Federal regulators will soon be headed to Virginia to investigate the state’s Chinese drywall problem. According to WVEC.com, the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) is expected to be in the state in “a week or so” to test homes with Chinese drywall.
Virginia is just one of several states where homeowners have complained about Chinese drywall that fills homes with a putrid, “rotten-eggs” odor, causes metals to corrode, and leads to sinus and respiratory problems in people living with the material. The CPSC has been in Florida – where such reports first originated – testing drywall, but has not reached any conclusions about the health hazards posed by the wallboard. However, at a Senate hearing last week, CPSC toxicologist Lori Saltzman said that people living with the Chinese drywall in 16 states where problems had been reported did have common health symptoms. She also said that some CPSC investigators had experienced similar symptoms when visiting affected homes in Florida.
Several days before the Senate hearing, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released results of tests it conducted that compared Chinese drywall to American-made material. The tests found sulfur and two organic compounds associated with acrylic paint in the Chinese drywall that were not present in the American wallboard. The agency said more testing is needed to determine if any of the compounds found in the Chinese drywall are responsible for problems reported by homeowners.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the U.S. imported roughly 309 million square feet of drywall from China during the housing boom from 2004 to 2007. In Virginia, the construction supply firm Venture Supply has said it imported 100,000 sheets of China-made drywall between March 2006 and December 2008. According to a lawsuit filed by a group of Hampton Roads homeowners, some of that drywall made it into the 240-unit Harbor Walk condo complex in Norfolk.
One builder in Virginia, The Dragas Companies, has acknowledged some of the homes it built have been the subject of drywall complaints. As we’ve reported previously, the firm is inspecting nearly every home it built in The Hampshires at Greenbrier in Chesapeake and in Cromwell Park in Virginia Beach. Dragas is also paying to fix homes with imported drywall and helping residents relocate for a few months while the work is being done.
Last week’s Senate hearing was attended by Senator Mark Warner (D-VA). Though not a member of the subcommittee that convened the hearing, he was permitted to ask questions. According to hamptonroads.com, the Senator urged officials to publish information for homeowners on how to deal with the drywall while legal and regulatory agencies work on a resolution.
Warner also voiced concerns that the Chinese drywall problem could turn out to be much worse than first thought. “I fear that we’re just at the tip of an iceberg of what could be a… national disaster, that is both a health care disaster and for many families is going to be a financial disaster,” Warner said.
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May 26th, 2009 at 10:08 am
I am currently a homeowner living with Chinese drywall in my home. I know dragas companies are trying to take care of their problem. The only problem is there is no government protocol or industry protocol for remediation. That was concluded at the senate hearing last week. I believe the government needs to stop all remediation until a protocol is discovered or we might be doing all this twice. Also there needs to be update website for health on this issue since governments agents are getting sick from short term exposure. That was also a fact shared in the hearing.
May 27th, 2009 at 3:18 am
While I am glad that the CSPC is finally coming to test in Virginia BUT they need to go to other homes than those hand picked by a builder that wants to show the residents of the neighborhood that the problems are not that bad! They need to go to homes where the residents were the ones complaining loudly about the problems and are still living in the garbage!!! Shame on the CPSC for having blinders on! There were more than one shipment of this to this area to get a true across the board results they need to get samples from different homes in different areas! Come on common sense CPSC!