Fort Myers – A duplex in the Bell Tower Park community will be covered with a tent and pumped full of chlorine dioxide today in a bold attempt to cure it of the noxious gases emitted by the Chinese drywall inside.

But scientists, builders, lawyers and residents are asking if the would-be solution will actually solve the problem – and in the process save billions of dollars nationwide by removing the need to rip the offending drywall out of the walls.

The field test, which will be conducted by Singerlands, N.Y-based Sabre Technical Services, is based on the theory that bacteria in the paper of Chinese drywall react with the gypsum core to emit sulfuric gas that corrode air-conditioning coils and other metal and causes the air to smell.

“If the process works, it could be a huge breakthrough,” said Bob Hensley, president of developer Grosse Pointe Development. “Our biggest concern is that we don’t move people back into a situation that’s going to come back again.”

Of the project’s 478 units, 29 are believed to have Chinese drywall, Hensley said.

He said Grosse Pointe intends to do the right thing.

The field test will be monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency and a third-party consultant, and if it isn’t clear the problem is cleared up permanently, Hensley said he’ll order more drastic measures.

“I’d rather rip everything out and deal with it by knowing it’s not going to be a problem in the future,” he said.

Karen Cavanagh, chief operating officer of Sabre, said the company’s experiments so far indicate the procedure will work.

“Based upon our past experience, the penetrability of chlorine dioxide gas through drywall and into wall cavities should remedy the problem and we’re confident that the field test will verify our lab test data,” Cavanagh said in an e-mail Thursday. “We expect to have final results in about a month.”

But not everyone is as confident.

Doug Hoffman, executive director of the National Organization of Remediators and Mold Inspectors, said his organization’s research shows that “there is some evidence this may have a biological formation,” although it’s also possible the problem is caused by a chemical reaction that isn’t caused by bacteria.

Besides, Hoffman said, even if it is bacteria and a house tests clean, “What guarantee is there that a week later it won’t start again? You can’t fog everything with chlorine dioxide and assume it’s going to fix the thing.”

Fort Myers attorney Scott Weinstein of Morgan & Morgan, which represents some drywall victims, said he’s not sure bacteria are to blame.

He points to a study done for the state by Unified Engineering of Aurora, Ill., which concluded that chemical reactions caused by impurities in the defective drywall are the source of the problem.

Meanwhile, residents of Bell Tower Park are waiting apprehensively to see what the test shows.

“It seems to me that kind of documentation will take a good long time, maybe on the order of years, to determine if it’s a permanent fix,” said Dr. William West, who lives across the street from where today’s field test will take place.

Resident Trude Neill said she credits Grosse Pointe for providing other units for residents such as her to live in while the Chinese drywall problem is resolved in their homes.

But Neill’s not sure the chlorine gas treatment will remove the Chinese drywall stigma. Without the assurance of actually tearing out the bad drywall, “Who would buy a house?” Neill asked.

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