Is Drywall the Next Chinese Import Scandal?

Here we are doing business with a third world nation, and former enemy, or ENEMY, and we have not figured it out as of yet that there is something sinister behind these toxic products.  Let me see, lead in toys, jewerly, ceramics, recycled paper in foods, petro products in baby formulas.  And the list goes on, and on.  Attacks on our computer network, industrial, and military espionage.  Well we really screwed the pooch this time, in pursuit of cheap labor.  Just goes to show, you get what you pay for.

I tend to think the dangerous and poor quality products are not intentional (the officials in China found responsible for the melanin scandal were tried, and one toy manufacturer linked to lead poisoning committed suicide).  I'd say it's the enormous business boom they've had over the last couple decades combined with very lax industry standards.

www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/business/worldbusiness/23suicide.html

The U.S. and other countries are not exempt from similar issues.  I have the FDA daily recall list on my toolbar, and it never fails to surprise me.  Right now pretty much anything made with pistachios from California is being recalled.

www.fda.gov/.../7alerts.HTML

www.nytimes.com/.../31nuts.html

Like curious7 said, you get what you pay for and the demand for cheap prices means something's got to give somewhere along the line.  The farms and other industries are becoming consolidated into huge businesses, so that when there is a screw-up, it's a massive screw-up that affects hundreds of thousands all around the world.

There is nothing if not enmity towards us from the Chinese.  I for one read all labels to determine the source of any food  or product I'm buying,  I understand Canada receives food  products from China and processes them and labels them as coming from Canada, therefore, I don't buy food from Canada.  Almost all products from China are substandard and really not worth the gas to bring them home.  My solution is to not buy ANYTHING made in China.  If you want to know where to get products made in USA there are web sites that will lead you to American made products.   Just go to your search engine and ask for products made in USA.  American made products will cost more, but if they last and give good service they are a bargain in the long run.

Ummm, the flooring you mention made of bamboo also has been found to have toxic problems.  I would not trust any products coming from China.  They don't care about safety any more than our FDA does.

At first I too was thinking that this could be malicious, but then remembered they are doing all of this to their own people too.  Remember the cardboard bread that made so many Chinese sick?  The factory cities have employees who are frequently sick.  Worse, their life expectancy, working in and around these factories is very low.  I think the problem with Chinese products is that they just don't care, or don't think it's important and possibly because they have such a huge population.  Also, their type of government, where no one is allowed to dissent, doesn't help,  In fact, this may be one of the greatest reasons of all.  But all these reasons should be making us to choose better products!!  Why are we not doing this??  I know many American producats are overpriced and we are underpayed to keep up with the cost of living, but stop buying junk you don't need.  Save your money and only buy what's necessary, recycling what you already have.  There are better ways than our glutonous consumption, that is now making us sick.

I'm really curious the reasoning behind all the poisons in our products from China. Is it intentionally malicious? Is it ignorance and/or lack of guidelines and inspections? Either way, it really sounds like we'd be wise to stop doing business with China. Poisoned products can't be cheap enough.

They already own America. We owe a debt to them that we can never repay. Plus they make us sick with seafood, baby food, toxic construction materials that we breath 24/7. That will cost millions of dollars in new health related issues not to mention the cost of gutting and rebuilding all those homes. Sounds pretty concerted to me and a sure fire way to weaken an already numbed, bankrupt society. Sick, slave state here we come.

China is no longer a third world country.  They have more college graduates than the US! (a smaller percentage of a larger population).  They are not a former enemy, China was, in fact, a key ally in WWII.  Continuing to view the Chinese as "sinister" is stereotyping and ignorant.  Quality control is the issue.  In the fifties and sixties, we viewed many Japanese products as cheap and of poor quality.  Now Japanese products, especially their cars and electronic equipment, have proven to be superior to their US counterparts. Chinese  products are constantly improving over time but keep in mind it is the US consumer  that is demanding quick and cheap imports.  Our government desperately needs to improve our quality control in terms of imports, financial ratings, and checks and balances of our financial institutions.  Our capitalistic system and means of production need major changes in order to compete in a global economy.  

 And now, they are contemplating allowing imported chinese Chickens.  Can you imagine the filth they are raised under?

Don't we have enough domestic chickens?   On with the organic free range chickens for me.

I don't trust anything that comes from China since melamine killed our neighbor's cat.

For those worried about this issue, you should know that The Home Depot does NOT sell imported drywall, from China or any where else.

The Chinese are all about face. The poor lout most likely killed himself because he got caught and lost face, not because of some great remorse he felt when he suddenly realized the harm he had caused.  In China, if one can cheat, lie or steal, and get away with it, great! Just don't get caught, because if you do, you bring shame on yourself and the ancestors that you unofficially still worship.

How do we learn from this mistake?

What do we do to remove the product that made it to market and into homes (and not just based on egg smell and people getting sick after being exposed)?

Are there any testing kits that could tell you sulfur levels before using drywall in a new renovation or building? Or for someone to test a wall in home they are planning on buying?

