
bank-owned condos and houses across the country, with no one in
them to complain.
    Outside the South, it’s harder to pinpoint the number of
affected homes. And in drier climates such as California and
Nevada, it may be years before homeowners begin to see - and smell
- what may be lurking inside their walls.
    The drywall furor is the latest in a series of scares over
potentially toxic imports from China. In 2007, Chinese authorities
ratcheted up inspections and tightened restrictions on exports
after manufacturers were found to have exported tainted cough
syrup, a toxic pet food ingredient and toys decorated with lead
paint.
    Scientists hope to understand the problem by studying the
chemicals in the board. Drywall consists of wide, flat boards used
to cover walls. It is often made from gypsum, a common mineral that
can be mined or manufactured from the byproducts of coal-fired
power plants.
    Plaintiffs in the lawsuits, as well as U.S. wallboard
manufacturers, say the tainted drywall was made with fly ash, a
residue of coal combustion more commonly used in concrete mixtures.
    Fly ash can be gathered before it ever reaches the smokestack,
where technology is used to remove sulfur dioxide from the
emissions. The process of “scrubbing” the smokestack emissions
creates calcium sulfate, or gypsum, which can then used to make
wallboard, experts say.
    Haldin, the Knaupf Tianjin spokesman, says some domestic drywall
is also made from the less-refined fly ash.
    But Michael Gardner, executive director of the U.S. Gypsum
Association, said American manufacturers gather the gypsum from the
smokestacks after the scrubbing, which produces a cleaner product.
    The Consumer Product Safety Commission has dispatched teams of
toxicologists, electrical engineers and other experts to Florida to
study the phenomenon. The commission is also working with the
Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention to determine whether there is a health hazard.
    A Florida Department of Health analysis found the Chinese
drywall emits “volatile sulfur compounds,“ and contains traces of
strontium sulfide, which can produce the rotten-egg odor and reacts
with air to corrode metals and wires.
    But the agency says on its Web site that it “has not identified
data suggesting an imminent or chronic health hazard at this
time.“
    “We’re continuing to test,“ said Susan Smith, a spokeswoman
for the department, which has logged 230 complaints from
homeowners.
    Dr. Patricia Williams, a University of New Orleans toxicologist
hired by a Louisiana law firm that represents plaintiffs in some of
the cases, said she has identified highly toxic compounds in the
drywall, including hydrogen sulfide, sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide
and carbon disulfide.
    Prolonged exposure to the compounds, especially high levels of
carbon disulfide, can cause breathing problems, chest pains and
even death; and can affect the nervous system, according to the
CDC.
    “It is absolutely shocking what is happening,“ Williams said.
    Dr. Phillip Goad, a toxicologist hired by Knaupf Plasterboard
Tianjin, sampled drywall from 25 homes, some that contained the
company’s wallboard and some that did not.
    “The studies we have performed to date have identified very low
levels of naturally occurring compounds,“ Goad said. “The levels
we have detected do not present a public health concern. The
chemicals are naturally occurring. They’re produced in ocean water,
in salt marsh air, in estuaries.“
    But those who are living with it are convinced that something is
making them sick, including dozens of homeowners in a single
subdivision in Parkland, about 50 miles north of Miami. They are
now faced with a daunting choice: Tear down and rebuild, or move
out and be stuck with a mortgage and a home they cannot sell.
    “We are particularly concerned about the safety and well-being
of our children,“ said Holly Krulik, who lives down the street
from Mary Ann Schultheis.
    She and her husband, Doug, are suffering sinus problems and
respiratory ailments, and their young daughter has repeated nose
bleeds.
    “If a shiny copper coil can turn absolutely black within a
matter of months, it certainly can’t be good for human beings,“
Krulik said.
    Neighbor John Willis is moving out, even though he can hardly
afford to walk away from a house he’s owned for just three years.
He cries as he speaks of his 3-year-old son’s respiratory
infection, which eventually required surgery.
    “They basically took out a substance that looked like rubber
cement out of my 3-year-old son’s sinuses,“ he said. “My wife and
I are now faced with the choice between our children’s health and
our financial health. My children are always going to win on
that.“
    The subdivision’s builder, WCI Communities, is in Chapter 11
bankruptcy restructuring and can do little more than log
complaints, said spokeswoman Connie Boyd.
    The federal government does not regulate the chemical
ingredients of imported drywall.
    Plasterboard Tianjin said it has been making drywall for 10
years in accordance with U.S. and international standards.
    Another Chinese company facing lawsuits, Taishan Gypsum Ltd.,
also insists that it meets all U.S. standards.
    Determining what is causing the problems could take months.
Researchers will try to recreate in a lab the conditions that
caused the sulfur compounds normally found in drywall to give off
noxious gases.
    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. She’s missed five weeks of
work just since Thanksgiving.
    “I’m just tired all the time,“ she said. “It doesn’t make
sense.“