Affected Locations
Warm and Humid Climates Hit Hardest
In the United States, most complaints concerning Chinese Drywall have come from states in the Southeast, where a warm and humid climate seems to encourage the emissions. The states of Florida (59%), Louisiana (20%), Mississippi (6%) and Alabama (5%) made up 90% of the 3,082 cases reported to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) as of April 2, 2010. More than 700 complaints had been filed with the Florida Department of Health. Sources estimated that from 60,000 to 100,000 homes could be affected.
To date, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has received about 3,602 reports from residents in 38 States, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico who believe their health symptoms or the corrosion of certain metal components in their homes are related to the presence of drywall produced in China. State and local authorities have also received similar reports.
Consumers largely report that their homes were built in 2006 to 2007, when an unprecedented increase in new construction occurred in part due to the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005. Common features of the reports submitted to the CPSC from homes believed to contain problem drywall have been:
- Consumers have reported a "rotten egg" smell within their homes.
- Consumers have reported health concerns such as irritated and itchy eyes and skin, difficulty in breathing, persistent cough, bloody noses, runny noses, recurrent headaches, sinus infection, and asthma attacks.
- Consumers have reported blackened and corroded metal components in their homes and the frequent replacement of components in air conditioning units.
