Toxic Chinese Drywall Making People and Pets Ill, Corroding Wires, Destroying Electronics
January 25th, 2009Always low prices.
Via: Herald Tribune:
As the investigation into toxic Chinese drywall continues, a single street in Manatee County appears to be ground zero for the largest cluster of problem homes.
Within the Lighthouse Cove subdivision of Lennar’s Heritage Harbour development, sits a quaint street of two-story homes called Montauk Point Crossing. Today, it is a virtual ghost town.
At least six families have already moved out of their homes, either at Lennar’s expense or their own. At least two more are planning their exits as soon as possible.
The residents, many with small children, are experiencing an outbreak of the same chronic symptoms — respiratory problems, painful sore throats, headaches and nosebleeds — which they attribute directly to the drywall chemicals filling their homes.
Lennar, a Miami-based company that is this region’s largest builder, would not discuss any pending repairs, residents’ health problems, or any other aspect of this story. Company officials said they stand by an earlier statement that the drywall is not a health risk and that Lennar is responding promptly to owners.
Residents of Montauk Point have seen their air-conditioners fail on a regular basis — so often that the presence of a white HVAC repair truck became a running joke in the neighborhood. Metal within their homes corroded and turned black: piping, electrical wiring, even silver jewelry.
Electronics also began to fail and short-circuit. Residents say they have gone through multiple televisions, computers and cable boxes. Light switches stopped working altogether, or only intermittently.
“I’m on my third TV,” said homeowner Dan Tibbetts. “Everything just dies.”
A number of the homes are supposed to be repaired by Lennar in coming months, which could involve ripping out all the drywall and other guts of the house. It is still unclear at this point, though, whether the wiring and electrical systems will be replaced.
Even the dog
Dan and Janet Tibbetts bought the home at 7111 Montauk Point Crossing in 2006, moving in during August 2007.
Almost immediately they noticed a foul, chemical-like odor, but chalked it up to the house being new.
“We figured it’s a new house, it would have a little smell and just need to be aired out for awhile,” Tibbetts said. “We figured it would go away.”
But it only got stronger. The family began having breathing problems, sore throats and then occasional nosebleeds, as did their son. Even their dog, a two-year-old dachshund, began acting strangely.
“He began throwing up, he didn’t want to eat,” Tibbetts said. “We thought, what is going on here?”
Like the others along Montauk Point, the family’s air-conditioning unit failed repeatedly. Wiring and piping turned black.
After repeatedly complaining to Lennar, the company conducted air quality tests and told the family there was no health hazard.
“I told them they’re not testing for the right things. They didn’t want to hear it,” Janet Tibbetts said. “They still won’t tell us exactly what they did find.”
To date, Lennar officials maintain that homes along Montauk Point are safe.
A Herald-Tribune reporter who spent time inside several of the homes this week, including the Tibbetts’, experienced discomfort in his throat, lungs and sinuses.
A strong chemical-like odor was present and all visible wiring had turned black. The discomfort lingered for several hours after he left.
Research Credit: Lagavulin
Polluted pet food.
Melamine.
Currency manipulation.
Etc.
Now poisonous Chinese drywall?
Somebody trying to make the Chinese look bad?
Nothing like a world-wide nuclear war to bolster a sagging world economy. Right?
What gets me is that some of the people interviewed continue to stay in their home!!! Whatever is off-gassing is corroding metal & electronics, for heaven’s sake.
They’re already cancer-fied, they just don’t know it yet…
And personally I doubt it’s the drywall at all…I mean, a chemical in drywall paper wouldn’t off-gas for months and months. And so severely that it’s destroying electronic equipment?
It’s something else, something Lennars used INSIDE the walls, perhaps, like a spray-foam insulation or a mildewcide-sealant or maybe their construction adhesive. Then again, it might also be some kind of hyper-toxic polyurethane floor finish, although that would have cured-up more quickly.
Really, there’s so many toxic substances that that production builders use these days. We assume things here in the US get subject to extensive testing but that’s not true at all. And sadly, the builders themselves are the least interested in switching to greener, healthier products. Most of them will have greatly shortened life-spans.
The Chinese don’t need anyone’s help to look bad. They’ve got that job handled on their own.
The whole array of modern homebuilding materials is pretty much horrible healthwise. If it’s not toxic drywall, it’s toxic paint, or floor varnish/polyurethane/carpet/whatever, or outgassing chipboard furniture. Or it’s mold-infested filters in air-conditioning systems, or chemicals leaching from plastic pipes.
The short of the matter is that we construct our living quarters from chemically-active materials and fail to consider what long-term exposure to the resulting compounds will do to us.
All of this has been exacerbated in the last 50-odd years by the near-ubiquitous emergence of the ‘sealed’ home, one in which all air goes through a central air circulation system. Outside-inside airflow in these homes is much, much, less than was the case with older homes. Additionally, in the USA, federal standards for minimum airflow through office buildings (and possibly others) were lowered during the ’70s energy crunch. Ever walked into an office and felt like you were going to pass out from the fumes?
Sealed buildings. Reduced airflow. Outgassing materials. I don’t want to know how much of my brain is merely gray slurry at this point.
“The Chinese don’t need anyone’s help to look bad. They’ve got that job handled on their own.”
Yes, Kevin, but they have ways of dealing with corruption and inefficiency:
“Death sentences in China milk case”
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/22/news/23MILK.php
Holy crap. Isn’t it some kind of Electro Magnetic Frequency that causes electronics to fail, and causes people to get sick?
But then there’s the whole respitory gig and the nose bleeds.
Holy crap.
All I could think of was ground up lead and asbestos pressed together into a nice white board. Hah. Maybe this company got the trash from the world trade center and ground it up for a profit?
Sorry I’m not a mean person, really. My sister died from cancer from asbestos inhalation when she was 33. Her cancer was so advanced it was believed she inhaled something at the age of 6. Probably in school construction. Just takes a little whiff of that shit to eff you up until you die.
Myself, I live in two old houses, and work in a sick building where they used to grind coal. My nose bleeds and I have to use my neti pot at least two times a day from the dry heat in my office. Bad air sucks. I have had to ban the women who care for my mother from using dryer sheets on their clothing. I can smell it UPSTAIRS when they walk in the door. It sticks to my Mom, it sticks to me, I can smell it an hour later even outside. Chicken shit smells better to me than that crap.
Yes I inherited my Dad’s nose. Every day of his life he slept with a small window open to let in fresh air. He told me he became that way when a family he knew died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a furnace they used without ventilation. But then he died from a combination of non-Hodjkins lymphoma (chemical induced disease) and a broken heart.
Me, I’ll take the drafty old houses anyday. And if I ever build my own – lots of wood, maybe cork for insulation. But holy crap, my throat is going into constriction just thinking about what these people are living in.
I think I would have gone insane already if I lived in one of these houses. It’s criminal that this shit goes down and people can’t escape it.
I forgot to add that my wife read this story earlier today and her comment was, “they’ll probably find out one of the families drinks raw milk, and then they can just blame the whole thing on that.”
Yes, Kevin, but they have ways of dealing with corruption and inefficiency:
“Death sentences in China milk case”
Yes, and we sure can see how effective such methods are, can’t we? 😉
I actually have reconsidered that is only something nuclear that can cause such destruction.