Why are we not random batch testing these products to increase the chances that they will get caught so they would be less likely to do things like this? (The FDA could be using their limited resources to do this instead of attacking raw dairy.)

Maybe Americans should not just buy whatever is the cheapest? Maybe we should be demanding more from the products we buy without additional government regulations (though sometimes it's a "how could we have known without specialized expensive testing equipment?")

A great example of selling what you can get away with is chocolate in Europe ... they can sell us crap chocolate with tons of fillers and bad stuff but in Europe people are more likely to choose quality chocolate. I even think some companies have caught on to this and make in inferior higher profit margin chocolate for the American consumer. Cadbury (England) licensed to Hersey's (USA) and has different ingredients even on their cream eggs. Mexican Coke is another example (uses sugar instead of HFCS.) Sometimes the differences do have to do with regulations and sometimes not.

I seriously doubt China as a country is doing this maliciously, the companies are looking for highest profit margin, not safety (for the consumers or the workers.) How to make a quick buck. And a quick buck isn't just about using unsafe materials- there are labeling tricks, shorting products in cases and not by accident... it's happening.

Sigh...

There is a product that can help with wood contamination. We have treated our deck and fence with it. It's called Wood Shield and it actually draws the moisture out of  wood and replaces it with a silicon substance. This is all good to help preserve the wood, but the best part is that it encapsulates the wood in a food grade cedar solution so that none of the toxins can escape. The company name is All About Green (www.aboutgreen.biz). I wish we had healthy solutions for all of these potential dangers!

Good grief, what else can happen!  I would have never thought drywall would be a problem.

Well, this comment is a bit late, so may not be seen, however I still think it is worth making. What seems to escape most (but thankfully not all) of the other commenters who either complain that China might be doing this deliberately or, shock horror, it is a COMMUNIST COUNTRY so what else do you expect, is that it is our own entrepreneurs that are producing this stuff taking advantage of the fact that there are no costly fair wages and decent working conditions for employees,  nor costly pollution, safety, or quality controls to bleed their obscene profits. Face it, all the home grown manufacturers have taken their operations off shore purely for this reason. Think about it. They can afford to take their raw materials from home, freight them to China (and other asian countries don't forget) manufacture their products there, and freight them back to home and sell them cheaper than a locally made product. The only reason that they can do this is that we do not insist that our own companies treat the Asian workers no less well than we would expect to be treated, and insist on the same pollution, safety and quality controls that we have at home. The winners here are a few already obscenely wealthy shareholders and executives, of these manufacturing corporations, and in particular those of freight companies who shuttle the raw materials one way and the finished goods the other making a fortune in the process. The short sighted chase for supposedly cheaper products at the expense of the planet and our own health as well as the health and safety of the populations in those asian countries is what allows this to continue. Until these companies are forced to apply the same rules off shore as they have to comply with at home, they will always go with the most economically advantageous decision of manufacturing off shore. It is up to us to change this, no one else will do it for us unless we insist on it. Just don't buy the products.

Why import this stuff from China? In Britain we use stone for dry-stone walling. I'm boggled.....

Do people still think that China isn't doing this on purpose? I can't beleive it isn"t.

I'm wondering... is sulphur bad in and of itself?  Is it toxic no matter what?  We get sulphur smell in our well every once in awhile, especially when we've had rain and our water table is higher with flooding going on.  I didn't know if it was harmful when we showered, but I got fed up with the horrible odor and my husband finally poured some bleach in the well and we let it sit for 6 hours then flushed it through the pipes.  We have a whole house filter but it won't filter the sulphur like I wish.

Oh, and by the way, I got a new kitchen last year and the off gases was starting to make my face tingle and go numb.  We didn't know of anyway to detox the house except to keep fresh air as much as possbile and we did run Dr. Mercola's air purifier as much as possible (I dont' think the purifier does as much as he thinks it does).  It's much better now.

The problem with China is that they have no quality control.  I don't know how many times I had to return some electronic product to the store because it was defective.  I guess it goes with all their products.  They fill up 'dollar stores' with some of the rejects.  

In the UK plaster board with a smell of rotten eggs when damp is quite common.   Power station flue gases are desulphurised by introducing lime/limestone powder into the gases. The resulting mixture of fly ash and "used limestone" is then used to make cement and plaster board.   Ash from waste incinerators can also be incorporated.

The fact that it is being noticed in Florida is probably because of the local climate rather than the fact that the plaster board came from China.

Well, I tried to post this several days ago but the moderator snagged it and would not post it. All I said was, it's typical of China to ship tainted materials to us unsuspecting Americans (and many others) so if it says Made in China, I will absolutely not buy it for any reason and I hope the rest of the world will do the same UNTIL China can clean up their dirty acts.  Even then (assuming they ever do) I'll boycott items made in China for political reasons but hey, that's just me.

Dear Moderator, will you post my comment this time?

Thanks.