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StumbleBuilder disputes claim that Chinese drywall linked to LV health problems
Published Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 | 10:51 a.m.
Updated Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 | 7:01 p.m.
Imported Chinese drywall is causing health problems for occupants of homes in two Las Vegas neighborhoods, lawyers charge in a lawsuit filed Thursday. But the builder says Chinese drywall wasn't used in homes named in the lawsuit.
Attorneys who handle construction defect lawsuits filed suit in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas against subsidiaries of Miami-based homebuilder Lennar Corp. and drywall manufacturer Georgia-Pacific Corp. of Atlanta.
The suit, seeking class-action status for all Nevadans suffering health problems because of imported Chinese drywall, was filed by the law firm Fuller Jenkins on behalf of owners of four homes.
Three of the homes are in a neighborhood near Jones Boulevard and Grand Teton Drive; and the fourth is near Hollywood Boulevard and Desert Inn Road.
Federal regulators studying health problems associated with imported Chinese drywall say they have received reports of such problems in 24 states. Nevada is not among them, but reports of Chinese drywall are under investigation in neighboring California and Arizona.
Local building officials have said it would be unusual for drywall to be imported into Las Vegas, since drywall is manufactured in the Las Vegas area by Georgia-Pacific and others. And the Southern Nevada Health District is not aware of any local health problems associated with Chinese drywall, a spokeswoman said Friday.
But attorneys say the Las Vegas plaintiffs are suffering health problems because of Chinese-made drywall in their homes.
The lawsuit says the Chinese drywall, also known as sheetrock and wallboard, emits toxic vapors and chemicals that cause corrosion in electrical wiring, heating and air conditioning systems, refrigerators, plumbing components, faucets, lighting fixtures and household appliances such as microwaves.
The attorneys say the Chinese drywall is dangerous because it was made with fly ash -- waste material from scrubbers on coal-fired power plants. They say the drywall emits sulfur compounds including sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide and the results for humans include allergic reactions, coughing, sinus and throat infections, nose bleeds, eye irritation, respiratory problems and other health issues.
Lennar disputed the allegations in the lawsuit Friday.
"After reviewing our records, we have found no evidence to indicate that Lennar homes in Las Vegas were built with drywall imported from China," said Lennar Division President Jeremy Parness. "Records from our suppliers show that the homes named in the lawsuit were built with domestic drywall. We are aware of no evidence to support a claim that these homeowners have Chinese drywall, much less that they have suffered any health problems due to Chinese drywall."
The company also released letters from suppliers to show Chinese drywall was not used in the homes named in the lawsuit.
"Please be aware that CALPLY Las Vegas has not purchased any drywall manufactured in China, or outside the United States for that matter," said a letter from CALPLY official Ray Jansma to a drywall subcontractor for the home near Hollywood Boulevard.
"The bulk of the (drywall) CALPLY sells in Las Vegas is Pabco Gypsum and is mined and manufactured right here in Las Vegas,'' the April 27 letter said.
Another letter dated Friday from Winroc Corp., concerning three of the homes at issue near Jones Boulevard in the lawsuit, said: "The referenced houses were stocked with local domestically produced wallboard. Winroc Las Vegas utilizes local plants for their purchase of all wallboard products.'"
"CertainTeed Gypsum has a plant in Blue Diamond west of Las Vegas and Georgia-Pacific has a plant at Apex northeast of Las Vegas. The raw materials come from various gypsum mines in the Southwestern U.S. No Winroc locations have purchased any foreign wallboard at any time," said the letter from Winroc official Jason Alexander.
Also Friday, a Georgia-Pacific spokeswoman said the company does not import drywall from China as it manufactures the product at plants in North America.
"To our knowledge, we have received no complaints similar to those reported for Chinese drywall from any homeowners in Nevada," Georgia-Pacific spokeswoman Melodie Ruse said.
The company, however, was sued in Florida in April by homeowners claiming certain of its American-made synthetic drywall products are also causing corrosion in home components and health problems by allegedly emitting sulfur, methane and other volatile organic chemical compounds.
In a July 17 court filing, Georgia-Pacific moved that the lawsuit be dismissed, arguing it lacked merit. That case is pending.
In regulatory filings, Lennar said that as of May 31 it had confirmed Chinese drywall was used in about 400 homes it built in Florida. Lennar said it's suing the entire Chinese drywall supply chain in hopes of mitigating financial damages it may sustain because of the problem.
