The consumer advocacy group Americas Watchdog is making a major issue out of toxic drywall from China which it claims was installed in hundreds of thousands of homes in the US southeast. According to the group, the drywall  contributes to the following problems:

• Continuous failure of air conditioning coils, or HVAC units beyond anything normal. Copper AC coils have turned black, or a grayish black.
• Oven, or stove elements, or refrigerator coils may have failed a number of times.
• Failure of electrical appliances, computer, TV sets, radios, DVD players, smoke detectors, microwave display panels may have failed.
• Corroded, or black electrical wiring.
• High end silver jewelry, or silver plated utensils turn black.
• Light bulbs in homes with toxic Chinese drywall may burn out at a much faster rate than specified by the manufacturer.
• The homeowners, or their families are sick.

Operation Helping Hands, a Catholic ministry that employed thousands of volunteers to rebuild nearly 200 homes after Hurricane Katrina, is reported to have announced that it will shut down sooner than expected, because of its encounter with toxic chinese drywall. It plans to spend its remaining funds on replacing drywall in those homes that have been affected by installation of the product.

The suspicion is that the drywall contains excessive levels of fly ash and that the fly ash breaks down to emit sulphurous gases in the high humidity of the US South. Time magazine has reported that more than 550 million pounds of drywall has been imported from China since 2006 and that at least 60,000 homes are affected.

The relevant Americas Watchdog web site is at http://chinesedrywallcomplaintcenter.com/