Chinese Drywall Manufacturers Liable for Millions in Damages

Since 2008, Chinese-manufactured drywall has been blamed for severe corrosion and sulfur odors in homes, particularly in warm, humid southern states. Now a federal judge, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, has awarded seven Virginia families a total of $2.6 million in damages caused by drywall from one Chinese manufacturer. In another case, he awarded $164,000 to a single family to cover the costs of remediation. At the same time, remediation guidance issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for homes with Chinese drywall shows that these figures are not unreasonably high, and may in fact match the costs faced by homeowners.

In his decision in the Virginia case, Judge Fallon wrote that Chinese-manufactured drywall contained a “significantly higher concentration of strontium and significantly more detectable levels of elemental sulfur” than that manufactured in the U.S. He also noted that the “level of corrosive sulfur gases emitted by Chinese drywall exceeded the safe level established by recognized standards.”