American-Made Drywall Emerges as Potential Danger
Sunday, December 19, 2010

TECO Big Bend Power Station in Apollo Beach. (Sarasota Herald-Tribune photo by Dan Wagner)
Two years after thousands of Americans learned that defective Chinese drywall had contaminated their houses, a new group of homeowners say they are experiencing similar problems—but their homes are built with drywall made in the United States.
Ninety-seven homeowners in four states have joined lawsuits against U.S. drywall manufacturers in the past year, claiming that their drywall is releasing enough sulfur gas to corrode wiring and appliances and cause headaches, nosebleeds, labored breathing and irritated eyes—complaints that until now have been mostly associated with Chinese drywall. Many families have abandoned their homes, fearing long-term health problems. Some are facing foreclosure, or even bankruptcy.
Plaintiffs in the largest lawsuit, which involves 93 Florida homes, blame the problem on drywall made by National Gypsum, one of the nation’s largest drywall manufacturers. Separate cases have been filed against National Gypsum in Arizona and Alabama.
Two other lawsuits, each involving a single homeowner, have also been filed. One, in South Dakota, is against U.S. Gypsum. The other, filed by a Florida couple against Georgia Pacific, has been settled out of court.
All the manufacturers deny that anything is wrong with their products.
Lawsuits represent one side of a legal dispute, and none of the American drywall cases have come to trial. But court records show that many of the plaintiffs have test results from independent laboratories that show high levels of sulfur gas coming from the walls of their homes.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys say in court documents that the outgassing may somehow be connected to synthetic gypsum, a form of coal ash produced by the scrubbing process that removes sulfur dioxide from the emissions of coal-fired power plants. Nearly half of American drywall is now made with this synthetic product, known as flue gas desulfurized gypsum or FGD gypsum.
Despite its increasing popularity, synthetic gypsum isn’t regulated by the federal government. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency supports the reuse of FGD gypsum because it protects the air, recycles waste that would otherwise go to a landfill and creates useful products.
The industry has voluntary standards for drywall, but they apply only to fire resistance and strength. Michael Gardner, executive director of the Gypsum Association, a trade group that represents the drywall industry, said additional oversight is unnecessary.
“There has never been a problem with the use of FGD gypsum wallboard since its inception,” Gardner said.
At least one of the lawsuits also points to another possible cause: that the defective drywall was made with scrap from recycled drywall—perhaps Chinese drywall.
In September, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioned a study of a small group of homes with problematic American drywall, similar to the study it completed last year of homes with Chinese board. But figuring out what is causing the problems — and who should pay to fix them — is likely to be a long and laborious process. After two years of studying Chinese drywall, the agency still hasn’t figured out what caused it to release sulfur gases, and the homeowners’ lawsuits are still mired in the courts.
The CPSC’s main theory in the Chinese drywall cases is that one or several of the mines that supplied the manufacturers with natural gypsum contained a high concentration of sulfur. But CPSC inspectors say it’s also possible that some of the defective Chinese drywall was produced with synthetic gypsum from Chinese power plants.
For homeowners who believe their houses have been contaminated by U.S.-made drywall, the scientific question of what is causing the problem is overshadowed by the more immediate question of how they will survive the financial disaster they now face. The CPSC’s preliminary guidelines for remediating homes made with defective drywall say all the drywall and electrical wiring should be replaced, an undertaking that can cost $100,000 or more.
“I felt totally and completely alone when we found out we had American drywall,” said Julie Mraz, whose small Florida home was built with National Gypsum drywall. “I thought, oh my God, now what? I hadn’t heard of anyone having problems with it.”
Mraz and her husband both have severe health problems, and the house was built to accommodate Joseph Mraz’s wheelchair. Soon after they moved in, however, they noticed a strong sulfuric smell and the coils on their air conditioner corroded—a telltale sign of defective drywall. Joseph Mraz’s childhood asthma returned for the first time in the Mraz’s 29-year marriage. When his breathing became so labored that he had to be hospitalized, the couple’s doctors urged them to move out of the house. They are now renting an apartment, and Julie Mraz said her husband’s breathing problems have improved.