None shall pass: Florida builders and the Not-So-Great Wall of China

Florida based home building giant Lennar is getting pulled deeper into the Chinese drywall hubbub partly engineered by limelight hungry politicians and cash hungry personal injury lawyers.

Here's the latest news. 

Lennar has established a fund to pay for drywall replacement, though its reassured shareholders insurance would step in were Chinese drywall to become a bigger problem.

A couple hundred homes have reported wire corrosion and sulphur odors from imported drywall. Lennar is replacing drywall free of charge in a few Tampa Bay area homes and paying for temporary homes for the residents. Based on the millions of pounds of Chinese gypsum board brought into the U.S. in 2006, the problem could be much more widespread.

But that doesn't justify all the fear mongering.  As you'll notice from the news link above, the story mentions the drywall being "toxic." I read the actual testing results released by Florida's chief toxicologist last month and IT'S SIMPLY NOT TRUE.

Smelly? Yes. Corrosive? In many cases. A major nuisance if you have to move? Indeed. But we're not talking asbestos clouds and Hiroshima fallout.

The state test results showed that American made sample of drywall actually had MORE SULPHUR than did one Chinese sample. And scientists had to heat and dampen the Chinese stuff to get it to put off an odor.

Here's another anecdote that shows how distorted the issue can become.  I talked to a man from Brandon who suspected he had Chinese drywall in his house. His daughter had a chronic sore throat and other respiratory problems. He was almost certain he was a victim. 

Guess what? A testing lab found no problem. It's on to antibiotics and lozenges. Don't tell that to the tort lawyers, though. Wouldn't want to stand between an Armani suit and his pay day.

Comments

[Fuzzy Bear]

The drywall issue is not good, but the recent FHFA report is much worse! The following are the top reasons for default and people not purchasing a home:

1. Curtailment of income (34.1 percent) ...this can be salary reduction or self-employed losing clients

2. Excessive obligations (19.8 percent)...i.e. too much personal debt

3. Unemployment (8.1 percent)

4. Illness (6.5 percent)

5. Marital difficulties (3.5 percent)

6. Chinese gypsum board (I added number 6 due to the article)

[Liz]

Coward. Deleting my comments. You know they're true then.

[Alex]

"an Armani suit and his pay day"

HA! I like that one.

[Liz]

Chinese Drywall is dangerous....

“But according to the Associated Press, the Centers for Disease Control says prolonged exposure to the compounds found in the drywall, especially high levels of carbon disulfide, can cause breathing problems, chest pains and even death; and can affect the nervous system.”

Source: http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/5591

Don't make light of this issue. It is wrecking people's lives. You are only correct in that class action is not a good alternative in ANY situation.

[CS]

It's easy to make light of something like this when the bulk of Americans' education about the legal system comes from "Judge Judy," TV cop & detective shows, and tort reform gobbledygook that is often republished as 'news' in mainstream media. In reality, the hassle of a legal problem is not worth it unless there are significant damages. The cost and disruption to one's life of major repairs, would not be undertaken lightly. Nor would suing over them, which mainly ADDS to the stress, with no guarantee of recovering your loss, even if you win. In reality, suing is often simply too expensive and impractical, and it's hard to find a lawyer who thinks your case is worth enough. Hence, class action lawsuits combine plaintiffs which makes the case economical feasible, but the court has to certify the case as a class action, it's not automatic upon wanting it. The requirements to be certified as a class are far more complex than just having a lot of plaintiffs. The class action is one way we can use the legal system to hold corporations accountable, when individual cases are not financially practical to puruse.

Also, arbitration clauses in most builder contracts and warranties prohibit home owners from suing at all. Instead, disputes are 'resolved' by private arbitration firms, usually specified in the contract/warranty. There is great chance for bias in these arrangments, where the industry does repeat business w/arbitrators. The private results hide many complaints. Only one state even requires awards in arbitration to be published, and an "win" for the homeowner can actually mean they were awarded a fraction of their actual damages.

