It all seemed fine then, but it turns out that a large amount of the drywall that was imported from China was defective, and in a way that sounds like the plot for some low-budget movie - the drywall releases poisonous gases. Knauf was known to produce much of the contaminate drywall.
The most important of the poisonous gases that tainted drywall releases are sulfur gases - mainly carbon disulfide, carbonyl sulfide, and hydrogen sulfide. These gases have a characteristic smell that's a lot like rotten eggs and can cause a whole suite of problems, including irritated or itchy eyes and skin, persistent coughs, bloody noses, recurrent headaches, rashes, sore throats and sinus infections. They can also trigger asthma attacks.
Those Chinese drywall problems are believed to be more dangerous for children and for the elderly. Some deaths have been blamed on the gases released by the drywall, although it's not proven that it was due to the drywall or other causes.
All of those problems are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to health problems cause by chinese drywall. Those sulfur gases can cause metals, especially copper, to corrode. Copper wires can start shorting out due to that corrosion, which can quickly cause a huge problem. Those sparks could easily start a fire, and corroding wires within electronics can potentially create shorts that could electrocute people who use those electronics.
Copper pipes can also start allowing water to seep out of them when they've been corroded, leading to water damage. Copper gas pipes could very well start leaking gas.
Under normal circumstances, copper corrodes to a blue/green or dark red color, but corrosion caused by hydrogen sulfide is usually black and ash-like. The coils in air conditioning units and refrigerators are almost always copper, so bad drywall could very well cause those to fail.
Silver, which is normally very unreactive, starts corroding when exposed to some of the gases that chinese drywall releases. Silver utensils are known to tarnish and corrode when they exposed to those gases. Using corroded silverware can potentially cause digestive problems, but that doesn't happen very often since silverware is usually thrown away when it starts to corrode.
These are only some of the health related problems that chinese drywall can cause. chinese drywall is known to cause other problems, which, though not health related, can cause serious damage to structures and to finances. For this you need to call a specialist for complete Chinese drywall inspections for your home. If you find out that you have chinese drywall, replace it as soon as possible.
