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The federal government has launched a new section of its web site called the Drywall Information Center. The agency developed the section in an effort to field consumer questions and complaints about the influx of tainted Chinese-made drywall to the U.S. that occurred in 2006 and 2007 when domestic drywall supplies ran low.
Concussions, injuries that fall on the mild side of the traumatic brain injury (TBI) scale, are receiving significantly more consideration these days than ever before, thanks to studies that probe and attempt to grasp the often elusive nature of TBI.
In the 1970s, a blockbuster movie popularized the apocalyptic theory that radioactive material from a nuclear meltdown could burn through the earth’s core and resurface on the other side of the world. Today, the words “China Syndrome” could be an accurate description of the influx of dangerous consumer products flooding the U.S. market from overseas and China in particular – products such as toxic Chinese drywall, which builders and suppliers imported during the 2006-2007 building boom and post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction efforts. These products, analysts are coming to understand, threaten to harm more than the American consumer and his wallet.
Your 18-month toddler chases after a ball and hits her head on the edge of a table, knocking her to the ground. A softball hits your 12-year old athlete in the head, leaving a noticeable welt. Both of these seem like minor, albeit painful injuries, but you’ve seen reports on television and online that some seemingly innocuous bumps and minor concussions can lead to a deadly traumatic brain injury. What should you do?
Recent studies conducted in various laboratories around the world have yielded some disturbing findings that the “inert” ingredients found in common pesticides and herbicides are not as harmless as they were once thought to be. New evidence that emerged recently from studies conducted by the University of Caen in France suggest one ingredient in Roundup, a popular herbicide manufactured by Monsanto of St. Louis, Missouri, can damage and kill human cells. Polyethoxylated tallowamine (POEA), an “inert” ingredient in Roundup, was found to be particularly destructive of human reproductive cells, especially embryonic, placental, and umbilical cord cells.
Congress, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a spectrum of state and consumer agencies are scrambling to unravel the mystery behind tons of toxic drywall that importers brought into the country from China. Enough drywall to build 30,000 homes entered U.S. ports from China in 2006 and 2007. Now, people in as many as 18 states claim that the drywall is making them sick while corroding their homes’ electrical wiring, air conditioning units, and other household systems.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning to endocrine health care professionals, pharmacists and pediatricians about the risk of serious liver injury, including liver failure and death, with the use of propylthiouracil (PTU) in adult and pediatric patients. PTU is a drug used to treat hyperthyroidism, including Graves disease, by decreasing the amount of thyroid hormone produced by the thyroid gland. Hyperthyroidism occurs when the thyroid gland is overactive and produces excess thyroid hormones.
The June edition of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Safety Review says that the agency has received more than 265 reports from residents in 18 states and Washington D.C. from customers who believe their health and / or their homes have been negatively affected by toxic drywall imported from China. Most of the homes that contain the suspect drywall were built in 2006 and 2007 during an unprecedented construction rush. At that time, contractors and suppliers looked to China for a supply of fresh drywall, which began running scarce after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons.
For thousands of Florida homeowners, the Chinese drywall catastrophe couldn’t have hit at a worse time. A contracting economy and a worse-than-stale housing market have already caused home values to plummet. Add to that the likelihood that one’s house might have to be completely gutted before it’s once again safe to live in, and the picture is bleak indeed.
If it’s not lead in paint or melamine in dog food, then perhaps it’s poisonous drywall? The latest batch of toxic Chinese imports – some 550 million pounds of highly sulfuric drywall – has found its way into homes throughout the U.S. and even Canada. The cheap Chinese drywall flooded into the U.S. during the building boom, beginning in 2004, and peaked as the bustling economy and Hurricane Katrina put a strain on domestically manufactured drywall. Most of the affected homes appear to be in Florida, but newly constructed homes in several states and beyond are also affected.
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