Agencies issue toxic drywall guidelines

Two federal agencies, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, have issued a joint set of guidelines to help homeowners and contractors identify so-called “toxic” drywall in homes. The process takes into account visual signs of metal corrosion, evidence of drywall installation in the relevant time period and the identification of other corroborating evidence.

HUD and CPSC’s two-step guidance requires a visual inspection that must show blackening of copper electrical wiring and/or air conditioning evaporator coils, and the installation of new drywall (for new construction or renovations) between 2001 and 2008. The full text of this guidance can be found at HUD’s Web site or CPSC’s Web site.

The preliminary identification guidance was developed by the Federal Interagency Task Force on Problem Drywall and is based primarily on the presence of metal corrosion in homes, as well as other indicators of problem drywall. Additional analysis will continue to validate these methods, and the identification guidance may be modified as necessary, the joint press release said.

Last month, the Louisiana attorney general filed a lawsuit against a number of drywall manufacturers, distributors and home builders over losses suffered by the state because of the product’s alleged toxicity. The CPSC has received more than 2,700 reports of health-related concerns connected to imported Chinese drywall since December 2008.