The Health Threats Of Chinese Drywall

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On Friday, Feb. 5, 2010, I spoke with construction guru Mike Foreman of ConstructionGuru.com about tainted drywall that's causing thousands of people (mainly in Florida) serious health problems:

Lev: “What is Chinese drywall?”
Mike: “It’s a gypsum-based product commonly known as drywall. It’s manufactured under a process that allows it to meet an ASTM 1396 standard.
“Chinese drywall is a product manufactured in China with some contaminants in it that are out-gassing different gases such as hydrogen sulfide, carbonal sulfide, etc. It’s eating up copper components and affecting galvanized components. There are also products sold in the United States as though it were made in the United States under a different label. You can’t always say that this contaminated drywall is Chinese drywall. That term has been abused. I’m not fond of all the problems we’re having from products sent to us from China but in this case the bulk is coming from China, but not all of it. I prefer the terms ‘tainted’ or ‘corrosive’ drywall rather than ‘Chinese drywall.’”
Lev: “When did this tainted drywall become a big deal?”
Mike: “It became apparent to me in August of 2008 when I started getting phone calls from lawyers and clients. I’m a forensic consultant. We specialize in construction issues.
“It piqued my interest after I went to about 25 houses. I was opening up the air conditioning units and scratching my head and thinking, ‘I can’t believe this developer is using used units.’ That’s how bad they looked. They looked 16-18 years old. According to the owner, they were 12-24 months old. I checked the equipment and sure enough, it was 18-24 months old.
“By the end of 2008, I had analyzed about 100 homes and tried to figure out what the common element was. I finally realized that the drywall was the only thing that was common in the houses. That’s when I started doing a lot of research.”

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