Gypsum becomes poisonous gas in the landfill Further, gypsum board commonly achieves indoor air quality certifications, such as Greenguard Children & Schools, suggesting that drywall is not a problem for indoor environmental concerns. Total content, on the other hand, never exceeded a measurement of 100 ppm-a difficult feat considering that 100 ppm is the threshold for disclosure in the most rigorous green chemistry programs. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a study of total content and leaching values of heavy metals in synthetic gypsum, which found that these chemicals could have leaching values of up to 550 times the level for safe drinking water. Although the chemical process that captures FGD gypsum is different from the physical collection of fly ash and bottom ash, which is more likely to pick up heavy metals as a matter of course, mercury and other heavy metals are showing up in synthetic gypsum-and, as a result, in our buildings. Synthetic gypsum is created from a byproduct of flue-gas desulfurization (FGD), a process coal-fired power plants use to limit emissions. has not been linked to indoor air quality problems, but potential leaching of heavy metals and biocides included for mold resistance are among the issues that need to be addressed more thoroughly by the gypsum board industry. However, in the last decade, Chinese drywall has been linked with indoor air quality problems, while concerns have cropped up around waste from coal power plants and its links to drywall.ĭomestic manufacturers are quick to point out that gypsum board manufactured in the U.S. Virtually ubiquitous in our buildings, gypsum board is widely seen as an innocuous building material. Drywall, which makes up 15% of demolition and construction waste, leaches toxins and releases hydrogen sulfide gas in landfills.
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