There is so much talk about tainted drywall, and homebuilders are getting pretty familiar with the problems caused by Chinese Drywall. Over the past few weeks, however, there has been very little information about what is exactly wrong with Chinese Drywall.

Finally, there is some news about this issue coming out of Florida (who, of course, has been monitoring the problem the longest).

Last week, Florida released the findings of its drywall investigation conducted by Unified Engineering, a private lab. Lori Streit, a principal scientist with Unified, had this to say in a letter about the findings:

There is a distinct difference in drywall that was manufactured in the United States and those that were manufactured in China. The Chinese samples contained traces of strontium sulfide inclusions and more organic material than the GridMarx sample (United States). However, it is not yet known if either contributed to the odor.

While the findings are only a “first step” in what could be a months-long investigation, according to Florida state toxicologist Dr. David Krause, the preliminary findings did at least appear to contradict assertions that waste products from coal-fired power plants were to blame.

More is certainly to come on this topic, but at least folks are now not in complete darkness.