The CPSC collected samples from homes affected by the toxic drywall and submitted them to the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Of the samples tested, the Berkeley lab found that the top ten sulfur-emitting drywall samples were all produced in China. Some of the samples tested had hydrogen sulfide emission rates 100 times higher than non-Chinese drywall samples.

Hydrogen sulfide is a gaseous compound that is known to cause metal corrosion.

“Homeowners who have problem drywall in their homes are suffering greatly”, said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “I appeal to these Chinese drywall companies to carefully examine their responsibilities to U.S. families who have been harmed and do what is fair and just.”

According to the CPSC, the most toxic drywall samples came from:

• Knauf Plasterboard (Tianjin) Co. Ltd: (2 samples, year of manufacture 2005)
• Taian Taishan Plasterboard Co. Ltd.: (4 samples, 2006)
• Shandong Taihe Dongxin Co.: (3 samples, 2005)
• Shandong Chenxiang GBM Co. Ltd. (C&K Gypsum Board): (1 sample, 2006)

At the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue meetings in Beijing May 24-25, U.S. officials pressed the Chinese government to facilitate a meeting between CPSC and the Chinese drywall companies whose products were used in U.S. homes, and which exhibit the emissions identified during the testing procedures. The Strategic and Economic Dialogue represents the highest-level bilateral forum to discuss a broad range of issues between the two nations.

To date, CPSC has spent over $5 million investigating the toxic drywall’s chemical nature and chain of commerce.

Homeowners and contractors who suspect the toxic drywall is present in their homes should consult the identification protocol established by CPSC and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The same agencies also issued remediation guidance to assist homeowners who are affected by the drywall problem.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › CPSC names Chinese companies responsible for toxic drywall

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says it has received close to 2,000 reports of drywall ruining electrical wiring, air conditioner coils, fixtures, and appliances because it emits corrosive sulfuric fumes. Homeowners affected by the Chinese drywall also report a variety of respiratory health problems and a constant foul odor that makes their homes unlivable.

The web site assimilates information from four government agencies involved in the investigation and handling of the toxic drywall problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are collaborating with the CPSC in disseminating important information to the public. The web site includes a standardized form consumers may use to report suspected toxic drywall problems directly to the CPSC.

According to the drywall web site, the CPSC has received reports and complaints from 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. In addition to the reports received by the CPSC, a number of complaints have been submitted to state and local authorities. Based on customs records, authorities estimate 500,000 pounds of drywall entered the U.S. from China during the building boom – enough drywall to use in 100,000 homes.

The CPSC is conducting an ongoing investigation to determine the origins and scope of the drywall problem. According to the agency, one of the biggest challenges “has been figuring out how much problem drywall there is in any house, given that it is already installed, likely painted and may not be clearly marked. The drywall could fill the home or be just a few sheets.”

The vast majority of the toxic drywall was installed in Florida homes (69 percent), followed by Louisiana (18 percent). Homes in Alabama, Mississippi, and Virginia were also heavily affected.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › CPSC info center helps consumers living with toxic Chinese drywall

Customs records indicate that as much as 250,000 tons of plentiful, cheap, and unsafe drywall entered American ports from China during that period, subsequently finding its way into an estimated 100,000 American homes.

Studies of the contaminated drywall have found potentially dangerous levels of strontium sulphide, which releases hydrogen sulphide fumes when exposed to moisture and humidity.

Homeowners affected by the drywall find that it imparts their houses with a constant sulfuric stench, severely corrodes copper wiring, plumbing, and air conditioner coils, and causes a range of ailments such as headache, sore throat, dry or burning eyes, coughing, wheezing, sinus irritations and respiratory infections.

A report by the Los Angeles Times claims that some of the drywall contains phosphogypsum, a radioactive substance that is banned from construction use in the United States but legal in China for nearly a decade.

“Copies of Chinese customs reports obtained by The Times, along with interviews, indicate that drywall made with phosphogypsum was shipped to the U.S. in 2006 by at least four Chinese-based manufacturers and trading firms,” the LA Times report said.

The report also said that construction industry specialists are “troubled” by the widespread use of the contaminated drywall “and the possibility it was exported, especially in light of recent incidents in which other Chinese imports such as pet food, toys and candy were found to be contaminated with toxic or unsafe substances.”

