Chinese Drywall

PARKLAND, Florida (CNN) — Sherri and Ira Rojhani stopped paying the mortgage on their 2-year-old South Florida home in April, victims not of a troubled economy, but, they say, of drywall from China that they believe is making them sick.

They join a growing list of homeowners in 13 states who face foreclosure or the prospect of paying both their mortgage and rent on alternate housing as they seek relief from what they describe as corrosive gasses emitted from the Chinese drywall. The drywall is now the subject of several scientific studies.

“Families are being forced to make health decisions based on financial consideration, and that is fundamentally flawed,” said Sherri Rojhani, a homeowner in Parkland, Florida. “We shouldn’t be in a position to stay in a home, based on our health,” she said.

Homeowners allege the gas is causing home appliances and copper wiring to fail and causes chronic, long-term upper respiratory infections.

Federal authorities including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission are studying the possible health effects of the drywall. Most of their results are still some time off.

On Tuesday the EPA announced that it found sulfur, a corrosive material, in the Chinese drywall samples it tested and that sulfur was not found in the U.S. manufactured drywall samples it also tested. The EPA also found strontium in the Chinese drywall at levels about 10 times higher than in the U.S. drywall. Strontium is a metal often used in manufacturing the glass for television screens.

The EPA also detected two elements typically found in acrylic paints in the Chinese drywall but not in the U.S. drywall.

The EPA said these results are not intended to establish a definitive link between the drywall and the conditions being found by homeowners in their homes.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/19/florida.drywall.remedies/