Under the agreement, which could receive final approval next year, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin, a Chinese affiliate of Germany’s Knauf Gips KG, would provide cash settlements or pay to replace the drywall in affected homes. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against KPT and other Chinese makers of the affected drywall, which was installed in homes during the housing boom of the mid-2000s, when domestic drywall was in short supply.

Homeowners, many in Southern states, have complained of a rotten-egg odor and sulfur fumes that corrode wiring and metal pipes. About 5,200 plaintiffs allege that their homes contain the problematic KPT drywall, and roughly half of those have submitted evidence.

Steven Glickstein, an attorney representing KPT, said the company was “pleased to have the problem behind them, or at least start the process now in a very definitive way.” Some plaintiffs’ lawyers said the cost of the settlement could reach $1 billion. KPT said it is too early to provide an estimate.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drywall, exports, product safety
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

According to the CPSC, 45% of the consumer products and 90% of all toys sold in the United States come from China and Hong Kong, and slightly more than half of all US product recalls come from China.

However, the CPSC says matters have improved, and China has been working hard to improve foreign consumer confidence in its exports.

“We’re seeing an improvement in terms of the quality of products coming out of China,” said Ms Tenenbaum.

However, she admitted that enforcement in the Chinese provinces was still a challenge.

The CPSC’s office will be located within the US Embassy in Beijing and will have just two employees.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exports, product safety, U.S trade
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Oder had proposed a bill that prevented insurance companies from excluding Chinese drywall in insurance coverage and another bill that would have stopped the companies from canceling insurance.

Hundreds of homeowners in Virginia are affected by Chinese drywall, which emits a gas that corrodes metals and that homeowners say causes respiratory problems. The rotten-egg smell has forced many of them from their homes, causing them to have to pay rent and a mortgage while the government grapples with the problem.

Homes in Newport News, York County, Williamsburg and southHampton Roads are affected, and homeowners say they’ve been told it will cost nearly as much to fix their homes as what they are worth.

A similar bill that also would have prevented the canceling of insurance recently passed the Senate and is headed to the House… Oder said that on another front, he’s working with Gov. Bob McDonnell to lobby for federal money to help those suffering from the drywall mess.

See also the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Drywall Information Center website.

See also past CDT posts on Chinese drywall.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drywall, product safety
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

As Florida and other parts of the nation continue to get their hands around the problems caused by home and condo units constructed with Chinese Drywall, there is some promising testing happening in South Florida that may  lead to less costly treatments than having to rip out the drywall and rebuilt.

It may be possible, say scientists, to contain problematic bacteria apparently contained in Chinese Drywall and destroy it without removal. New technology could be used to “wrap” the bad bacteria to contain and destroy it. The cost to remove the drywall can easily  be in the tens of thousands of dollars. It is not yet clear how much the new treatment would cost, but I am told it will be much less.

RealTime Laboratories, of Dallas Texas, announced it will begin testing drywall samples from a 300-unit condominium complex in Southern Florida to determine the presence of harmful bacteria, which may have led to the displacement of dozens of residents. RTL’s patent pending process uses DNA testing for sulfur producing bacteria in contaminated drywall samples. Because some of the condo owners involved are also filing lawsuits, the name of the condo community is not being released… research demonstrated that sulphur reducing and iron oxidizing bacteria have been isolated in contaminated drywall from homes in South Florida. Apparently, these types of bacteria have been reported in scientific literature as being able to live in ocean waters surrounding erupting volcanoes and in gypsum mines. Since these organisms are able to live in such harsh environments they produce their energy using a chemical process that emits hydrogen sulfide gas (“rotten egg smell”) as a by-product of their life cycle. Gypsum is a main ingredient in drywall and the RTL’s study demonstrated the presence of sulphur producing bacteria in contaminated drywall.

See also past CDT posts on toxic drywall.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drywall, product safety
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

OAKLAND, Calif. — Target Corp. said Tuesday it was pulling its Valentine’s Day “Message Bears” from store shelves after California’s attorney general raised concerns that the toys have illegal levels of lead.

The response comes a day after a letter sent by Attorney General Jerry Brown said testing of the holiday toys revealed lead levels that violate federal law.

The products, which were made in China for Target’s in-house brand, were identified as the retailer’s two “Message Bears” – one a pink stuffed bear with “XOXO” across the chest and the other a brown stuffed bear with “I Love U” across the chest, with “love” represented by a heart.