The arrival of so many tons of toxic drywall to the U.S. threatens an already weakened economy and the public health more than one might assume. An excellent report by National Public Radio tells the story of Luis Gonzalez, a Florida police officer whose family is being forced into bankruptcy because toxic Chinese drywall has made their home unlivable, unsellable, and too expensive to repair. Their home, like so many others, has become a toxic asset, a hot potato that neither they nor their bank wants to be left holding.

“We’re going to have hundreds if not thousands of foreclosed homes that have this defective condition,” an attorney for the Gonzalez family told NPR. “The banks don’t want that, the government doesn’t want that, and these victims don’t want that. So, we need to make sure that this safety net is fixed.”

Reports by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission underscore the enormity of the problem Chinese imports present to the health and security of this country. Of the 15,000 different product types under its jurisdiction, the CPSC calculates a 101 percent increase in consumer product imports over the last ten years, with 42 percent of these products arriving from China. The total value of Chinese imports quadrupled from 1998 to 2007.

And, while only 44 percent of all consumer products sold in the U.S. were imports, they accounted for more than 75 percent of the CPSC’s product recalls.

In fiscal year 2007, the agency announced 473 recalls of which 389 (more than 82%) were of Chinese-made products.

At this rate, the CPSC’s regulatory and safety inspection process will have to take stronger measures to ensure that such large quantities of defective and dangerous merchandise never reach our shores in the first place. While recalls are relatively easy for toys and bikes and other transportable items, how can tons of sheetrock that has already been installed, taped, and painted in homes be effectively recalled? And who is going to cover the mortgage on thousands of empty homes while Chinese manufacturers remain unresponsive and unaccountable to the charges of homeowners, builders, and the American judicial system?

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Toxic drywall: new meaning for the term China Syndrome?

According to reports by CNN, 18-year-old Yorelle Haroush is leaving her aunt’s $1.2 million home in Parkland, Fla., northwest of Fort Lauderdale, because, she says, the home’s drywall emits gasses that are taking a toll on her health. It’s a claim the family’s doctor backs up.

“I said, ‘you can’t stay there anymore, because you’re sick every minute,’” Dr. Ross Nochimson, who has treated the family for years, told CNN. “They’re sick on a weekly basis. Ear aches, sore throat. I give them something, and they’re sick again.”

Dr. Nochimson recommended the remaining 5 family members also vacate the house.

“Before they bought this house, they weren’t calling every week with allergies and sore throats and ear aches and coughing,” Dr. Nochimson told CNN. “I don’t know what more I can do for them,” he said.

100 miles west, in the town of Estero just outside of Fort Myers, Alana and Joe Consolo also had to abandon their house because its ceilings and walls were made of drywall from China. According to a CNN report, the couple said they were experiencing headaches and respiratory problems. The Consolos first started to notice a problem with their new home when the smoke detectors kept sounding for no apparent reason. Opening the detectors up revealed that the copper wiring inside had turned black.

Lennar Homes, the company that built the Consolos’ home, is in the process of removing all of the Chinese drywall from the walls and ceilings of the house. It is also providing a rental house for the family until the renovation is completed, but the Consolos aren’t sure they will return home. The value of the property has plummeted, in part thanks to the economy but also because, the Consolos believe, the house now has the drywall stigma attached to it.

According to the CNN report, Lennar Homes has identified some 80 homes in which Chinese drywall was used. The company is willing to completely gut and rebuild the homes, including replacing all the tarnished copper and wiring, at no cost to the owners.

“They’re doing what’s responsible, we believe,” Alana Consolo told CNN.

The company is filing a lawsuit against the drywall’s Chinese manufacturers and American suppliers.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Families flee homes containing Chinese drywall

The massive salmonella outbreak prompted ConAgra to remind its customers about the importance of following cooking instructions, especially when using a microwave.

In 2007, A ConAgra spokeswoman told the Associated Press that pot pies needed to be cooked longer in less powerful microwaves, and that steam rising out of the pot pie is a good sign that it is sufficiently cooked. According to the AP report, the same spokeswoman also said that “cooking will kill any pathogens routinely found in uncooked products that contain poultry.”

