Chinese Drywall and the Cost of Truth-Telling

As if Formosan termites weren't bad enough (they devour everything, not just wood), now New Orleans, and Florida, are coming to grips with their latest visitor from Over There: defective drywall. Wednesday's Times-Picayune reports that Bobby Jindal is--shock, horror!--asking the Feds for help in running indoor air tests of homes filled with Chinese drywall. The stuff is believed to emit noxious fumes--FEMA would know all about that, having supplied thousands of trailers that emitted formaldehyde gas--but these fumes also corrode copper wires and household appliances. You and your fridge both get sick. A twofer.

Of course, in the rush to get homes rebuilt after the federal levees failed and flooded the city, homeowners and contractors may have failed to ask, "Is my drywall from China?" This would be their reward.

The reward for a scientist who blew the whistle on the Corps of Engineers and their culpability for the flooding has also just been announced: LSU, after years of threats, has finally fired Dr. Ivor van Heerden, formerly the Deputy Director of the University's Hurricane Center. Ivor, whom I know personally just a bit, has been tenacious and courageous in leading one of the three independent forensic investigations of the disaster (his group released the Team Louisiana report on the flooding), and he's consistently made the mistake--in LSU administration's view--of being forthcoming in sharing his team's findings, and the results of the storm surge modeling done by his team, with the public.

There have long been murmurings that the previous administration in Washington wanted van Heerden's voice silenced and had threatened LSU's federal grants as a persuader. No indication of any of that in today's story. Just the sense that, where the guts should be in LSU leadership, there lives instead a plentiful supply of Chinese drywall.

UPDATE: Here's a piece from Digital Journal with more information on van Heerden and the LSU-Bush administration pressure on him. You have to scroll down about a third of the way to get to the relevant grafs.

Comments

[Joshua Sophy]

This issue has finally made it to Capitol Hill but more and more people are being affected by this dangerous product. Here is more on this topic: http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/5897#more-5897

[AnOddGirl]

I guess this means that China is to blame for me having to tear my house apart less than 4 years after the Federal Flood did it. LIKE Hell I will because as soon as I do some bloody scientist is gonna tell me that the glass in the windows will have to go, oh and the electrical wiring, oh and now paint is bad for the environment and cats and that all the dust I've breathed in from the decaying houses next door is gonna kill me slowly. Thanks, but my government is has been doing that to me for the last 3 years, 8 months, 25 days, 4 hours, 3 mins or so...

[Joshua Sophy]

Please read this update regarding one of Florida's largest home builders caught up in the Chinese drywall issue: http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/5689#more-5689

[RHollister]

I think it is a little premature to put a number on this case. We have not yet agreed on the analytical testing. We have not even determined the remedial scope or protocols will be to clean this mess up. Good luck getting any money out of the Chinese companies. Then there are the insurance companies. Some of the contractors and distributors are not even covered for this so the insurance companies will say. We do not know what long term damage to the health or the property is going to be. Too many questions are still I unanswered.
I have met with some of the top experts in the IAQA field and from around the country in the last month and as an environmental investigator and consultant for 15 years, I think we have a long road ahead of us. Beware of any guarantee solutions to fixing the problem i.e. fogs, foam, and sprays.
We would be interested in hearing from other people experiencing Chinese Sheetrock problems as every case seems to have different details and precursors. We are putting a team of experts together to tackle the long term effects and to opine on the scope and protocols to properly remediate the homes and all the effected personal property.
Rick Hollister CEI, CMR, CLI
Environmental Administrators, Inc
Tallahassee, Fl.
rhollister­@environme­ntaladmini­strators.c­om

[twofish]

I've been looking for a simple table or floor lamp for reading, which means I want to put in a 3-way or a couple of bulbs for brightness. I'm finding myself with two options: go to a high-end furniture or lamp store and pay $400 for a lamp that can do what I want, or go to Walmart or one of the giant hardware stores and buy something that says "60-watt bulb maximum." It seems that as the middle class gets squeezed out of existence, so do the middle-of-the-road stores they used to shop at for medium-priced products.

[penjai]

Uuummm ...tens of millions of homes across the country are built with drywall containing asbestos ..do we blame the chinese for that too?!

[blindhog]

Yet another reason to buy MADE IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Our middle class has been desimated because jobs and factories have been sent out of country and yet we are the country that pays the price of blood, limbs, psycies and lives for the opportunity of capitalism in other countries. Our young men come back from this defense only to be met with unemployment! What a country our leaders have given us since the grand days of Eisenhower!!!!! Where is the payback for all our middle class has done for the industrialized world?

[rockthedeacon]

Well put, blindhog, but your post would have had even more validity if you ran spell checker. Your word "desimated" should be "decimated"; and did you mean "psyches" where you wrote "psycies?" Not to be a nitpicker, but why don't we do our best against the opposition?

[blindhog]

I agree, however, spelling is not my strong suit and because I'm one of the very old guard, I don't know how to access spellchecker from Huffington Post. I suppose I could carry a dictionary with me, but I guess I'm lazy in that regard and I hope anyone who reads my posts forgives my lapses.

I really only have access to a computer when I visit my local library, which I am doing now.

