UPDATE: Is Chinese Drywall Radioactive?

Chinese customs reports and interviews with Chinese executives, reported that some Chinese manufacturers and trading firms exported drywall containing radioactive phosphorus waste to the United States in 2006.

The waste, called phosphogypsum or calcium sulfate, is produced when phosphate rock is processed into fertilizer. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said phosphogypsum contains high levels of uranium and radium-226, in some cases as much as 60 times more than the phosphate rock it came from. Because of that, the EPA has banned phosphogypsum’s use in construction since 1989.

But Chinese sources as saying that Chinese drywall manufacturers have been using the substance for at least a decade because it is cheap, widely available and not subject to government restrictions. An Internet search finds companies in Thailand and South Africa offering drywall made with phosphogypsum.

Chinese sources speculated the phosphogypsum was causing the foul odors, corroded air-conditioning coils and health problems reported by hundreds of homeowners in Florida and elsewhere. Most involve houses built during the 2004-06 housing boom, when Chinese drywall imports surged as domestic supplies dwindled.

But state health officials and independent experts are discounting the report, saying tests have found no evidence of phosphogypsum in Chinese drywall samples taken from Florida homes.

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UPDATE: EPA finds suspect materials in foreign drywall

The Environmental Protection Agency has found suspect materials in a small sampling of Chinese-made drywall, adding weight to fears that the house-building staple may be causing corrosion in homes and possibly sickening people in several states, a report released Tuesday said.

The EPA tested Chinese-made wallboard in two Florida homes and discovered sulfur and two organic compounds associated with acrylic paint, the report said. Those chemicals were not found in four samples of American-made drywall. Also, the agency said it found strontium at higher levels in the Chinese product than in U.S. wallboard. Strontium compounds are used in making ceramics, pyrotechnics, paint pigments, fluorescent lights and medicine.

Shipping records reviewed by The Associated Press indicated that imports of potentially tainted Chinese building materials exceeded 500 million pounds during a four-year period of soaring home prices, peaking in 2006. The drywall may have been used in more than 100,000 homes, according to some estimates, including houses rebuilt after 2005′s Hurricane Katrina.

The boards apparently cause a chemical reaction that gives off a rotten-egg stench that grows worse with heat and humidity and corrodes metal. Researchers do not know yet what causes it, but possible culprits include fumigants sprayed on the drywall and material inside it.

The EPA noted in the report that its two-home sample may not be representative of all drywall products. Also, the agency said the report was not done to see if there was a link between the Chinese drywall and “the conditions being observed in houses.”

UPDATE: Florida Attorney General Warning

Be aware of scams related to Chinese drywall about conducting bogus tests and offering to remove the corrosive properties from the drywall. In some cases, the so-called remedies being offered cost in the thousands of dollars.
Consumers who wish to file a complaint about these scams can call the attorney general’s fraud hotline at (866) 966-7226 or file a complaint online at http://myfloridalegal.com.

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What is Chinese Drywall?


  • Chinese drywall is made of waste from coal-fired plants. The material that wouldn’t burn was recycled into Chinese drywall instead of being taken to a landfill.
  • AMRC, an environmental engineering and testing company, says the problem is mainly in communities, not single family residences built on their own.
  • The drywall was used in 2004 and 2005 because there was a high demand for building materials at the time and this was available and cost-effective cheap.
  • You may not need to waste money on lab testing your drywall. If you go over the checklist below and suspect you have Chinese drywall, call an environmental testing company to come out and verify it. It can be verified for legal purposes without lab tests.
  • Health effects are not completely known at this time, there is not enough collected data on the actual chemical compounds to make a determination at this time.

How to Identify Chinese Drywall?

Checklist to Detect Chinese Drywall

  • Does your home have a strong smell (a sulfur or rotten egg-type smell)
  • Do you have corroded copper coils in your air conditioner or are the coils black?
  • Do you have KNAUF written on the back of your drywall? Go to your attic and look at the back side of the drywall for Knauf. This is the manufacturer’s ID, which identifies it as the drywall in question.
  • Chinese drywall is thinner and lighter than typical drywall

The chemicals residing in the wallboard in some cases can be so pervasive that as few as three or four sheets may be enough to contaminate an entire home to the point it could have to be torn down, The company that has been identified as manufacturing much of the tainted drywall is Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. Ltd. The parent company, Knauf Gips, is headquartered in Germany and has four manufacturing plants in China. Much of the toxic Chinese drywall is thought to have entered the U.S. during the construction boom starting in 2004 (possibly even earlier in 2001) when domestic materials were in short supply. Demand skyrocketed with the large amount of reconstruction following hurricanes Katrina and Wilma.

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Air Conditioner: Have you had repeated A/C problems? Have you replaced your evaporator coils?

What are the Health Issues with Chinese Drywall?

The components in Chinese Drywall are sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide, both of which morph into cyanide or sulfuric acid, and that would certainly explain upper respiratory problems people are having. It could punch holes in your lungs and give you COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or emphysema, and other lung related problems. The health implications are not completely known at this time but it does appear that as data is collected more problems will come to light.