As for the personal injury aspect of Chinese drywall, there is certainly some evidence out there that it could be harmful. The Centers for Disease Control is one source that says it can be. Any gas that can corrode metal is probably NOT something you want to be breathing much of. That's just common sense. And so far, we don't know that the sick kid in question above will respond to the antibiotics, or if it'll turn out her condition was caused by, or exacerbated by, the drywall's offgassing.

[James Thorner]

To Liz, I've deleted no comment of yours. I only delete obvious ads that have nothing to do with this site.

[Liz]

James- I apologize if you did not delete it. All i know is that I posted, refreshed the page and saw my original comment on there and later in the day it was no longer there. To summarize my original comment, I cannot believe that you would make light of this situation. I've been breathing this stuff for 2 years and was hospitalized for asthmatic bronchitis having never even a mild symptom before. The tests by FDOH even state that there is likely a cross-contamination that occurred between the drywalls collected. You have to really read the report carefully, to pick that up, but it's there.

To help educate further, I've gathered the compounds that have been named by various toxicologists (not just FDOH's report) to be contained within the Chinese Drywall and have matched them to specific information from the CDC's database on these compounds in terms of what they know the health risks to be. Feel free to cross-check these facts at your leisure. Here they are:

SULFUR DIOXIDE:
Exposure to very high levels of sulfur dioxide can be life threatening. Exposure to 100 parts of sulfur dioxide per million parts of air (100 ppm) is considered immediately dangerous to life and health. Burning of the nose and throat, breathing
difficulties, and severe airway obstructions occurred in miners who breathed sulfur dioxide released as a result of an explosion in a copper mine. Long-term exposure to persistent levels of sulfur dioxide can affect your health. Animal studies also show respiratory effects from breathing
sulfur dioxide. Animals exposed to high concentrations of sulfur dioxide showed decreased respiration, inflammation of the airways, and destruction of areas of the lung.

CARBON DISULFIDE:
At very high levels, carbon disulfide may be life-threatening because of its effects on the nervous system. People who breathed carbon disulfide near an accident involving a railroad car showed changes in breathing and some chest pains. Some workers who breathed high levels during working hours for at least 6 months had headaches, tiredness, and trouble sleeping. However, these workers may have been exposed to other chemicals besides carbon disulfide. Among workers who breathed lower levels, some developed very slight changes in their nerves.
Studies in animals indicate that carbon disulfide can affect
the normal functions of the brain, liver, and heart. After pregnant rats breathed carbon disulfide in the air, some of the newborn rats died or had birth defects. High concentrations of carbon disulfide have caused skin
burns when the chemical accidentally touched people's skin.

SULFURIC ACID:
Touching sulfuric acid will burn your skin, and breathing sulfuric acid can result in tooth erosion and respiratory tract irritation. Drinking sulfuric acid can burn your mouth, throat, and stomach; it can result in death. If you get sulfuric acid in
your eyes, it will cause your eyes to water and will burn.

HYDROGEN SULFIDE:
Exposure to low concentrations of hydrogen sulfide may cause irritation to the eyes, nose, or throat. It may also cause difficulty in breathing for some asthmatics. Brief exposures to high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (greater than 500 ppm)
can cause a loss of consciousness and possibly death. In most cases, the person appears to regain consciousness without any other effects. However, in many individuals, there may be permanent or long-term effects such as headaches, poor attention span, poor memory, and poor motor function. No health effects have been found in humans exposed to typical environmental concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (0.00011–0.00033 ppm). Scientists have little information about what happens when you are exposed to hydrogen sulfide by getting it on your skin, although they know that care must be taken with the compressed liquefied product to avoid frost bite.

[Joshua]

I agree with Liz. More and more people across Florida, and now a new case in North Carolina, should have any homeowner concerned. No person should be forced to wall themselves in such a toxic environment: http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/5712#more-5712