Concern Over Chinese Drywall Forcing Homeowners Into Difficult Position

A growing group of homeowners in at least 13 states are now facing the risk of foreclosure or paying for alternate living arrangements. These homeowners are not victims of a slumping economy, but of Chinese-made drywall that many believe is making them sick.

Chinese drywall has been a hot topic of conversation in recent months as more and more homeowners have found the defective and potentially dangerous product in their homes. Most of the homes affected by defective Chinese drywall are in Florida; however, reports of contaminated drywall as far north as Canada have been recently reported.

The Chinese drywall which is now the subject of numerous scientific studies contains corrosive gasses that is responsible for causing extensive damage to air conditioners and internal wiring throughout affected homes as well as possible respiratory ailments.

Some homeowners believe that they are being put in a position to choose between their health and keeping their homes.

"Families are being forced to make health decisions based on financial consideration, and that is fundamentally flawed," said Sherri Rojhani, a homeowner in Parkland, Florida. "We shouldn’t be in a position to stay in a home, based on our health," she said.

While a number of government agencies are investigating the health effects of the defective drywall the results are still some time off.

It is estimated that more than 30,000 homes could have be fitted with the defective imported drywall in some fashion or another. It appears that there is no quick way repair the defective drywall and we could be seeing the effects of this dangerous and defective product for years to come.

While there has been no conclusive evidence offered that the defective drywall may lead to an increased occurrence of respiratory ailments, it does not take much deduction to conclude that if fumes being emitted from the drywall are toxic enough to corrode metal, that these same fumes could possibly be detrimental to the human respiratory system.