US: Chinese drywall not harmful

Posted by Red Green on November 1, 2009, 8:45 am

> wrote:

>> > Pete C. wrote:
>> >>> Who to believe? The government or your own watery eyes?
>> >>> Let me think...
>> >> Both. I'd say it points to a need to get beyond anti Chinese
>> >> bigotry and look at what else may be in common in the problem
>> >> houses in question.
>> > In the meantime would you install Chinese drywall in your home?

>> Of buy toys which probably contain lead in their paint, because the
>> Chine

> se

>> find it inconvenient to adhere to safety precautions which are common
>> in developed countries?

>
> My friend has been building a house doing most of the work himself now
> for about two years. The other day when he opened up a hole in the
> drywall it smelled stongly of rotten eggs. The odor disipated fairly
> quickly. Is this typical of Chinese drywall?
>
> Jimmie
>

Who really knows. It's also possible it's a discarded egg McMuffin.

Posted by RicodJour on November 1, 2009, 12:33 pm

> Who really knows. It's also possible it's a discarded egg McMuffin.

LOL! Riiiiiight. Who doesn't finish an Egg McMuffin?! That's got to
be the biggest stretch I've seen on a newsgroup today. Then again,
the day is young. ;)

R

Posted by Retirednoguilt on October 30, 2009, 9:31 am

HeyBub wrote:

> "[WASHINGTON] Federal product-safety regulators said Thursday that their
> sampling of Chinese drywall emits higher concentrations of sulfur gases and
> strontium than U.S.-made product, but found no evidence so far that the
> emissions were to blame for health problems and metal corrosion reported by
> at least 1,900 U.S. homeowners."
>
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125682903154416173.html
>
> Who to believe? The government or your own watery eyes?
>
> Let me think...
>
>

Hey Bub-
The quote you cited includes the phrase "so far". And if you look at the full
Wall Street Journal article in the URL you included in your posting (above), the
second paragraph of the full article explicitly identifies the government's
report as "preliminary".

In your rush to condemn the government, you are ignoring inconvenient
information that negates your criticism.

The alleged structural damage done by the off-gassing from the suspect drywall
took time to develop due to the relatively low concentrations of whatever
volatile chemicals may be responsible. In order to scientifically establish
whether or not the drywall is at fault, it is probably necessary to do a
thorough chemical analysis of the off-gasses, including their concentration, and
then expose typical home construction materials to the same mixture of gasses at
the same concentrations and same conditions of temperature and humidity.

You cannot always extrapolate the effects of low level exposure by using a
higher concentration for a shorter exposure period to accelerate the testing
time. Many toxic and/or corrosive substances exhibit a threshold effect, where
low or very low levels of exposure produce a different (or even null) effect
compared with a higher exposure. Doing the science properly takes a certain
amount of time that cannot always be rushed, despite what you may believe.

Posted by Kurt Ullman on October 30, 2009, 10:04 am

> You cannot always extrapolate the effects of low level exposure by using a
> higher concentration for a shorter exposure period to accelerate the testing
> time.

Yet this is the basis for much of the rat lab testing for cancer
status. Feed the rat a couple orders of magnitude more than the human
equivalent and wonder why bad things occur.

--
To find that place where the rats don't race
and the phones don't ring at all.
If once, you've slept on an island.
Scott Kirby "If once you've slept on an island"

Posted by willshak on October 30, 2009, 11:08 am

on 10/30/2009 10:04 AM (ET) Kurt Ullman wrote the following:

>> You cannot always extrapolate the effects of low level exposure by using a
>> higher concentration for a shorter exposure period to accelerate the testing
>> time.
>>

> Yet this is the basis for much of the rat lab testing for cancer
> status. Feed the rat a couple orders of magnitude more than the human
> equivalent and wonder why bad things occur.
>

Even drinking clean water can cause death.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16614865/

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

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