Investigators from the Center for Environmental Health, a nonprofit watchdog, found that the bears’ inflated vinyl letters contained well over federal limits for lead in products for children under the age of 12.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: lead poisoning, product safety
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Co-plaintiff lead counsel Whatley Drake & Kallas said in a statement the settlement provides “tens of millions of dollars in monetary relief as well as significant injunctive relief.” According to the law firm, Mattel recalled over 14 million toys in the U.S. in 2006 and 2007.

The world’s largest toy maker previously recorded charges to reserve for the litigation. The company, based in El Segundo, Calif., said final settlement won’t be material to its operating results.

Mattel spokeswoman Lisa Marie Bongiovanni said Mattel wasn’t able to provide a figure for the total settlement, as it would depend on the total number of claims processed. Ms. Bongiovanni said the company felt confident about the estimates it made, but added Mattel would make adjustments in future quarters if participation rates required.

Read more about the 2007 toy recalls via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exports, Mattel, product safety, toy recall
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The matter came to light after The Times of India reported that Nigeria’s Drug Regulatory Authority has seized a large consignment of fake anti-malaria drugs that were made in China but stamped ‘Made in India’ to escape blame. The TOI report resulted in the Indian government lodging a protest with China. 

“We are highly concerned about the case and are sending investigating officials to the Chinese provinces involved, including Guangdong,” SFDA spokesperson Yan Jiangying told a press conference. 

The statement shows that SFDA headquarters is Beijing does not fully trust its provincial units to carry out monitoring and investigation into the concerned company. It came soon after the SFDA hit out against a report in a British daily saying that fake Chinese drugs are flooding the United Kingdom. 

See also past posts on counterfeit medicine.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: counterfeit medicine, pharmaceuticals, product safety
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

China has stopped importing several French-made models of Renault cars, after a safety watchdog said it had found “safety problems”.

A Renault spokesperson said problems had occurred in transport and storage but not the manufacturing of some cars.

The ban was announced three days after honorary citizenship of Paris was given to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

See this previous CDT post for more on the Dalai Lama’s honorary Parisian citizenship.

© dwang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: foreign cars, France relations, product safety
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The fine stems from the toymaker’s 2007 recall of 95 types of toys and up to 2 million units, primarily for excessive lead in paint. The toys were made in China, the CPSC said.

The settlement, the third largest in the CPSC’s history, resolves a government case against Mattel and its Fisher-Price subsidiary. The government claimed that Mattel knowingly imported and sold toys containing lead paint in 2007… A 1978 law bans toys and other children’s articles that have more than 0.06 percent lead by weight in coatings. 

From the June 5, 2009 CPSC news release:

“These highly publicized toy recalls helped spur Congressional action last year to strengthen CPSC and make even stricter the ban on lead paint on toys,” said CPSC Acting Chairman Thomas Moore. “This penalty should serve notice to toy makers that CPSC is committed to the safety of children, to reducing their exposure to lead, and to the implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.”

A CBS report from 2007:

 

See also past CDT posts on product safety.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: product safety, toys
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

BEIJING: Nearly half of the clothing and a third of the furniture made for children in China’s top manufacturing province is unsafe, with many products containing harmful chemicals, state media said on Thursday. 

The discovery was made in an official investigation by authorities in the southern province of Guangdong, the centre of China’s manufactured export industry, the China Daily reported. 

It said just 53.5 percent of garments surveyed met safety standards, with many containing excess amounts of formaldehyde… As for children’s furniture, 67.7 percent of it was deemed safe, with some of the questionable products containing too much formaldehyde or health-endangering heavy metals including lead, cadmium and chromium. 

The original report in the China Daily:

The administration tested 60 children’s garments made by 43 companies and found just 31 items met safety standards.

Lin Ruixi, administration press officer, said problems with the garments included false information about raw materials, poor color fastness and excessive content of the chemical formaldehyde… Parents said they were concerned by the results of the tests and called on the government to make more regular quality inspections.

“It’s unbelievable that half of my daughter’s clothes are potentially unsafe,” Lu Junhua, father of a six-year old girl in Guangzhou, said.

See also past CDT posts on product safety.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: formaldehyde, product safety
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall