THE CPSC ISSUES JULY REPORT

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has recently issued a preliminary report on toxic, Chinese drywall. Although it has some information concerning this toxic, defective product it is still vary short on conclusions. To date, the CPSC has received 608 complaints in 21 states and the District of Columbia. The CPSC has also confirmed that 5,503,694 sheets of Chinese drywall were imported to the US during 2006. However, they acknowledge that even this number could be low.

It outlines it efforts to date. Basically that it began it’s investigation in December of 2008 after complaints were made to it’s office. In January of 2009, the CPSC first contacted the Florida Department of Health and began working with this state entity. In March of 2009, CPSC traveled to Florida to meet with county health officials and to visit affected homes in the Tampa area. In April of 2009, the CPSC hosted a joint meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). At this meeting it was decided that the CSPC would take the lead and the EPA and the CDC would have support roles. In June of 2009, Chinese experts were added to the CPSC team and joined the CPSC to inspect homes in Florida.

One of the most amazing admissions in this report is that there is still no ban on the import of Chinese drywall. It states that the CPSC is working closely with the US Department of Customs and Border Protection to ensure CBP notifies CPSC if any new materials are presented for clearance. What do they mean, “presented for clearance.” This is truly a tragedy that our government cannot ensure that there will not be any more victims of this defective product. It is our position that there should be a governmentally imposed ban on Chinese drywall immediately. This is the place of government – if it cannot protect our citizens from a defective, toxic product – what can it do?

One of the positive aspects of this report is that they have begun to analyze this problem the same way our firm has analyzed individual homes. CPSC has determined that the proper way to analyze this problem is to perform an elemental analysis of the drywall, to do a “chamber” analysis and to to an “in home” indoor air sampling. This is exactly the types of testing our firm has performed and will perform in the future. However, the CPSC has stated in their report that their testing will not yield conclusions until August of 2009.

Finally, the only other significant finding of this report is that there have been 2 unconfirmed fires as a result of Chinese drywall. This is a hazard that we believe is real and needs to be accounted for.

 See report at http://tiny.cc/qMJ4v