HOMEOWNERS QUIZ NELSON, WEXLER OVER CHINESE DRYWALL CONCERNS
Published by: Palm Beach Post
Published on: 4/8/09
Written by: Allison Ross
WEST PALM BEACH — Homeowners from developments ranging from Boynton Beach to Parkland gathered at West Palm Beach City Hall today to meet with Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. over Chinese drywall concerns.
Nelson opened the meeting with a call for the resignation of the acting chief of the U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission. “We need to put a fire under the responsible agencies,” said Nelson, who yesterday penned a letter to the White House saying that the CPSC “is doing too little, too late to help residents of Florida and other states.”
However, homeowners attending the event were much more interested in discussing the possible health effects of living in a home with the tainted product: The plasterboard emits sulfuric gas thought to corrode metal, including air conditioning coils, bathroom fixtures and jewelry.
“I simply cannot wait around for the Consumer Product and Safety Commission to conduct its studies... and tell me what I already know in my gut: this is bad stuff,” said Parkland homeowner Holly Krulik. “We're not asking for a bailout; we just need assistance to get through this difficult time.”
Ron Nault, a representative of the Laborers International Union of North America, offered up a different sort of concern: “What about the workers taking this stuff out of the homes? What do we do with the thing? Put it in a landfill?” - then offered his own suggestion: “Put it on a barge and send it back to China.”
Once rarely used, drywall was imported from China as the residential building boom and post-hurricane repairs created a shortage of U.S.-produced material.
China is conducting its own investigation, according to the state-run news agency there. So is Florida's Department of Health, which has collected more than 200 drywall-related complaints. To date, no health problems have been definitively linked to the drywall.
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