National Gypsum said in a prepared press release that statements made by Dr. Timothy Townsend, in a CBS Nightly News segment aired in December, are misleading and unjustly harming the company’s reputation in the marketplace. Dr. Townsend is a professor at the University of Florida. 

National Gypsum said in a prepared press release that statements made by Dr. Timothy Townsend, in a CBS Nightly News segment aired in December, are misleading and unjustly harming the company’s reputation in the marketplace. Dr. Townsend is a professor at the University of Florida.

The segment implied wallboard produced by domestic U.S. manufacturers is in some instances causing the same problems associated with defective Chinese drywall.

The defective Chinese drywall emits sulfide gases, causing “rotten egg” odors and sulfide attacks and corrosion of copper and other metals in a home including air conditioner evaporator coils and electrical wiring.

The company bases its contention on history and scientific data from leading engineering firms. The manufacturer has produced wallboard in the United States for 85 years with none of the problems now associated with defective Chinese drywall. In addition, National Gypsum engaged Packer Engineering Co., an independent third-party firm, to test its wallboard and known samples of defective Chinese wallboard. Data from Packer Engineering-as well as Dr. Townsend’s data provided to National Gypsum just prior to the CBS broadcast-confirms that the producer’s wallboard does not and will not cause sulfide attacks or corrosion of copper or other metals, the company said.

“Sulfide gases are found throughout the environment. They can be found in the water we drink, in certain foods, and even in human breath,” said Dr. Eli Stav of National Gypsum’s Technology Innovation Center. “U.S.-made drywall can emit trace amounts of sulfides. These sulfide gases are consistent with what you would commonly find in many places in the normal environment. These trace amounts are far less than 1 part per million, and less than what, in a laboratory test, has been found in a control sample of deionized water.” CBS Nightly News reported that it had retained Dr. Townsend to perform laboratory tests over a five-month period. Dr. Townsend’s tests reportedly compared various brands of U.S.-made wallboard, including National Gypsum wallboard, with known defective Chinese drywall found in homes. These samples were also compared to samples of newly purchased Chinese drywall. Predictably, Dr. Townsend’s results show the known defective Chinese drywall emitted large amounts of total sulfide gases, while comparatively small amounts were emitted from National Gypsum’s wallboard.” (Visit www.nationagypsum.com for a table of these board samples.)