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When it comes to drywall, Candace Imbody knows her stuff – that ubiquitous, nondescript stuff that makes up the interior walls and ceilings of buildings.
You know, the stuff that’s routinely ignored until it sprouts a leak, needs new paint or gets in the way of a kitchen renovation.
Imbody is a partner at Construction Recycling Solutions in Fort Wayne, a company that recycles thousands of tons of drywall every year.
And now, she says, there might be a reason not to ignore drywall – a growing concern over imported Chinese drywall that homeowners tie to problems with their houses and health.
The problems apparently started, Imbody says, when demand for drywall soared after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and American companies were unable to keep up. Imported drywall from China flooded the market, and it is believed that more than 500 million pounds were nailed into 60,000 to more than 100,000 homes.
“The problem,” Imbody says, “is the gypsum (a drywall component) that they mine in China has a high sulfur content, and the sulfur (emits gas).”
While that might seem insignificant, the gas has a persistent odor reminiscent of rotten eggs that permeates the inside of homes. In addition, when the gas comes into contact with heat and moisture, it turns into an acid that can blacken and eat away at metals such as copper plumbing lines, air-conditioning coils, electrical wiring and computer and appliance circuitry.
Homeowners say the damage can render the items non-functional or unsafe. They have complained of becoming ill, with breathing difficulties, sinus problems, nosebleeds, dizziness, headaches, eye and skin irritation, coughing, asthma and joint pain.
So far, Imbody says, most of the affected structures are believed to be in Florida and other Southeastern states where hurricane rebuilding was common. She says she hasn’t heard of Chinese drywall being a problem in Indiana, nor has she noted an increase in the amount of drywall being recycled, which might be an indicator of problem drywall being ripped out.
Tom Cordes, president of Cordes Drywall Co. in Fort Wayne, a drywall installer, also thinks the presence of Chinese drywall here is unlikely.
“To my knowledge, there is none around here,” he says. “I’ve never heard of it, and I would kind of doubt it because most of the stuff we have here is made nearby, in central Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.”
Molly Butters, spokeswoman for the Indiana attorney general’s office, says state consumer-protection officials have had no complaints.
“This has not been a problem that we have seen,” she says.
But whether that’s reason for a sigh or relief or to keep fingers crossed is anybody’s guess, say those trying to alert the public to a possible hazard lurking in their wallboard.
“Oh, baloney. It’s there. It’s in Indiana. We’re going to find it in every state,” M. Thomas Martin says when told of comments that Chinese drywall wasn’t a problem in the state.
Martin is president of America’s Watchdog, a Washington, D.C.-based, for-profit consulting firm that operates a complaint center for drywall concerns. Martin says he got a call late last month from an Indianapolis-area resident who described symptoms likely related to Chinese drywall. He’s following up on the call.
“Anywhere there’s been a recent boom in construction, like Indianapolis, there’s likely to be some,” Martin says.
In any case, a nationwide firestorm has been set off by the situation.
The Florida Department of Health has launched an investigation into Chinese drywall’s health effects. In five states – Florida, California, Louisiana, Virginia and Alabama – the material has become the subject of class-action lawsuits and lawsuits by builders against suppliers. The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission has started its own investigation, and the Florida attorney general’s office is looking into civil charges against suppliers.
Late last month, the EPA issued long-awaited results of tests showing that samples of Chinese drywall were indeed different from samples of American-made drywall.
The test results confirmed the Chinese products contained sulfur that wasn’t in samples of U.S.-made drywall. The results also confirmed strontium levels 10 times as high as the U.S. samples and the presence of two other organic compounds generally found in acrylic paint not found in the U.S. samples.
Strontium is a material similar to calcium but is more highly reactive with water and oxidizes quickly in air. It can be a respiratory irritant, according to its Materials Safety Data Sheet.
The study indicated the emissions could be tied to the corrosion problems but stopped short of linking health effects.
Martin says the most frustrating thing about the drywall issue is a virtual mountain of unknowns:
Where are the affected properties? More than half the Chinese drywall, enough to build an estimated 36,000 homes, are known to have been imported to Florida, according to the Port Import Export Reporting Service, which compiles boat- and ship-based import/export records.
