In a more lighthearted series of news relating to Chinese drywall, video game and entertainment system fans have recently been blogging about the possibility that the faulty imported wallboard could be frying the Xbox. Recent Consumer Product Safety Commission warnings have included the following list of tell-tale signs your home is Chinese drywall built:
A quick little bit of news via the Naples News and the Wall Street Journal
Financially strapped homebuilder WCI Communities Inc. has agreed to create a trust fund to cover Chinese drywall claims.
The agreement is spelled out in a disclosure statement approved by a U.S. bankruptcy judge in Delaware on Friday. The approval paves the way for WCI to proceed with its reorganization plan.
The Hahnville chemical leak that took place at the Dow Chemical plant is a story that has been getting a lot of traction in New Orleans, throughout the state and even nationally. As residents were exposed to an unknown amount of the dangerous gas without even knowing it, answers are being demanded and true responses should be coming from the company. The state of Louisiana is showing initiative in investigating Dow Chemical for their part in the leak of ethyl acrylate from a tank into the air, thereafter affecting countless people in the Southeastern Louisiana area. The Times-Picayune reports
A state Department of Environmental Quality official said Monday that an investigator has been at .Dow Chemical’s Hahnville plantnearly every day to investigate the cause of the the July 7 leak of ethyl acrylate fumes that irritated the noses eyes and throats of residents for miles around.
“He’s meeting with Dow people and asking some very tough questions about what happened, how it happened and how can we prevent it from happening again,” said Mike Alegro, manager of the DEQ’s southeast regional office, Monday afternoon.
This morning’s Times-Picayune released a highly important timeline for the Dow chemical leak on July 7th in Hahnville, as well as provides insight into just how inattentive Dow may have been to the matter at the point of the leak and hours after. The article reports
The EOC’s telephone log from the early hours of that morning shows parish personnel wrestling with the decision of whether and where to close off River Road in Hahnville as Dow employees attempted to dampen the fumes.
The parish got the first indication that something was amiss at 3:57 a.m., when an employee at the Shell Chemical plant in Norco, across the Mississippi River, called the EOC and said he smelled an acrylic odor, but that no alarms had sounded at his plant.
A company located in Canada has connected with a Florida testing facility and has claimed to build a machine that reportedly reduced the dangerous gas levels emitted by Chinese drywall by “up to 85 percent.”
According to Canada.com, a carbon filter unit has been constructed that limits hydrogen sulfide levels in homes built with faulty Chinese drywall. Allen Air president Sam Teitelbaum states “We developed a carbon filter unit specifically to reduce the hydrogen sulfide (that has been found to leach from the drywall… In a 24-hour test, there was an 85-per-cent reduction.”
The article further details the matter involving Chinese drywall and the path being taken to combat it:
State Farm is looking to raise the rates of homeowners insurance in the state of Texas, appealing to the Department of Insurance for an increase up to 8.5%. The Lufkin Daily News reports
Insurance giant State Farm Lloyds filed with the Texas Department of Insurance on July 15 to increase its homeowners’ insurance rates in Texas by an average of 8.5 percent starting on Oct. 1 for existing customers upon renewal and Sept. 1 for new customers. Angelina County’s increase is below the state average at 5.7 percent. State Farm noted that 350,000 of its 1.2 million customers will see no change or a decrease in their rates as a result of the filing.
“We’ve seen major insurance carriers Allstate and Farmers raise their rates and now State Farm is completing the rate hike trifecta,” said N. Alex Winslow, executive director of Texas Watch, a consumer rights group based in Austin.
Quick blurb on an article The Herald Tribune did on possible tax benefits for those who suffered as a result of Chinese drywall installed in their homes
The Internal Revenue Service says that victims of Chinese drywall might qualify for a casualty loss on their taxes because of the corrosion on pipes, air-conditioning and electrical appliances caused by gases released from the materials.
Section 165 of the IRS Code allows a casualty loss deduction in some circumstances, wrote George J. Blaine, the IRS’s associate chief counsel, in response to a letter from three U.S. senators, including Florida Democrat Bill Nelson, and a Virginia congressman.
Dow-Hahnville’s chemical leak may be a returning reality for residents of Southeast Louisiana with bad weather looming. As the 10-day forecast shows thunderstorms in the New Orleans area’s future, area officials are warning the smell associated with last Tuesday’s chemical leak by the Dow company may return. Per the Times-Picayune,
Stormy weather passing through St. Charles Parish may increase odors from the Dow Chemical ethyl acrylate tank, parish officials said in an recent e-mail alert to residents.
Dow is taking continuing actions to suppress these odors, but residents should call the parish Emergency Operations Center at 985.783.5050 to report an odor.
Just a quick news blurb regarding Louisiana’s positive choice to enact law Tuesday permitting emergency efforts to not be hampered by certification requirements in the event of a disaster. The new law will permit doctors and other medical workers to come from all across the nation to help in the event facilities are understaffed or overtaxed after such an event as a hurricane, etc. The Times-Picayune has more
With Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signature, Louisiana has become the 10th state to enact a law that makes it easier for medical workers to cross state lines to provide help after a disaster.
The Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act provides interstate recognition of licenses held by medical professionals who volunteer during emergencies, helping to ensure more organized and available medical support, advocates say.
The Times-Picayune breaks the following, which details that Dow’s Hahnville leak a week ago was not only a surprise incident to the company but, instead, one of a series of leaks that very well may have been avoided. In an article posted on NOLA.com, the Times-Picayune writes
An environmental watchdog group says foul-smelling ethyl acrylate fumes escaped from Dow Chemical’s Hahnville plant twice before the July 7 release that sent the odor over much of the New Orleans area.
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade will hold a news conference at 9 a.m. to discuss its findings that fumes from the plant have escaped three times since October including last week’s event.
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