Shaw's Eco-Logic

A response from the Greens

It looks like we struck a nerve with at least one Greenie, on our recent Chinese drywall posting. Lloyd Alter, writing for treehugger.com protests that the Greens have not been ignoring the problem at all, and then cites three of his own articles, along with another that merely reports existing news. Forget for a moment that him citing himself, and one other treehugger posting, is hardly an unbiased survey of the Green blogosphere.

Perhaps he missed this, but the obvious point of my piece was that the usual suspect "Green" fear entrepreneurial fund-raising groups, such as NRDC, EWG, and US-PIRG have thrown none of their normal vitriol in the direction of Chinese drywall.

Alter is an architect, who does tend to comment on building issues, but even his postings lack the strident tone one would expect if the perp were, let's say, a chemical company. Alter is doing nothing more than reporting news that appeared elsewhere, and that was my point: Where is the outrage?

Rest assured that if NRDC, EWG, and US-PIRG saw the potential to raise money by harping on Chinese drywall, they would already have done it. But, there is no potential, since their donor base wants to see an evil American company as the perp. If not, there's no appeal. (pun intended)

A side issue is that the Greens loved the idea of removing manufacturing industry from our shores, in their simple minds, the perfect solution to achieve clean air and water. They hate to be reminded of the other consequence—besides job loss. That other consequence is importing polluted products from places like China.

Bacterial etiology of tainted drywall discussed in widely syndicated news article

Ace reporter Isaac Wolf, of Scripps Howard News Service, wrote an informative piece, that is starting to make the rounds, via the viral power of the Internet.

The article is entitled "Sulfur-generating bacteria may be the problem with Chinese drywall, scientists say," and it reflects an interview done at my office, along with comments by D. Douglas Hoffman, CEO of the National Organization of Remediators and Mold Inspectors.

We expect more data to be coming out soon, from our friends at ProLab and Sabre Environmental Services, as well as from Doug Hoffman. Keep checking this blog for updates.

Chinese drywall lawsuit is no panacea

People, desperate and looking for any answer to their problems with tainted drywall, are rejoicing over the mere announcement that Knauf Plasterboard (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. (KPT)—one of the Chinese drywall manufacturers involved in recent defective drywall complaints—has offered to accept service of process of an omnibus class action complaint. This will allow claimants with KPT drywall to consolidate their claims in one lawsuit against KPT.

All this means is that the litigation can proceed without worrying about going through the Hague Convention, which sets forth the method for the service of process abroad.

The Hague Convention for the Service of Process Abroad requires claimants to pay approximately $15,000 per lawsuit, which allows for the translation of legal documents into Chinese and to have them presented to the appropriate authorities in the Peoples Republic of China to obtain service on the Chinese drywall manufacturers.

The plaintiffs should understand that they have simply advanced to the stage whereby a would-be defendant says, "You don't like it, then sue me!" Real progress would be if KPT were to meet directly with affected homeowners, and offer to actually do something about their problems.

Nearly always, litigation is a substitute for doing the right thing, and this case is no exception.

The problem with any lawsuit against KPT is that the Chinese government will surely have something to say about it, and will likely delay any substantive settlement for a long time. Moreover, as the class increases in size, the recovery by the individual plaintiffs will be negligible. The lead attorneys will probably make some money, but even for them, nothing is assured in this type of action.

Clearly, the only answer is a government bailout, and fortunately for the homeowners, there is a very good precedent for this.

Utah senator Orrin Hatch created a lifetime seat for himself with the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA)—passed in 1990. RECA provides for money (typically $50,000) to be paid to victims of certain cancers, who simply have to prove that they lived in a list of counties during a particular time period. RECA was based on the completely fictitious notion that nuclear testing in the 1950s produced cancer in people who lived downwind of the blasts.

RECA has paid out over $1 billion so far, and has produced bountiful results for many Utah-based politicians. Few people know that since 1950, Utah has had one of the lowest cancer mortality rates in the country. Moreover, Washington County—supposedly ground zero for the fallout—has one of the lowest cancer mortality rates in the state.

