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CHALMETTE, La. – Thomas Stone and his wife rebuilt their home after it was flooded by 6 feet of water during Hurricane Katrina, never dreaming they would face the agony of tearing it apart all over again.
They tapped Lauren Stone’s 401(k) retirement savings and saved $1,000 by installing Chinese-made drywall throughout their two-story home. Now the Stones are among hundreds of Katrina victims facing another, this time unnatural, disaster.
Sulfur-emitting wallboard from China is wreaking havoc in homes, charring electrical wires, eating away at jewelry, silverware and other valuables, and possibly even sickening families.
“The bathroom upstairs has a corroded shower head, the door hinges are rusting out,” said Thomas Stone, 50, the fire chief of St. Bernard Parish, outside New Orleans.
And there’s the stench, like rotten eggs, that gets worse with the heat and humidity.
“It makes me wish there would be another flood to wash it out,” said Lauren Stone, 49.
Chinese manufacturers flooded the U.S. market with more than 500 million pounds of drywall about the same time Katrina was flooding New Orleans, a review of shipping records has found.
Researchers do not know what causes the stench and corrosion, but culprits may 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.
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.
The U.S. Product Consumer Safety Commission is and a number of states are investigating the problem.
