PARKLAND, Fla. — 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 might 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 also is 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 walls around them are emitting smelly sulfur compounds that are poisoning their families and rendering their homes uninhabitable.
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 lawsuits.
So far, the problem appears to be concentrated in the Southeast, which blossomed with 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.
Outside the South, it’s harder to pinpoint the number of affected homes. And in drier climates such as California and Nevada, it might be years before homeowners begin to see — and smell — what may be lurking inside their walls.
