"Senate Subcommittee Grills CPSC on Drywall"

"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."

Joaquin Sapien reports for ProPublica, December 7, 2011.

Source: ProPublica, 12/08/2011