New use for old gypsum mine
What can you do with a hole in the ground? From a 2001 story in USAToday:
Image from Wired.com
Underground Secure Data Center Operations (USDCO) opened 4 months ago in an abandoned gypsum mine in Michigan. From 85 feet underground, the company plays host to the computer systems of 22 clients. Client headquarters are as far as Australia, but their mission-critical systems are operating from the mine beneath Grand Rapids and over the latest in fiber-optics bandwidth. USDCO provides the tech support to keep systems operating.
Wired also carried the story back in 2001. Strangely, the USDCO website is not loading. I’d like to know more about this abandoned mine.
Today in gypsum history
From the Washington Post’s “Today in History” column:
In 1870, the “Cardiff Giant,” supposedly the petrified remains of a human discovered in Cardiff, N.Y., was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum.
Federal guidelines issued for identifying corrosive drywall
From the Consumer Product Safety Commission:
HUD and CPSC’s two-step guidance requires a visual inspection that must show blackening of copper electrical wiring and/or air conditioning evaporator coils; and the installation of new drywall (for new construction or renovations) between 2001 and 2008. To view the full text of this guidance, visit HUD’s website or CPSC’s website (both documents PDF).
The guidance also describes obtaining additional corroborating evidence of problem drywall, since it is possible that corrosion of metal in homes can occur for other reasons. For example, homes with new drywall installed between 2005 and 2008 … must meet at least two additional criteria related to: the chemical analysis of metal corrosion in the home; elemental markers in the drywall; markings on the drywall; or specific chemical emissions from the drywall. Homes with new drywall installed between 2001 and 2004 must meet a total of at least four of those criteria. Collecting evidence of these corroborating conditions may require professional assistance and analysis.
Be sure to check the timeline on the right side of this site for more gypsum-related events and news.
Richard Gibson: You’ve Got Gypsum!
From the first chapter of What Things are Made Of by Richard Gibson:
You’ve got gypsum!
Virtually every home in America contains a great volume of one mineral: gypsum, the primary constituent of wallboard.
Gypsum (chemically, calcium sulfate) crystallizes from supersaturated sea or lake water when the water evaporates, much like common salt precipitates from such water. In the United States, Oklahoma is the leading producer of gypsum—nearly 3,500,000 tons of it, worth more than $26 million in 2007….
Gypsum videos, old and new
If you look over to the right side of this blog, you’ll see a selection of videos I’ve been collecting related to gypsum and the gypsum industry. Today I found a couple of gems via the Internet Archive (aka The Wayback Machine). One is a training video from the Gypsum Association. You might not be interested in the safety tips, but you do get to see a lot of hunky quarry workers and big machines.
The second video features the 1965 Parade of Homes in Birmingham, Alabama. But these aren’t just any homes — they’re Quiet Homes, which have been “quietized” with such space-age materials as Gold Bond Deciban, gypsum board, and caulk. Now mom and dad can watch Gunsmoke in peace while the kids play their rock ‘n’ roll records on the hi-fi upstairs. Also features hunky drywallers.
Celebrity brings attention to class action case
The big news today in the world of gypsum is the start of the class action lawsuit against drywall manufacturer Knauf Plasterboard Tainjin Co. Ltd. New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton has been named as the lead plaintiff in the suit, giving the case a sheen of celebrity. The full text of the complaint can be found here (pdf). It’s 591 pages long.
How Drywall is Made
I found this old episode of a Canadian show from around 1999 called How It’s Made online at Youtube. The segment about drywall begins about a minute in:
Could domestic drywall be a culprit?
This week the media have picked up on a story launched by CBS News claiming that corrosive wallboard may come from domestic producers as well as from China. According to the AP:
Of roughly 2,100 complaints received by the commission, about 25 involve homeowners who reported issues with American wallboard, [Scott] Wolfson [of the Consumer Product Safety Commission] said. That is not enough data to make a determination.
A University of Florida study conducted for CBS News tested new samples of U.S. drywall, new samples of the Chinese material and Chinese wallboard from problem homes.
The scientists found that most of the new U.S. samples released sulfur fumes, but at a lower level than the Chinese product taken from homes. However, the study also found that some American product had higher emissions than some of the new Chinese material.
CPSC 51-home study released today
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has released the results of a 51-home study (pdf, 190pp) of the effects of corrosive drywall today. According to the executive summary (pdf), the study found “a strong association between the problem drywall, the hydrogen sulfide levels in homes with that drywall, and corrosion in those homes.” The interagency task force will continue its investigation into health effects of corrosive drywall.
Corrosive drywall trials begin January 25 in US District Court
U.S. District Court Judge Eldon E. Fallon, who is overseeing the combined Chinese drywall litigation in New Orleans, said Thursday the first “bellwether” trial will take place Jan. 25 — barely 60 days from now.
In a shift from previous plans, the trial will involve seven Virginia homeowners whose homes were allegedly damaged by tainted drywall produced by Taishan Gypsum Co. Ltd., also known as Shandong Taihe Dongxin Co. Ltd. and Taian Taishan Plasterboard.
Taishan shipped drywall to Florida through Port Everglades and Tampa, and its product also was sent to other states, including Virginia, New York and California. The seven Virginia plaintiffs all used drywall imported by the same distributor, Norfolk-based Venture Supply.
