Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Florida homeowners have filed a class action suit against the manufacturers of a Chinese drywall company for using toxic fly ash in materials used to construct their homes. The fly ash was reportedly purchased from a Chinese power plant and used to make the drywall.

The practice of utilities selling coal ash byproducts is not unusual. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) recently released a report stating that it sells about a third of the 7 million tons of fly ash, bottom ash, gypsum and boiler slag generated in its plants each year. Those byproducts have been mixed into concrete for roads in bridges and in blocks for buildings. The gypsum has been used in wallboard, granules for roofing shingles and grit for sandblasters. The byproducts even have been used as filler material for recreation areas, ball fields and industrial parks, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Yes, this is the same type of toxic material that spilled on to 300 acres of rural east Tennessee last December when one of the utility’s coal ash ponds failed, destroying nearby homes and causing hundreds of millions of damage to property. Environmentalists say the damage to wildlife and plant life is still to be determined, and many locals who live near the site have already suffered health problems. The coal ash contains toxins such as arsenic, lead, chromium, manganese and barium, which have been associated with serious health problems such as cancer, liver damage and neurological complications.

So it comes as little surprise that the Chinese drywall containing coal ash byproducts is also making people sick. The lawsuit alleges that the drywall emits one of several sulfur compounds giving homes made of it a foul odor. Some say those fumes also may cause respiratory health problems, headaches, dry eyes and nosebleeds. The long term affects of exposure are yet to be determined.

Other problems caused by the Chinese drywall include corrosion of air condition coils, putting homes at serious risk for electrical fires.

The class action lawsuit names the Knauf Group, PKT’s parent company; Banner Supply, a Miami-based materials supply company; and Rothchilt International, Ltd. , an export company in China. Legal experts believe many more lawsuits will follow.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 10:05 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.