Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Will The Domestic Gypsum Wallboard Manufacturers Finally Break Their Silence?
Health News Digest columnist Michael D. Shaw wraps up 2010 with a hard-hitting piece on the emerging problem of tainted and corrosive American drywall. Although this phenomenon had been publicized back in April, 2009, via the miseries experienced by Florida homeowners George and Brenda Brincku, the American-spawned version of "Chinese drywall" has been largely ignored.
"Not anymore," says Shaw. "Within 2010, nearly 100 homeowners in four states have joined lawsuits against American wallboard manufacturers, claiming that their products are releasing sufficient volatile sulfur compounds to corrode wiring and appliances and cause headaches, nosebleeds, labored breathing, and irritated eyes. These, of course, are the familiar complaints that have been associated with Chinese drywall."
How did this American-made board get contaminated? Shaw notes that many theories have been proffered, the weakest of which ties it into so-called Flue Gas Desulfurization or FGD gypsum, produced in pollution-control efforts. The FGD connection is highly unlikely, he says, given the chemistry of the process. For FGD gypsum to be created, oxidation all the way to calcium sulfate (gypsum) is occurring, minimizing the possibility that volatile sulfur compounds (sulfides) could be produced.
Moreover, nearly half of all American drywall is made this way, and FGD gypsum drywall has been around for quite awhile, with no previously reported tainted and corrosive issues.
Shaw takes no prisoners regarding the silence of the domestic gypsum industry and their trade association. "Now that some of their own companies have been implicated in this mess, will they finally speak up?"
Shaw also takes aim at clueless plaintiff's attorneys and their so-called experts. "There is only one 100 percent guaranteed definitive test for tainted and corrosive drywall, and that is the chamber method. Yet, these self-styled 'experts' are performing a variety of pointless studies in the homes of their clients, racking up big charges, and not much else."
"It is a disgrace that virtually every authority or entity that could actually do something about this matter has been silent," says Shaw. They're AWOL on drywall."