Despite recent outcries from federal lawmakers and plaintiffs lawyers, concerns that Chinese drywall could become the next asbestos are unfounded, experts say.
"This is unlike asbestos…where you realize years later there are health problems" and exposure goes back for decades, said Michael Hamilton, chair of the national insurance coverage group of Nelson Levine deLuca & Horst.
"While I'm not suggesting that for Chinese drywall there will be a short period of litigation, there is a limited window of time when most of the drywall was imported into the United States," he said, contrasting the more uncertain lifespan of asbestos claims.
Nan Meyer, managing director of products liability for Markel Corp. in Deerfield, Ill., agreed. "I would have to believe that many companies that write drywall write it on a claims-made basis for one year, where you can't really stack the policies," she said.
Jeanette McDonough, claims counsel for Markel, contrasting the greater difficulty in establishing causation of bodily injury in mold cases versus asbestos cases, suggested that drywall cases would have similar problems. In addition, on the property damage side, she speculated that remediation is easier for drywall.
"It doesn't seem like they have to put on pollution suits and masks and air exchangers. The cost of asbestos removal is escalated greatly by the procedures that you have to put in place to contain the contaminants," she said, noting that in this instance, the drywall itself doesn't seem to be a contaminant. Rather, the way it was manufactured made it susceptible to moisture problems, she noted.
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