More results of Chinese drywall testing conducted as part of the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission’s (CPSC) massive investigation are expected to be released next week. The highly anticipated report will arrive just days before an important lawsuit deadline arrives for some Chinese drywall homeowners.

The next round of test results will address the corrosion of copper wires and other metals in homes with Chinese drywall – whether this is being caused by fumes from the wallboard, and whether the corrosion of wiring poses a fire hazard. The CPSC is also expected to release results of tests done on indoor-air samples collected from about 50 U.S. homes with Chinese drywall. (more…)

A Chinese drywall bill just introduced in the U.S. Congress would prohibit insurers from dropping or changing policies on homes built with tainted Chinese drywall. According to The Bradenton Herald, the Chinese drywall insurance bill is being sponsored by Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La.

The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has received about 1,897 reports from residents in 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico concerning Chinese drywall. Gases emitted from Chinese drywall are being blamed for significant property damage, including damage to HVAC systems, smoke detectors, electrical wiring, metal plumbing components, and other household appliances. These gases also produce a sulfurous odor that permeates homes, and cause metals, including air conditioning coils and even jewelry, to corrode. (more…)

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is stating that most of the coal ash “deemed critical” following last year’s historic spill, has been cleaned up, said WDEF. The authority said some two-thirds of the “critical” spill has been cleaned out of the Emory River

The catastrophic fly ash spill took place last December and released an unimaginable 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic coal sludge, dumping toxins into Tennessee’s Emory and Clinch rivers and the 300 acres surrounding the TVA’s Kingston plant. An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report states that some “potentially toxic pollutants,” such as mercury and arsenic, found in coal ash, could present serious problems. (more…)

A norovirus outbreak has ruined more than one cruise vacation. Now a new study suggests that keeping public restrooms on cruse ships clean could go a long way in preventing norovirus among passengers and crew.

Unfortunately, the study, which was published in the journal “Clinical Infections Diseases” found that public bathrooms on cruise ships are not being cleaned properly. What’s more, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which runs a cruise ship sanitation program, is not doing a very good job of detecting the dirty cruise ship bathrooms. (more…)

Phthalates, chemicals that enable flexibility in plastics and vinyls, are again, being linked to adverse health outcomes, this time in boys. According to WebMD, women exposed to high phthalate levels during pregnancy may give birth to boys who express behaviors that are less typically masculine.

For instance, said WebMD, boys born by women who were exposed to high phthalate levels, tend to play less with “trucks and other male-typical toys or to play fight,” citing an emerging study. Phthalates are known in testing to cause reproductive disturbances such as decreased sperm count, infertility, and reproductive tract malformations. (more…)

Communities around the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester, NY have higher-than-normal rates of thyroid cancer, according to a study released Monday. The study found that rates of thyroid cancer in the four counties surrounding the Indian Point nuclear plant – Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester – were the highest in New York state, and among the highest in the United States.

The Indian Point nuclear power plant is located just north of New York City. The two nuclear reactors there went online in1973 and 1976. The plant, originally run by Consolidated Edison, is now owned and operated by Louisiana-based Entergy, a $13 billion company which runs nuclear plants in four other states. Entergy is awaiting renewal of the licenses for Indian Point’s two reactors, one of which expires in 2013 and the other in 2015. (more…)

The number of firms offering Chinese drywall “solutions” has exploded in recent months, prompting a group of U.S. Senators to ask the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to crack down on such scams. It’s important to remember that no Chinese drywall remediation or testing protocols have been established as yet, so any claims that a particular company has found a fix for the Chinese drywall problem are questionable at best.

In a letter to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, Senators Mary Landrieu, (D-La), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), David Vitter (R-La.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.), raised concerns about deceptive practices that prey on consumers with defective drywall and asked the Commission to fully investigate and prosecute companies engaging in these activities. (more…)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just notified about 30 manufacturers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages that it intends to look into the safety and legality of their products.

“The increasing popularity of consumption of caffeinated alcoholic beverages by college students and reports of potential health and safety issues necessitates that we look seriously at the scientific evidence as soon as possible,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs. According to the FDA, of the combined use of caffeine and alcohol among U.S. college students in the few studies on this topic, the prevalence was as high as 26 percent. (more…)

The Chinese drywall crisis, and the litigation surrounding it, is set to enter a new phase this month. With potential plaintiffs in Chinese drywall lawsuits facing an important deadline in a few weeks, a federal judge will soon be scheduling the first lawsuits for trial. And in the coming weeks, federal investigators should know more about the what, if any, safety hazards, the corrosion blamed on Chinese drywall fumes may pose.

By December 2, any Chinese drywall victim whose home was built with wallboard made by Knauf Plasterboard (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. needs to join the omnibus Chinese drywall lawsuit against the company that will be filed on December 9. Knauf has agreed to waive its rights under The Hague Convention for the Service of Process Abroad for homeowners who sign on to this lawsuit by the deadline. The December 2 deadline is a hard deadline, and the omnibus complaint will not be amended at a later date to add more people. Claimants will also face a second deadline – December 14 – by which time they must have filled out a profile form. (more…)

Dow Jones News just broke with information regarding blood supplied by the American Red Cross. It seems that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it discovered what it described as “widespread and persistent problems with the storage and distribution” of blood supplied by the Red Cross.

The agency investigation, which took place last year, revealed a substantial amount of violations. According to Dow Jones, over 200 significant violations were discovered at 12 Red Cross facilities nationwide. The data is part of a report posted to the FDA’s Web site. (more…)