You see, I'm one of the poor middle class.

[MarsAmbassador]

Incompetent entity makes situation better by firing guy who says situation is bad. Problem goes away. Sounds like Jindal/GOP logic to me.

[Crowhaul]

Interesting article. I lived in China and know for a fact that the Chinese themselves do not use drywall in their own construction....

[OrganOfThought]

Drywall is an American thing. Just last year on my usual visit to see my family all over EU I saw the first houses being built with drywall/sheetrock. They all hated it. The houses were cheaper so they buy them, but they still feel ripped off. They kept asking me if they think it is OK. All I could tell them is that it is normal for houses in the USA.

Drywall is very unhealthy. It attracts many insects, molds and fungi. Upon physical damage it gives off very unhealthy dust that can do I don't know what to your lungs.

Next house I buy I will build without drywall. I don't know how, but somehow.

[GSPatton1957]

Although the body cannot physically dispose of gypsum dust it is in fact non-toxic. The dust just reamins in your lungs.

[BartRoberts]

Please. No one really expects the same people who export food laced with poison to worry about toxic drywall, do they?

[Liberallen]

Mr. Shearer-
Hope you get a chance to read this post about my long term coastal colleague Ivor van Heerden:
http://lacoastpost.com/blog/?p=6432.
Len Bahr

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

Already read it, and I talk with Dr. van Heerden on Le Show tomorrow on public radio stations nationwide.

[RepugsOut08]

Dr. van Heerden's firing is disgraceful. What kind of message does LSU think they're sending to their students, when they fire someone for telling the truth?
Maybe I'm naive, but if I was threaten by the feds with a cutoff of funds unless I fired Dr. van Heerden, I'd be all over the media blowing that whistle. It's hard for me to believe that the Obama administration would continue these bullying tactics left over from the Bush administration. Especially if they were made publc nationwide.
And how about the students at LSU? Shouldn't they be protesting this affront, and bringing attention to the continued inaction by the feds to remedy the situation in NO?
I enjoyed watching the video and listening to Dr. van Heerden's comments. I've vacationed the Outer Banks of North Carolina for years now, and know something of what it takes to maintain barrier islands. The folks in NC do a good job of keeping them up, and they do offer protection from storm surges.
Interestingly, whenever a storm has managed to cause destruction inland, I don't remember anyone calling for the abandonment of Morehead City.

[RTIII]

Thanks for keeping on these topics, Harry.
.

[doctorj2u]

I am so ashamed of my school. Is there no integriity left in the world? Since when is speaking the truth grounds for firing? Who can we contact to protest this decision?

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

Probably the president of LSU. With a copy to Gov. Jindal...and to Sen. Landrieu.

[doctorj2u]

It is done. Thanks for giving me the advice of where to complain. If this is not reversed I hope LSU is hit with the mother of all whistle blower's lawsuits because if this does not qualify for it, nothing does. Do you know any good lawyers? Tell the good doctor for us tomorrow that we stand behind him as he stood behind us when we needed him.

[OrganOfThought]

You are kidding right? Since man spoke his first words, people have been "fired" for speaking the truth.

[RepugsOut08]

There's an old saying. He who speaks truth, must keep one foot in the stirrups.
Let us give thanks and high praise for those with a conscience that will not allow them to lie or remain silent. Especially when people's lives are at stake.

[moonflowerjewelry]

c'mon, America, the working poor protested their jobs being sent to other countries AT THE SAME TIME they would be shopping at the dollar store and wa l m art for cheap, lead laced goods made overseas. we are all to blame for fiascos such as this. it's time to pay the piper!

[Dynamohum]

Don't shop at Dollar Stores....never did, never will. Common sense. Crap in, crap out.

[RTIII]

Not me - I'm not to blame! I have always voted the right way (except one foolish vote for Diane Feinstein a decade or so back that I will always regret to my grave), I never shop at Walmart, and I always buy from first-world production (USA, Europe, Australia, etc) whenever there's any choice (with a possible exception of produce - who knows where some of it comes from)...

No, it is possible to NOT be culpable, even if you are poor.
.

[HateHater123]

The "working poor" protesting outsourcing are also under economic pressure to choose the lowest priced product. To blame uninformed consumers for buying products that are unsafe is absurd. Where are the safety watchdogs in all this? Bought and paid for, no doubt. In addition, it has become almost impossible to trace the sources of the components of any given product, most importantly FOOD. Outsourced and Conglomerate Manufacturing has put us all at risk. Our best defense is not to blame consumers, but to support groups that perform product source research and see to it that such information is widely available to the public.

[ProgressiveVoice]

Didn't you hear? The market will take care of itself. If Chinese drywall is toxic, people won't buy it. As Mr. Shearer points out, the homeowners and contractors SHOULD have asked.

As the last 8 years should remind us, corporations want "free" markets but they also don't want to be transparent so that consumers CAN know what they are buying.

[TXfemmom]

Let's face it, nothing coming from China can really be considered safe. We have problems with things here in the states but my son worked for a major U. S. company in China and was appalled by the complete lack of any civic responsibility or sense of safety for their workers or with their products.