Toxic Chinese drywall turning up in Canada
 

VANCOUVER — Homeowners from Surrey, Richmond Burnaby and West Vancouver have joined the flood of callers to a U.S. consumer group investigating Chinese drywall that has allegedly begun to sicken North Americans.

Thomas Martin, president of America's Watchdog, says that in the past two weeks about a dozen Lower Mainland callers have all reported experiencing the same nose bleeds, breathing problems and allergy-type symptoms that have affected homeowners across the U.S.

Continued exposure could result in severe health problems, the group says.

"This type of drywall was produced with materials that emit toxic hydrogen sulphide gas and other sulphide gases," says a copy of one home inspection report obtained Canwest News Service on an affected Florida home where Chinese drywall was installed.

"These sulphide gases are also alleged to cause serious health conditions and illnesses, such as shortness of breath, dizziness, headaches, fatigue, insomnia, eye irritations and respiratory difficulties."

"It's scary, it's a nightmare. We think we are looking at the worst case of sick houses in U.S. history," Martin said.

"I'd liken it to the problems you find in a meth house (where an illegal lab has been operating)," he said. "If you have had any experience with a meth house, you know it will have to be bulldozed. Like in a meth house, the emissions permeate everything, the two-by-fours, the trusses, the fabric in your furniture, your clothes."

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said last week it was investigating complaints about the Chinese-made drywall.

All houses affected have shown a common symptom — blackened, scorched wiring behind switch plates and wall plugs — and, coupled with homeowner health symptoms, that's allowed research to proceed, Martin said.

Martin said the group has also fielded calls from worried Canadians who bought property south of the border when the Canadian dollar was high.

The drywall in question was imported from China between 2001 and 2007. According to Martin's research, at least 929,000 square metres were imported through Vancouver between 2001 and 2006, all bound for Canadian destinations.

So far, research shows some appears to have landed on the Prairies, some in Toronto, he said.

One possibility is that the Chinese drywall was made using gypsum that was first used in slurry containing carcinogens to de-sulphur coal.

Chemicals remaining in the wallboard are sufficiently toxic that as few as three sheets of drywall may be enough to contaminate a home to the point it may require bulldozing, Martin says.

The difficulty for inspectors is that walls may have been built with drywall from as many as four sources — so simply pulling one clean sample is no guarantee of safety.

Martin said supplies in the U.S. can be tracked where they were used by licensed builders and insurance may pay for the damages. But anyone using small firms or paying for renovations under the table will be difficult to find and help.

Few Canadian labour or industry officials are aware of the issue.

Tiziana Baccega, public relations manager for Home Depot in Canada, said the chain has never sold Chinese-made drywall in any of its Canadian or U.S. outlets.

Other major suppliers and retailers could not be reached.

Several lawsuits, including one by a group of Florida homeowners, have been filed against German drywall maker Knauf Gips KG, its Chinese plasterboard units and several U.S. home builders.
© Copyright (c) The Province

that's fucked. time to build me a house made of glass XD

Hahahahaha good!

we dont eat foods from china or buy things made by china

wow china continues to fuck up the world yet again

I think it has to do with our QA system...in China probably one out of ten manufactuers is shady and everyone there knows which company that is and avoid buying from them.

So that company couldnt sell their stuff locally and the foreigners couldnt spot the problem and imported...it also has to do with foreigners wanting to cut costs i guess

I've never even see Chinese drywall for sale and my company does nothing but framing and drywall. Just one more reason to buy Canadian building materials not that we've ever bought anything but for the most part.

why the hell would you buy Chinese drywall to begin with?

always purchase certain products made by certain country. Drywall and China just doesnt mix, at all.

Name some products that you would certainly buy that has to be made by China.

On top of my head,

TOP quality tea, or dried herbs from one of my trusted stores. I am planning to get some this Saturday.

I'm sure the Chinese will make that glass out of asbestos

yeah cause everything in china's made of bricks...

I know they may have good herbal medicine or teas, but I am still scared that maybe the country's so corrupted the companies paid off health regulatory officials without meeting the standard.

Such things can be false claimed "Organic produce", any kind of vegetable, grains, etc..

Remember there was a recent incident where the Powder Milk manufactured in China and exported turned out to be poisonous causing several death and many products in asia, and even T&T supermarkets here were pulled off the shelves.

Guns... Thank you Norinco.

this is china's way of invading

Don't eat. The recent recall of products containing Listeria and the peanut products containing Salmonella were made in N. America. It's a matter of quality control and not where the product is made.

very true, and the markup for these products can be insanely high as well, ==> bigger incentive for fake products.

And that's why I said "trusted" store :D

Not only am I getting the best products, I get 30% off. It really helps when you know the owner and all the staffs there. :D:D

ya their shit aint bad. well worth the money

Word this is obviously just overblown hype, almost every single company I've seen uses certainteed drywall products which is almost all made in Canada and the gypsum is actually mined out of inveremere in BC, I'd know cause my uncle manages the mine there :p

i guess the Chinese know that they cannot take on American militray head on, so i they are poisoning us to death.

i'm not sure which is more embarrassing, the chinese sinking to a new low making poisonous drywall, or the fact that construction companies here actually bought drywall from them

I don't know why the government can't just say:

"If you want to export products to OUR country, you must employ a production scrutineer chosen by US"

^QAs are usually done by 2 sides, not just one. That's why Mattel apologized last year over "claiming the loose magnets to be the Chinese factory's fault to the media" thing. They admitted that its their QAs' error as well as a design flaw that caused the recall, not the products/QA error on the Chinese side.

Or, if they are ISO certified, which gets a neutral party to do the QAs on the product I believe.

otherwise would you trust a random company's QA if you are importing from them?

[sarcasm]:Orly:[/sarcasm]

I think it's pretty much impossible for you to completely avoid things made in China. I remeber an article in the Province a year or so ago, where a family consciously tried to avoid anything made in China, and they had an extremely difficult time doing it.