NORFOLK, Va. – The alleged faulty Chinese drywall crisis has hit all parts of the country, leading to class action lawsuits. It’s estimated between 60,000 and 100,000 homes nationwide may contain the tainted drywall.

A class action lawsuit claims the drywall has a sulfur smell that emits a “rotten egg” smell, and that the drywall ruins electrical systems, causes health problems, and in the end, ruins property values.

But what exactly is in the drywall that causes all these alleged problems?

To find out what is in the drywall WAVY.com took our investigation to a chemistry lab at Old Dominion University.

“This is a sample of the Chinese drywall,” WAVY.com said to Dr. Greg Cutter who specializes in measuring low levels of hydrogen sulfide – a chemical that smells like rotten eggs.

That Chinese drywall came from Sam Porter’s warehouse in Norfolk. He imported 100,000 sheets from China and most of it still remains because people claim they smell rotten eggs in the drywall. He says he can’t sell it and still has 65,000 sheets of it. Sam Porter says he can’t smell any rotten eggs, which has been confirmed; WAVY.com couldn’t smell it either.

“I don’t smell it. You would think with all this drywall I would smell it…I don’t smell anything,” Porter says.

The Dragas Companies – now replacing drywall in scores of homes that had it installed between March 2006 and the end of 2008 even though Dragas Chief Operating Officer John Buckley can’t smell the rotten eggs either.

“It doesn’t smell like rotten eggs. That’s a fallacy.”

The Dragas Company’s replacing the drywall because of the possibility the drywall corrodes copper coils in air conditioning units. The company also fears bad public relations and due to the class action lawsuit, which Dragas is not included in.

Lisa Dunaway’s Franklin home was built with Sam Porter’s Chinese drywall.

“There were times when I’d tell my husband when I got out of the shower, that I smelled something,” Dunaway said. She could not, however, describe it as a “rotten egg” smell.

WAVY.com wanted to know exactly how much of the stinking hydrogen sulfide is in the Chinese drywall?

Dr. Cutter and ODU Graduate student Carie Lingle ground up some samples of the Chinese drywall and tested it in a gas chromatograph, which will isolate the amount of hydrogen sulfide in the drywall. The test is too complicated to detail for you, but in the end there was indeed hydrogen sulfide in the Chinese drywall, however only a miniscule amount.

“The amount is in parts, per trillion, which you would never be able to detect with your nose,” Cutter said.

We also gave Cutter and Lingle some US drywall. WAVY.com found the US Drywall had .2 parts per million hydrogen sulfide, while the Chinese drywall had almost 10 times that. That’s an amount that can be smelled, but only when mixed with an acid. Cutter is puzzled, even befuddled why acid like hydrochloric acid would be mixed with drywall?

“I can’t tell you that, but they can’t smell it at that level. It is impossible.”

As far as it being a health risk – The Chesapeake Health Department is monitoring the health risks. Dr. Nancy Welch says so far her investigation shows no evidence the drywall is medically harmful.

If you actually have this rotten egg smell in your home, email Andy Fox at andy.fox@wavy.com. He will continue to investigate.

…Source