The company then set about revising the cooking instructions on its pot pies “to clarify how long the pies should remain in the microwave,” the AP report said.

Now, months later, the New York Times conducted a test to determine the reliability (and thus the safety) of cooking instructions on processed food.

Reporter Michael Moss and NY Times Investigative Editor Christine Kay cooked a Banquet chicken pot pie for 5 minutes in a 1200-watt microwave oven. The instructions on the box directed them to cook the pie for 4-6 minutes in an 1100-watt microwave. After cooking, they allowed the pie to sit for 3 minutes, as directed, and then tested the temperature in several locations using a cooking thermometer. In all places, the thermometer read between 140 – 158 degrees.

They then cooked another pot pie for in the same microwave 6 and a half minutes, during which time smoke emanated from the oven. After allowing the pie to sit for 3 minutes, they tested the temperature in several spots around the pie and found that despite cooking it for 30 seconds longer in a stronger oven than the box instructed, they had a pie that was overcooked on one side (about 172 degrees) and undercooked on the other side (about 140 degrees).

The test proved that pot pies contaminated with salmonella might not be safely cooked even when consumers follow the cooking instructions, which raises the question about the safety of other processed foods.

“Instead of cooking the pot pies to a high enough temperature to kill any potential pathogens, which they said made the vegetables mushy, they passed the buck to the consumer,” said reporter Moss.

Moss called the 800-number printed on the box, but was told that microwaves “can’t be trusted to produce their claimed wattage and that one shouldn’t eat a pie that hasn’t reached 165 degrees.”

“It’s a safety issue,” the hotline operator told Moss.

To view a video of the NY Times experiment, click here.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Despite warnings and instructions, food safety may still be a gamble

Class 1 recalls are the most serious type of recall issued by the agency and involve situations where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious injury or death.

The recall, issued to health care professionals, includes certain models of the Baxter Colleague Single and Triple Channel Volumetric Infusion Pumps. Baxter Healthcare Corp. issued the recall after it identified software and battery usage failures that result in a delay in or interruption of fusion that may cause serious injury and/or death.

Recalled models identified in the recall of the Baxter Colleague Single and Triple Channel Volumetric Infusion Pumps include Mono 2M8151 and 2M8153, CX 2M8161 and 2M8163, and CXE 2M9161and 2M9163. They were manufactured and distributed from February 1997 through December 2008.

The recall notice follows a January 23 correction letter sent from Baxter Healthcare Corp. to all its customers about failures that could lead to interruption of therapy, damaged battery messages, smoke and fire hazards and serious injury and/or death. It advised institutions to have contingency plans to verify that back-up pumps are available, and provided new steps for addressing an interruption of therapy with any failure code, instructions for addressing damaged battery messages, and instructions for proper device cleaning.

Heath care professionals and consumers may report adverse reactions or quality problems to the FDA’s MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program at www.fda.gov/MedWatch/report.htm.

Source:
FDA MedWatch

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › FDA Class 1 recall of infusion pumps; danger of serious injury, death

Cincinnati-based Great American Insurance Group is trying to wrest itself from a potential $25 million responsibility by claiming that the smoke that killed three people in a Houston office fire in 2007 was actually “pollution.” Because the victims perished from pollution-related causes and not actual fire, Great American’s attorneys argue, the insurance company isn’t liable for the damages.

Great American has argued in federal court that the policy in this case does not cover pollution damage. As such, the policy would exclude payouts for deaths caused by pollution resulting from fire. Smoke, in other words.

A vocational nurse named Misty Ann Weaver started the fire in March 2007 in an attempt to postpone the due date of an incomplete work assignment. The fire killed three people and injured six others. Weaver was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of felony murder and one count of first-degree arson.

Commenting on Great American’s interpretation, attorney Randy Sorrels said “this is shocking. It’s an extraordinary effort by an insurance company to avoid paying on a contract for insurance.”

University of Houston Law Center professor Seth Chandler told the Houston Chronicle that Great American’s maneuvering wasn’t “out of bounds” but it would “test the limits of the law.”

“This is pushing the boundaries of the absolute pollution exclusion,” Chandler told the Chronicle. “We’re going to have a battle between the literal language of the policy and the way people speak of pollution.”

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Insurance provider says smoke is pollution to avoid payout