Senate Subcommittee Grills CPSC on Drywall

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) December 15, 2011 -- At a hearing in Washington yesterday, lawmakers pressed product safety and health regulators about their three-year investigation into contaminated drywall, expressing frustration with their progress on all fronts. Defective drywall, most of it imported from China, releases sulfur gas that can corrode electric wiring and trigger respiratory irritation. An investigation published last year by ProPublica and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune showed there are nearly 7,000 homes built with bad drywall nationwide, but enough material was imported to build at least 100,000 homes.

Witnesses at yesterday’s Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing addressed several questions raised by our coverage , including the still-unknown health effects of sulfur gas exposure, the conflicting government guidelines on how to fix homes built with defective material, the challenges of holding Chinese companies accountable , and whether American-made drywall could also be problematic .

Exposure to the sulfur gasses for even short periods can cause coughing, severe headaches, bloody noses. Warner said he had visited a home built with defective board staying just 45 minutes, and felt sick for the rest of the day. The hearing’s most contentious moment came when Warner asked the Centers for Disease Control representative, Dr. Christopher Portier, “Would you allow your family to live in one of these homes?”

basement finishing     drywall