I cite RECA as being a good precedent for tainted drywall affected homeowners because the payout criteria are extremely loose. Many people who lived in the affected counties in the 1950s, and got leukemia 50 years later (which by all rational medical analysis could have nothing to do with exposure so long ago), were cheerfully handed the big checks.

Thus, given the difficulty of really proving health effects, a RECA type approach could have wide-open criteria. KPT and others could be encouraged to donate to the victims fund, and that would save time and effort otherwise spent with pointless litigation.

The affected homeowners should lobby their senators, and beware of lawyers bearing gifts.

More on Chinese drywall

We follow-up last week's introductory Health News Digest piece on the topic, with one more; this one focuses on some new developments.

Since there are now at least two confirmed cases whereby "Chinese" symptoms have been identified in domestic drywall, the favored term has become "tainted drywall." Of course, domestic stuff so implicated is a very troubling finding, and no reasonable explanation has yet been proffered.

There are those who believe that sulfide-emitting drywall is ultimately caused by bacteria, and this etiology seems to make sense. Recent studies have shown that samples taken from tainted product will culture as much as 10,000 times more sulfate-reducing bacteria as non-affected drywall. Moreover, the observation that tainted drywall requires somewhat elevated temperatures and humidity to become problematical is what one would expect if he were growing bacteria.

If the cause IS bacterial, then remediation can be effected by treatment with chlorine dioxide, which has the additional property of removing the sulfide smell.

Read the whole article.

If you need an introduction to Chinese drywall

Check out my latest HND piece.

Some of the good guys involved with trying to solve this problem are...

Spiderman Mulholland and Michael Foreman.

The new ASTM work group has been formed, to develop a peer-reviewed protocol for home inspection--for Chinese drywall, and this will be followed by an accredited protocol for remediation. We will keep you up-to-date as to our progress right on this blog.

Chinese drywall not just from China anymore

A few more disturbing findings have come out of Florida in this continuing saga.

First, there was the Brincku video, in which domestically-marked National Gypsum product has been shown to cause the typical "Chinese" symptoms. Now, there is a story out of Clermont, FL implicating a Canadian Georgia-Pacific plant.

Let's see what the Gypsum Association has to say about these developments.

Interscan gets into the Chinese drywall situation

We at Interscan are now involved in the Chinese drywall situation. For those who are unfamiliar with this very big problem, refer here for a quick introduction.

Essentially, a host of issues have been linked to drywall manufacturered in China, imported into the US starting around 2005. There is no dispute that the drywall will emit certain toxic and corrosive gases (hydrogen sulfide, carbonyl sulfide, and others), which can corrode wiring and HVAC components, and can be unhealthful—especially to sensitive individuals.

A number of testing and remediation protocols are circulating, but at this point, none has been blessed by some learned institution. such "blessing" is necessary if banks and insurance companies are ever going to approve a remediation job. That's why I am on an ASTM committee that will be looking into this, and will be having its first meeting on the topic next week.

As in all residential toxic exposures, there will be malingerers and those who overreact. And, of course, there will be lawsuits, but it is unclear as to who should be the defendant—or better put, who would be the defendant most likely to pay off.

A most troubling aspect is that the gases will permeate out of the drywall, and can be absorbed by studs, concrete, and household goods. Sadly, the bulk of this situation is occurring in Florida, already hit with a stunning drop in real estate values, and tainted homes make it even worse.

Some contractors are claiming excellent results with their remediation methods, but these procedures are very expensive, and are not covered by any insurance. More than that, most odor-laden household goods will either have to be separately treated or simply discarded.

The posture of government is frankly not encouraging, since they fear that a huge bailout is in the making. Therefore, they are hyper-analyzing the situation in terms of testing the materials, but have done precious little testing of affected homes. There have been several photo op visits by government officials to affected homes, however.

Where Interscan comes in is that any "clearance" of a house for re-occupancy will involve gas detection.

A solution may be at hand in terms of chlorine dioxide treatment—similar to what was used on anthrax-contaminated buildings. We will keep you informed.