"Lennar has never specified imported drywall from China for installation in its homes and never received a discount when it was substituted for domestic products. Lennar has been working diligently with its homeowners in an effort to address this industry-wide defective product issue,'' the company said in a statement issued in January.
"Lennar fully intends to seek remedies from the manufacturer and other responsible parties,'' the statement said.
Lennar said that as of July 10, it was aware of 41 Florida state court lawsuits and two federal class action lawsuits that have been filed against it by homeowners and their family members in connection with defective Chinese drywall.
Thursday's lawsuit in Las Vegas names as defendants Georgia-Pacific Gypsum LLC, Georgia-Pacific LLC and Lennar subsidiaries Lennar Nevada Inc., Greystone Nevada LLC and U.S. Home Corp.
It says the homeowners face substantial costs to remove and replace the affected drywall and home components allegedly damaged by the alleged drywall fumes.
The plaintiffs assert claims of product liability, breach of warranties and negligence and are seeking unspecified damages including damages for medical costs and monitoring
The defendants are accused of failing to supply drywall without defects, failing to inspect their building materials to ensure they were safe, failing to warn homeowners and home occupants of potential dangers, failing to recall dangerous products and of concealing information about the alleged dangers posed by the drywall.
The homes named in Thursday's lawsuit are on Matisse Avenue and Villa de Medici Street, near Jones and Grand Teton; and on Gloucester Gate Street near Hollywood and Desert Inn.
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Sick Sick sick. No morals. Send em all to prison. Greedy sick f
Never thought I would say I am glad to have mexican drywall in my home.
You take any nation (not the USA) that has absolutely no controls in place for human health issues,production safety testing, quality control,that allows the manufacturing of counter-feit goods, (the list goes on) and you ask them to mfg goods for export to the U.S.A. .. and you reap the rewards. Our mfg. business men travel to another country to set up production. After the golf game, they are told that "oh yes, we will use safe produts. The paints will contain no lead. The food will not contain bad chemicals." Those countries want OUR MONEY and will tell our reps anything to secure the contract. They will even LIE. Good luck on 3rd woprld imports.
Part 1 of 2:
In terms of issues related to Chinese Drywall, the problem is that large national homebuilders buy their construction materials in large bulk quantities, at a significant discount. The Chinese Drywall arrives by the cargo container load at ports around the country, and then it is distributed by the container load to the national homebuilders' construction sites all over the country.
As a result, there could be a drywall manufacturing plant just down the street from a new housing tract, yet the homes built by a national homebuilder would still have Chinese Drywall. If you set a Google Alert for the word "drywall" you'll see stories every day, from all around the country, concerning this problem.
As to local homebuilders in Las Vegas (Rhodes, American West, Storybook, Astoria) I have no idea where they got their drywall for new homes built in the last 4-5 years, but the fact that some plaintiffs lawyers have enough evidence to include Georgia Pacific as a defendant makes me worry that American building supply companies were getting their drywall made in China, branded with their well recognized American trade name, and shipped over here. Remember the tires carried famous American brank names which kept failing during collisions, killing people? Those tires were made by an Asian company which had bought the American brand name. Apparently, there is a similar problem with American brand names being put on Chinese made drywall.
So, we'll see who used it locally, beyond national homebuilders.
Lennar is taking an interesting position on this issue in Florida, helping their home buyers move out of homes with Chinese drywall, stripping out the Chinese drywall, and then rebuilding the homes. From Florida news stories I've read, the cost of stripping out the Chinese drywall, replacing it, and then rebuilding the home, in Florida, costs almost as much as buying a brand new home. To recover their costs, in Florida, Lennar is suing their drywall suppliers. See the industry news stories cited at the bottom of this post.
The fire safety and public health issues relating to the off-gassing of sulfur from Chinese drywall are real, not just some crazy thing made up by class action lawyers. See, for example, the Consumer Product Safety Commission's website on the problem:
http://www.cpsc.gov/info/drywall/index.h...
Part 2 of 2:
If you don't read any other secondary stories on the issue of Chinese drywall, read these two stories from the home construction industry's magazine Big Builder:
http://www.bigbuilderonline.com/post.asp...
http://www.bigbuilderonline.com/industry...
In their own trade publications, like Big Builder, which the public can see online at bigbuilderonline.com, big national homebuilders have been readily admitting the serious fire safety and public health the Chinese drywall is causing. Just go to that website and type in the words "Chinese drywall" in their search engines. That is why Lennar, in Florida, is acting responsibly to solve the problem by moving people out of Lennar homes built with Chinese drywall.
For example, here are two other Chinese drywall stories from that same building industry website as they relate to Lennar homes in Florida:
http://www.bigbuilderonline.com/industry...
http://www.bigbuilderonline.com/industry...
The bottom line, from a consumer point of view, is "Never believe what a manufacturer tells you". Remember the melamine in the dog food? We were very worried, but the manufacturer of the food we fed our dogs put out a press release saying their dog food didn't have melamine in it, so we didn't change dog foods. Guess what? The dog food manufacturer was lying. Their dog food had melamine in it and our dogs died as a result.
The World Trade Organization, and similar multi-national trade protection groups, vehemently oppose requirements for labeling which discloses where the ingredients for a product are made. It seems like it doesn't matter whether it's lead in toys, melamine in dog food or corrosive toxic sulfur gas in drywall. If something is made in China, chances are pretty good it will kill you and your family, either over the long term or the short term, depending on the product.
I would be surprised if Chinese drywall were installed in these homes. If these houses don't contain Chinese drywall, Lennar should be able to sue these attorneys for every dime they have.
TO: CynicalObserver
I totally agree. see my comment before yours.
I DON'T BELIEVE ANT OF THE LYING BAST_ _DS
I agree with clynical observer. We are friends of one the families who have the Chinese drywall here in Las Vegas. They have had health problems for sometime now. No one knew why they were all getting sick, nosebleeds, headaches, and dizziness on a daily basis. They had gone to several different doctors, and none of the doctors could find what was wrong.
After having their house checked by a certified home inspector and removing several samples of the drywall it was confirmed by the lab that it was Chinese drywall. Not only will these people be affected health wise they will have to relocate their whole family/pets and all their belongs while the house is completely gutted to remove all sheet rock and ceilings. I urge anyone who has unexplained health issues to have their home checked if they are living in a new home, built by Lennar or U.S. Homes since U.S. Homes was owned by Lennar at that time.
I personally don't know why we are buying anything from China.
I have Chinese drywall and each night before I go to bed, I leave my back up against it and get a free Chinese massage.
Everyone is buried in their home and looking for any reason to sue or get out of paying for it.
When they paid 4x to much for it, they had big smiles on their face, the market crashes now everything is wrong, they were lied too, they have Chinese drywall ect... DEAL WITH IT..
Hey danutz, I see you don't have any pity for these people, what about all the babies who were given the bad formula from China and got sick and died? What about all the dog owners who fed the dogs the dog food from China and were told it was good? Do you have any pity for them. Maybe you think the people whose tires blew out were happy to loose their family members just to get out of an over priced car payment. Or maybe you just own stock in Lennar.
I am sure these people are not happy to be sick every day and lose the home they love.
This is unbelievable....even Sheetrock imported? So unbelievable.
Do your best to assure it doesn't say MADE IN CHINA on anything you pick up. It's hard,believe me, it's hard. But it can be done.
It's important to realize that not just Lennar/U.S. Homes ended up with Chinese drywall. If you follow the stories on this issue, coming out of the hot and humid parts of the country like Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, it was MANY national homebuilders who used Chinese drywall.
I've read that a lot of the homes which were repaired after the Katrina Hurricane ended up with Chinese drywall, bought at well known national home and building supply companies with big box stores. You know who they are.
Cool chart posted from the Herald Tribune:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/assets/pdf/...
It shows 6,000 houses' worth of Chinese drywall imported into California ports. You would think it would have been more practical for the homebuilders who used it to buy Nevada drywall, as described above, which would not have had to make the long trip from China.
However, a penny saved is a penny earned when you're in the building business.
In my line of work the sheetrock is commonly tested for asbestos. Chinese sheetrock that is.
We reap what we sow.
Pretty soon China will completely own ALL phases of American business and we truly will be done for.
Calply is owned by U.S. Gypsum, owners of the "sheetrock" brand name.
Georgia Pacific (Owned by Koch, Inc. David Koch funded the Cato Institute-A big founder of right wing causes. Koch has a negative track record of worker safety and pollution..check on Internet search engine. They paid one of the largest settlements in history because one of their pipeline failed. Their main business is oil.)
anyway, Georgia Pacific would not sell to Calply because of their ownership, instead they would sell to REW, who would divert the shipments to Calply. Pabco,and BPB sells to everyone usually.
