<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" 1. One Thing Most Houses Had in Common: Water Damage One thing most of the affected houses have in common is water damage--either through floods, leaks or humidity. A fire chief in Chalmette, Louisiana, found out that even moisture in the air can cause hydrogen sulfide to leak out of drywall. But he wasn&amp;#039;t the only one: &amp;quot;A remediation specialist retained by the consumer&amp;#039;s attorney conducted a visual examination of the home&amp;#039;s air conditioning unit. The remediation specialist told the consumer that the air conditioner had a Freon leak due to corroded evaporator coils. The remediation specialist also examined the electrical wiring inside the home&amp;#039;s light switches. The remediation specialist told the consumer that the copper wires in some of the home&amp;#039;s light switches were black and corroded. The consumer stated that the remediation specialist told him that the corrosion was caused by a sulfuric mist created when moisture hits the Chinese drywall. The remediation specialist told the consumer that the sulfuric mist is attracted to metal objects. I requested a copy of the remediation specialist&amp;#039;s written report however she stated that the attorney would not permit her to release the report. My phone calls to the attorney&amp;#039;s office were not returned.&amp;quot; [Document 1, page 220 (pdf)] 2. Drywall Companies Are Conducting Their Own Investigations Knauf, a Taiwanese drywall manufacturer, initiated its own investigation after complaints started to surface. Here is an excerpt from their study, conducted by the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, LLC, based in Arkansas: &amp;quot;Air testing was performed in homes containing the Knauf Tianjin gypsum plasterboard and in one home containing a similar product from another supplier. Sampling of air from unused packaged product and outdoor air was also performed. Samples of bulk plasterboard manufactured by Knauf and two other Chinese manufacturers were tested for chemical composition, along with a product manufactured in the United States. The testing revealed that the Knauf Tianjin product released low levels of certain naturally-occurring sulfur-containing compounds. Testing of the bulk material revealed the likely source of these compounds was a sulfur-containing mineral known as iron disulfide. One of the other two products manufactured in China presented a similar odor and also contained the iron disulfide mineral. Based on comparison with occupational and public exposure limits, toxicology testing data, and on data regarding air concentrations from natural sources, it was concluded that measured concentrations of the detected chemicals in air were not present at levels that present a public health concern.&amp;quot; [Document 6, Page 128 (pdf)] 3. DIY Testing Was Effective and Helpful to Investigators The aforementioned Louisiana fire chief took matters into his own hands. After noticing premature rust and corrosion in his house, and after his wife&amp;#039;s jewelry began to tarnish quickly, he &amp;quot;placed two silver half dollars in the upstairs duct work to see how quickly they would tarnish. He stated that after two weeks in the duct, they had tarnished enough to where they were no longer silver in color, but had taken on a black hue.&amp;quot; [Document 2, page 191 (pdf)] From the investigator: &amp;quot;The complainant stated that for the past several weeks he has been testing the air in his home with a meter (GasBadge Plus) that measures the amount of hydrogen sulfide in the air. He stated that he has gotten readings between 0.5 and 1.1 in the bathrooms of the residence. The complainant stated that he clips the meter to the shower curtain in the bathroom to capture readings. During the on-site, the complainant demonstrated use of the meter. (He stated that the meter was last calibrated approximately 4 weeks ago.) The complainant turned the warm water faucet on and let it run, allowing the bathroom to become humid. Approximately 15-20 minutes later we entered the bathroom with the meter, which within two minutes began showing readings, with the highest reading being 0.8 ppm (parts per million) in the bathroom. The complainant said that apparently the drywall releases hydrogen sulfide when humidity is introduced.&amp;quot;  The same fire chief had his own drywall tested: &amp;quot;The strontium test results were 0.23 percent strontium by weight, which is 6.1 times higher than the US Dry wall test sample. This sample tested positive for strontium sulfide inclusions. These can react with moisture in the air to produce hydrogen sulfide gas. This sample tested positive for organic reduced sulfur compounds, including t-butyl mercaptan, at 97.1 ng released per gram of drywall, and carbon disulfide, at 166 ng released per gram of drywall. This carbon disulfide level is higher than even most Chinese drywall samples tested.&amp;quot; [Document 2, page 192 (pdf)] 4. North American Drywall Might Have Its Own Problems People who were suffering from familiar symptoms and saw the first wave of news reports about faulty Chinese drywall proceeded to punch holes in their own walls, looking for manufacturers&amp;#039; labels. Most of the interviewees were unable to support their suspicions that the drywall was Chinese, since builders often use different types of drywall from different sources. And to the surprise of a few of these complainants, much of their drywall didn&amp;#039;t come from foreign shores--it was manufactured in North America. To wit: One &amp;quot;complainant wanted to discover what kind of drywall was used in his home so he cut open several large holes to look at the labeling on the back and seams of the product. He discovered much to his amazement that it was not Chinese drywall but imported by an American company from Canada.&amp;quot; [Document 1 (pdf)] And sometimes it&amp;#039;s hard to even tell if it&amp;#039;s North American drywall: A former employee of a drywall manufacturer told the CPSC that his former employer kept a supply of the Chinese drywall, despite their claims to the contrary: &amp;quot;The male complainant stated that he worked for a local drywall manufacturer [Lafarge?] from October 2007 to February 2009. He stated that the firm&amp;#039;s web site stated that the firm `has never imported, repackaged or sold Chinese-produced drywall in the North American market./l Please see the exhibits. However he stated that the warehouse where he worked had approximately 100 crates of 200 sheets each of drywall. He stated the employees would call it &amp;#039;China Board.&amp;#039; He did not know what happened to the supply but eventually it was no longer in their warehouse by December of 2008. He indicated that the plant produced sheetrock in an unknown manner from mined raw material and waste from the local coal plant. The firm would also recycle old drywall in producing new product.&amp;quot; [Document 2, Page 2 (pdf)] 5. A Key Ingredient in Drywall May Come From Coal Plant Exhaust Why so much sulfur? Some researchers note that the residue from coal-fired power plants may be used in drywall: &amp;quot;This investigator did not thoroughly review the Abstracts but according to the attorney he believed the drywall which was used in the construction of the home was manufactured from the exhaust from a coal fired electrical plant. The plant would scrub their exhaust emissions to eliminate sulphur from the exhaust/pollution and use this as one of the ingredients in the manufacture of the drywall. The drywall was also believed to have organic components and the study included in the exhibits showed that the combination of drywall waste and organics in the drywall were generating Hydrogen sulfide gas in sufficient quantities to be extremely harmful to humans and cause corrosion.&amp;quot; 6. Investigators Often Experienced the Problems First-hand The government inspectors, in addition to taking pictures of the damaged metal and interviewing homeowners, came across some symptoms of their own: &amp;quot;During this visit this investigator detected an odor which appeared to smell like burning metal. This visit was primarily conducted on the back yard patio. The odor was present in the patio as well. Approximately 20 minutes into the interview, this investigator began to feel itchy/watery eyes and a scratchy throat accompanied by a sudden unexplained headache and dizziness. This persisted throughout the interview and did not cease until over an hour after leaving the residence.&amp;quot; [Document 2, page 222 (pdf)] "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/a4884/4336471/>