But that source lists imports to 11 other East Coast, West Coast and Gulf Coast states. There is no tracking of drywall shipments, Martin says, so the material could have been dispersed nationwide.
A fact sheet posted on the product safety commission’s Web site in late April, the most recent information available, says 365 reports have come from Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Washington, Wyoming, Arizona, Tennessee and the District of Columbia. That’s in addition to the five states where lawsuits have been filed.
Martin says he’s aware of cases or suspected cases in Nevada, Texas, Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Connecticut and Maryland.
Are only new homes affected? Martin says many affected homes are new construction, but some are older ones that got their drywall from storm-related reconstruction or simple remodeling. It all depends on the builder or the builder’s supplier at a given time. Commercial buildings might also contain Chinese drywall.
Are all suspect products off the market? While some say they are, others say products linger, sometimes at deeply discounted prices, and others believe some are still being shipped, Martin says. There’s no law against importation, and there’s been no recall issued by federal consumer protection authorities, he says. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., recently called for a federal recall and ban on importation of defective drywall.
Is there a date before which homes can be considered safe? Most complaints have come from construction from 2006 on, Martin says, but there are reports of problems with homes that pre-date Hurricane Katrina.
Can you tell by looking at the label if a piece of drywall is from China? In some cases, there is no label, Martin says; in others, the drywall has borne the label of well-known manufacturers. Some Chinese drywall has code numbers and letters while others simply say “Made in China,” he says.
Knauf, a German-owned drywall seller, has acknowledged the use of Chinese drywall in a lawsuit filed against itthat the problem was traced to one mine in China and stopped in 2006.
But it’s not inconceivable that some U.S. companies have “off-sourced” drywall to China but marking it with their own label, Martin says.
Is it only Chinese drywall that’s the problem? A new wrinkle came in late April when a Florida couple filed a class-action lawsuit against Georgia-Pacific Gypsum drywall maker and 84 Lumber. The suit suggests that American-made, GP-branded drywall sold by 84 Lumber was causing the same problems Chinese drywall is alleged to have produced. The lawsuit argues that the process used to create synthetic gypsum used in much American-made drywall – touted as environmentally friendly – contains so much sulfur that it can produce problems.
Who is legally responsible? While some builders have made good on suspected problems, some homeowners are suing builders, builders are suing suppliers, and there are indications insurance companies are feuding over who should pay claims, Martin says.
“This stuff will take forever to punch out in court,” he says.
Simon Hahessy, environmental director for AirMD, an indoor environmental testing company in Boca Raton, Fla., that evaluats drywall problems, says assessing potential drywall hazards is hampered by a lack of standards.
“Right now there are no laws, there are no protocols associated with or addressing the (safety) issues,” he says, adding the EPA is working on standards for testing air quality in homes with Chinese drywall. In May, agency officials said standards might be ready by the end of June.
Hahessy says Florida health officials are looking at only the effects of short-term exposure. The long-term effects or health risks for workers who cut, install, paint or rip out the drywall are unknown.
Florida environmental officials are also looking into whether it is safe to recycle Chinese drywall or put it into landfills.
“My impression, is that when it comes to what I do, the extra sulfur isn’t going to make any difference, because (the drywall) is pulverized and goes back into the ground as a (fertilizer) or it goes into a process for recycling into new (drywall) material,” Imbody says.
But, she adds, “It could have an adverse effect in a landfill” through leachate, especially if a landfill is not lined.
Meanwhile, ripple effects stretch into the home-inspection industry, says Kevin Schieferstein, owner of Inspect-It in Fort Wayne.
He, like four other home inspectors contacted by The Journal Gazette, says he doesn’t know of any Chinese drywall in local properties he’s inspected. But then again, he says, it’s something home inspectors haven’t routinely looked for, and it would be difficult to do without ripping out drywall.
But he recently was asked to check for Chinese drywall in inspections for a client who runs a large relocation service, so the issue might be rising.
“It would be a major issue if your whole house was covered with it,” Schieferstein says. “It could be serious or it could be a lot about nothing.
“It could be one of those things that turn up in one little area and everyone panics, I don’t know. Nobody knows.”