Since the chart referenced above shows Chinese Wallboard going into WA and CA, it would not be unusual for wallboard from Georgia Pacific's Long Beach, Antioch CA or Tacoma WA or Sigurd UT plant to be shipped into the Las Vegas Plant.
Furthermore, gypsum and paper might come from all over, Oklahoma, etc. If wallboard is damaged, it is often recycled at these plants. Therefore damaged (broken, got wet, in shipment or at plant, etc.) wallboard from China might have been ground up into domestic produced wallboard.
Even if the wallboard came from domestic sources it might be contaminated anyway. Google: EPA -Georgia Pacific, all kinds of chemicals are/were getting into the water-table at Georgia Pacific's APEX Plant and they cut a deal.
Its just like ground meat, or the wheat gluten, once it's here, it shows up everywhere.
I hope these poor people prevail against these big bad business people.
PS They sometimes put fly ash in US made wallboard, and asbestos was in wallboard before 1980, as well as spackle, corkboard, etc. etc. so when it gets "recycled" in could get anywhere.
Also some of the yellow fiberglass "paper" Georgia Pacific uses on some of its wallboard, especially that used in airshafts and elevator shafts, and soffit covers in the USA is imported from CHINA!!!!!
I would like to start by saying I am a close family member to one of the home owners that have the tested and confirmed chinese drywall here in las vegas. I have seen first hand what this does to a human body. I have seen this family member walk around the house with tissues put up the nose due to a constant bloody nose. There are several trips a month to the doctors, which are out of state due to retirement insurance for severe unexplained dizziness and illnesses. I have witnessed the intense migraines that even prescribed migraine medicine does not help. I have left this house with severe migraines myself.
Let me say to some of the skeptics who have commented here is that this has nothing to do with getting out from what they owe on their house. They owe NOTHING on their house. They want the builders to correct this injustice. Their retirement home as well as others are completely contaminated by the save a penny chinese drywall.
These houses are making Americans ill and action must be taken to surface the truth and have it corrected. I am disgusted that some people would assume this is just to bail out of their retirement home.
I would hope and urge that all who had new homes built by the named builders have their homes tested.
I think GP shut down the Long Beach plant because of polution concerns, lv citizen, Call the EPA and request they inspect the Apex plant.
I subscribe to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's automated updates on the Chinese drywall situation. You can too if you go to their website. Here's what came up on their email alerts this morning:
The following new content has been posted to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission's Drywall Information Center located at http://www.cpsc.gov/info/drywall/index.h...
Press Statement on Phosphogypsum <http://www.cpsc.gov/info/drywall/phospho...>
Technical evaluation of "EPA's analysis of Florida drywall samples and review of analytical results from the Florida Department of Health" <http://www.cpsc.gov/info/drywall/tefinal...>
The Drywall Information Center (http://www.cpsc.gov/info/drywall/index.h...) provides information on CPSC's investigation of problem drywall. CPSC has received over 600 reports from residents in more than 20 states and the District of Columbia who believe their health symptoms or the corrosion of certain metal components in their homes are related to the presence of drywall produced in China.
To report suspected problem drywall, visit https://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/incident.asp...
Mred you rock!
Why doesn't someone ask "Ray" over at CALPLY, why they have been getting their Georgia Pacific Wallboard via REW Materials?
U S Gypsum has a plant in UTAH, I believe it is next to Georgia Pacific's Plant in Segard, yet they say they get their wallboard from Pabco.
I hope they are testing the wallboard going into the new housing they are building for our troops out at Nellis and the new casinos and high-rise condos?
Also, your cpsc chart shows AZ is a problem state, they get wallboard from New Mexico, or Las Vegas NV, maybe CA, I think there might be a plant in Yuma AZ too. So I can't see Nevada not being a problem area then.
This looks like another problem on the level of the ENDOSCOPY CLINIC INFECTIONS.
Since it involves different states and countries and international trade we need some additional Federal oversight. I think a number of Florida congress people are proposing more legislation.
(By 2003 Georgia Pacific had 314,000 claims involving asbestos related illness, they (Koch Inc.) also paid out $375 million because a pipeline, they were told was bad, blew up and killed some kids. Encyclopedia of White Collar Crime)
NOW GO TO WAL-MART AND BUY YOUR CHINESE GARBAGE.....you get what you pay for.
