Recently, there have been reports of yet another dangerous and defective product from China – drywall.
Toxic drywall has been popping up all over Florida in new homes and housing repairs. This drywall, produced primarily by Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin (KPT), has been corroding wires, pipes and air conditioning units as well as causing homeowners headaches, chest tightness and irritation to eyes, nose and throat.
Just this week, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), responding to constituent's complaints, formerly requested that the Consumer Products Safety Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency investigate homeowner's complaints. He also called for stricter federal standards on imported Chinese drywall.
Both federal and state environmental agencies are currently testing the drywall to determine the exact cause of the toxicity, but none of the suspect chemicals belong in drywall.
The choices are sulfur, which turns into sulfuric acid when mixed with humid air; magnesium oxide, which is released in toxic form when exposed to humidity or heat; and fly ash residue, a by-product from Chinese power plants.
In addition to toxic drywall dust, lawsuits are also beginning to fly. A Bonita Springs, Florida law firm has commenced a class action suit against KPT and its U.S. distributor. Lennar Homes, the second largest homebuilder in the nation, has also filed suit against KPT.
Lennar, already trying to weather an economic downturn and keep its workers employed, has so far borne the brunt of the bad drywall infestation. The company is on the hook for replacing the Chinese drywall in many of its new homes and is bearing the cost for many homeowners whose physical symptoms were severe enough that they were forced to move out of their homes and into hotels or apartments.
As more toxic drywall pops up in other states – reports from eleven so far, including Virginia, Texas, Arizona and Louisiana – trial lawyers are starting to solicit lawsuit clients.
And realtors in Florida are even starting to add drywall checks to their sales disclosure forms.
With property values dropping, home sales plummeting and people losing jobs, the last thing that homeowners and builders need is a big drywall stick in the eye from reckless Chinese manufacturers.
Drywall is not the only defective building material China exports. Defective Chinese steel tubing had to be replaced in mid-construction last year at a high school gym in California; New Zealand and the Philippines have discovered defective Chinese cement in some of their infrastructure projects; and there have been reports of flawed Chinese tempered glass and rebar overseas and in the U.S.
In light of the recent "Buy America" provisions in the stimulus bill signed into law this week, it seems helpful to note the added benefits of sourcing domestically. Namely, If WE make it, it won't fall down.
A postscript: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced that it will investigate complaints about Chinese-made drywall.
Kerri Houston Toloczko is a senior analyst at the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a non-partisan partnership of several leading U.S. manufacturers and the United Steelworkers.
