Tainted drywall causes problems in Katrina homes
Güncelleme Tarihi:
The Associated Press
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Nisan 14, 2009 00:00
CHALMETTE, Louisiana - Thomas Stone and his wife rebuilt after their home was flooded by 2 meters of water during Hurricane Katrina, never dreaming they would face the agony of tearing it apart all over again.
They tapped Lauren Stone's retirement savings and saved $1,000 by installing Chinese-made drywall throughout their two-story home after the 2005 storm. 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 50-year-old Thomas Stone, the longtime fire chief of St. Bernard Parish, outside New Orleans. And then there's the stench, like rotten eggs, that seems to get worse with the heat and humidity.
"It makes me wish there would be another flood to wash it out," said his wife Lauren, 49.
Chinese manufacturers flooded the U.S. market with more than 227 million kilograms of drywall around the same time Katrina was flooding New Orleans, an Associated Press review of shipping records has found.
The boom in imported China-made building materials peaked in 2006, driven by domestic shortages created by the nationwide construction boom, as well as a series of Gulf Coast hurricanes.
That year, enough wallboard was imported from China to build some 34,000 homes of roughly 186 square meters each, according to the AP's analysis and estimates supplied by the nationwide drywall supplier United States Gypsum. But experts and advocates say many homes may have been built with a mixture of Chinese and domestic drywall - which could push the number of affected homes to 100,000 or more, by some estimates.
The drywall apparently causes a chemical reaction that gives off the rotten-egg stench and corrodes metal. Researchers do not know yet what causes it, 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.
The U.S. Product Consumer Safety Commission and a number of states are investigating the extent of the problem, what's causing it, and whether it poses serious health risks. But it could be years before the full extent of the problem is known. Meanwhile, the humid and warm climate of the U.S. South has meant the impact is being felt here first - at least 350 people in Louisiana have already complained to the state health department in yet another unexpected twist for hurricane victims who have lived through more than three years of hardship.
"We've been through the storms, we heard about the formaldehyde," Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals spokesman Renne Milligan said, referring to a previous housing nightmare in which tests showed elevated levels of formaldehyde in hundreds of trailers issued by the federal government.
"Some of our residents are still living through that, and now we're talking about this drywall," Milligan said. Governors in Louisiana and Florida are asking for federal assistance, and members of Congress are calling for a recall and a ban on future imports.
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 50-year-old Thomas Stone, the longtime fire chief of St. Bernard Parish, outside New Orleans. And then there's the stench, like rotten eggs, that seems to get worse with the heat and humidity.
"It makes me wish there would be another flood to wash it out," said his wife Lauren, 49.
Chinese manufacturers flooded the U.S. market with more than 227 million kilograms of drywall around the same time Katrina was flooding New Orleans, an Associated Press review of shipping records has found.
The boom in imported China-made building materials peaked in 2006, driven by domestic shortages created by the nationwide construction boom, as well as a series of Gulf Coast hurricanes.
That year, enough wallboard was imported from China to build some 34,000 homes of roughly 186 square meters each, according to the AP's analysis and estimates supplied by the nationwide drywall supplier United States Gypsum. But experts and advocates say many homes may have been built with a mixture of Chinese and domestic drywall - which could push the number of affected homes to 100,000 or more, by some estimates.
The drywall apparently causes a chemical reaction that gives off the rotten-egg stench and corrodes metal. Researchers do not know yet what causes it, 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.
The U.S. Product Consumer Safety Commission and a number of states are investigating the extent of the problem, what's causing it, and whether it poses serious health risks. But it could be years before the full extent of the problem is known. Meanwhile, the humid and warm climate of the U.S. South has meant the impact is being felt here first - at least 350 people in Louisiana have already complained to the state health department in yet another unexpected twist for hurricane victims who have lived through more than three years of hardship.
"We've been through the storms, we heard about the formaldehyde," Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals spokesman Renne Milligan said, referring to a previous housing nightmare in which tests showed elevated levels of formaldehyde in hundreds of trailers issued by the federal government.
"Some of our residents are still living through that, and now we're talking about this drywall," Milligan said. Governors in Louisiana and Florida are asking for federal assistance, and members of Congress are calling for a recall and a ban on future imports.