I bought some drywall recently from one of the large retail home improvement stores. Out of habit, I always check country of manufacture, selecting U.S.A. if at all possible. I consider Mexico oe Canada products acceptable over Chinese products. The "made in U.S.A. drywall which I bought was so inexpensive, I can't imagine it being done cheaper in China when shipping cost is included. And I am talking retail price. I did manage to find all of the other supplies made in U.S.A. too (nails, blades, compound, etc.). We have to demand American products wherever possible. I always look at the country of manufacture when I buy tires. U.S. made are worth a little extra cost to pay the union prices, and usually last longer too. What we need is a good long dock workers strike. It would be good for all companies with U.S., Canadian or Mexican plants! I looked at a new GMC truck yesterday, assembled in Mexico, but 75% of parts were made in U.S.
As an author of six books, my latest is titled "Enough to make you sick" on the tainted and counterfeit imports from China. One chapter is exclusively on the dry wall that came from Chinese mines loaded with Sulfur and this particular distributor was in fact responsible for selling this bad drywall to builders in Florida (30,000 homes). It affected the air conditioning units, turned silver and jewelry black and caused sicknesses to both people and pets. When they say they knew nothing about this, this is completely untrue. Just read what I say in my book...available on www.amazon.com...and it will explain exactly what happened and who is at fault.
Jerry A. Grunor
Author
First of all, my hat is off to all the above posters who so impressively have added such quality information. A special thanks to Cynical Observer and Mred.
Secondly, the WTO is no friend of the United States. Countries have long used it against us, yet American access to foreign markets remains highly restricted. And I find it outrageous that U.S. consumers cannot find "country of origin" information of products we consume. I once tried to chase down where Walmart procures it's bottled water. After going around and around with the trained obfuscator at the other end of the 1-800 number we are invited to call with any questions, I realized she would NEVER confirm or deny if the water was, in fact, bottled across the border. WE PUT THIS INTO OUR BODIES. We have the right and the need to know where it comes from.
For that matter, we have the right and need to know where ANY product -food, or not- originates from. This sheetrock tragedy is just one more example of why. I don't care if the following turns the entire regime of trade treaties on its head: the U.S. needs to pull out of the WTO, and needs to start negotiating trade treaties on a bi-lateral basis. Our economy and our people are getting sold down the river by the interests of "globalists" who really are negligibly disguised merchantilists.
If you do enough research on this problem you will find that it isn't just Chinese drywall causing the problems, but there are some US suppliers as well.
Because of our very low humidity here, the problems are not showing up as fast or as severe as the rest of the country (Florida and Louisiana). Aside from the serious health problems, the easiest way to tell is if your air conditioning coil has had to be replaced due to corrosion problems and your house was built between 2003 and 2008 here in Las Vegas.
Check the condensate tubing outside your house where the air conditioner water drains. If you have a newer house and you see a lot of rust there, then you should have your A/C indoor coil checked for corrosion, and you may have the drywall problem in your house. This is not limited to Lennar.
Of course, our builders all deny they used defective product to build our houses. They lie and lie until the courts make them produce their records and the testing proves they used bad materials. In the meantime, we live in the homes they built and just get sicker. We can't even sell the homes and get away.
This Chinese drywall, tires, lead in toys, melamine in food and heaven knows what else is certainly a problem. I once went through the packaged food section in the 99 Cents Store and could find only one box indicating the food was made in the U.S.A. It didn't even say that. It said "Raisins from California".
However, I wanted to add a clip from a story in today's London Telegraph:
"The bee-eating hornets, instantly recognisable by their yellow feet, are rapidly spreading round France and entomologists fear that they will eventually cross the Channel and arrive in Britain.
Hundreds of the insects attacked a mother on a stroll with her five-month-old baby in the Lot-et-Garonne department, southwestern France, at the weekend before turning on a neighbour who ran over to help. The baby was unharmed.
They then pursued two passers by and two Dutch tourists on bikes. The victims were treated in hospital for multiple stings, which are said to be as painful as a hot nail piercing the skin.
In the same week, a cleaner in local primary school came under attack after disturbing a hornet nest hidden in the ground.
The Vespa velutina, which grow up to an inch in length, is thought to have arrived in France from the Far East in a consignment of Chinese pottery in late 2004.
They first settled in the forests of Aquitaine, but quickly fanned out to surrounding areas, thriving on rising temperatures linked to global warming and the lack of indigenous predators.
Denis Thiery, an Asian hornet specialist at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, said there was nothing to halt their spread."
Of course, we in the U.S.A. will continue to be deluged with cargo containers of junk from China, so mark my words the Chinese hornets plaguing France are next.
If you think Chinese hornets are bad, check out what the emerald ash borer, from China, has done to the midwest. The number of trees lost or cut down to try and stop the spread of this bug is in the millions. The costs so far are in the billions. This fight is far from over. If your traveling in this area you will see signs urging campers to buy their firewood locally and not transport it. This is part of the fight to stop the spread of this insect, not drum up business for the locals.
Let's quit blaming Wal-Mart for all things Chinese. Most of your retailers are chock full of Chinese or imported. Many of your retailers take the Wal-Mart stuff and put a fancy label on it and charge you more.
The company I retired from made products sold to Home Depot, Lowes, Sears, Ace Hardware, Menards, and other large and small home improvement and hardware chains. Most of these products contain few if any made in USA parts. Mostly China with a few Mexican parts here and there. We also own our own plants in China making parts. Our products under our own brands and usually installed by professionals can be found in most homes in the US, are chock full of Chinese and imported parts. Same with our competitors. My point here is your house and mine, especially if it was built or had items replaced in the last 10 years, has plenty of Chinese stuff in it that you are totally unaware of. On our boxes you have no idea where it's made, just assembled, if at all. Years ago if a part in the product was made in China, it was labeled or stamped saying so. At least where I worked, in the last few years all identification of origin of those parts was removed.
Could Wal-mart stay in business if you refused to buy "made in China" products?
I agree with those who say not to quickly blame Wal-mart for 100% of the problem. Wal-Mart is a retailer, not a manufacturer. Yes, their demands for cost cuts from suppliers causes the suppliers to go overseas, but those suppliers also sell to Target, Macy's, Lowe's, Toys R Us, etc. I am not defending this practice. Just stating some facts. As consumers, we need to demand U.S. products whenever possible. If we leave the Chinese goods on the shelf, maybe they will get the message. Builders should demand U.S. manufactured drywall and other products as well. Maybe one of the chains could open outlets called "Made in America" with only U.S., Canadian and Mexican products. I'd shop there.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has spoken to the argument about consumers voting with their dollars and refusing to buy foreign made products. He concludes, everyone likes the idea; nobody practices it with their own pocketbooks. This is a clear cut case where individuals cannot achieve this goal, acting individually. I like to view myself as a small government conservative. But the reality is that Americans are outgunned by all the other nations in the world which act collectively and have self-serving national economic policies. Free trade works best. Free trade, when you're the only free trader, works great for your trading partners, at YOUR expense.
We need a brand-new trade policy, and immigration policy, NOW.
The above thread contains some pretty brutal, if unsubstantiated claims. Never ceases to amaze me how some will rush to judgement without one minute of research or a shred of proof.
Please don't misunderstand. I have great sympathy and concern for the families that are suffering for whatever reason they're suffering. But to suggest that all ailments currently affecting Las Vegas residents is related to drywall is like saying every time someone gets the flu, big business is to blame. And just because something's happened in other states does not automatically mean it's happened here.
There are some economic reasons to support that statement. First of all drywall, like many building materials is a commodity and as such is sold at razor thin profit margins. Additionally it's very heavy meaning the cost of transport (especially from halfway around the World) would negate any savings that might be realized. This is especially true in Las Vegas where three manufacturers in a small market keep prices extraordinarily competitive. This is not saying there IS no Chinese drywall in Las Vegas, just that it's economically unlikely.
Finally, as much as I care about the plight of those suffering from maladies, I loathe to a similar degree the attorneys who actively solicit individuals and Homeowners Associations promising a "Pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow" knowing that they'll keep 70% of that pot while the parties that may indeed deserve some compensation will get a small fraction.
In the end, it's the attorneys who win, whether or not it's proven that Chinese drywall is to blame,they'll collect. The homeowners who are legitmately ill may or may not ever find out what's causing their illness. And all of us will pay higher prices for our homes because the legal "profession" forces that burden onto big business, ultimately at the expense of the consumer.