Document 3J75pp37RkBEJwbMBNBLV4RY3

IFT TECHNICAL SERVICES INC. 'Lk: (aJL'E-(G- FAiL^OC analysis PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT GRAPHICS TECHNOLOGY LICENSE #PI 11582 May 9, 1990 A1 Reventas Shintech #24 Greenway Plaza, Suite 811 Houston, TX 77046 Re: IFT 88-75 Vinyl Institute Dear Al, The enclosed letter appeared recently and relates to the ABS-DWV controversy in California. It is my opinion that the existance c f this problem may represent a market opportunity for the for PVC DWV products, pri ivided they are not allowed to be be taned with the same brush that is going to be pain ing ABS products for some time. Sincerely yours, Joseph B. Zicherman, Ph.D. JBZ/cv Enclosure cc: Roy GottesmanV'^ 88-75-3.590 SPI-01610 2550 NINTH STREET, SUITE 1 12, BERKELEY, CA 94710 TELEPHONE 415-548-3451 FAX 415-548-0290 CODES &APPUCA.IONS Faulty AG S DWV Piping Made with Non Virgin Resins Cited for $250 Million in Damages by Larry Dill he damages resulting from faulty Foam | lore Pipe Standard (now referred TABS DWV piping installed in Cali fornia in recent years could top to as c:i< llular core), Birka-White contends, "Due i o the complex and deceptive na- S250 million according to an Oaklandtuatre ol this problem, I was hoping this torney who is representing hundreds of was ar isolated problem or a bad list of homeowners across the state in nearly produi t,"Birka-White said of his first in two dozen lawsuits . troductiion to ABS pipe failures more than David M. Birka-White, Birka-White four y ars ago. But as time went on, he and Stein, has unwittingly become a noted, more and more cases began to ap- knowledgeable expert in the causes of pear a:.1 id it became evident that there was failures in ABS DWV piping through the a probtem of "catastrophic" proportions Arnit Rodio's C.I.R. Plumbing has made several hundred repa rsof ABS DWV piping in the Bridie Path housing tract ofSimi Wien California. last few years as he hag been called upon to investigate multiple failures in hous ing tracts and apartment complexes. The Oakland-based attorney has seen hun dred of failures and nearly all can be linked to ABS piping that was allegedly manufactured by extruders who circum vented the prevailing American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard by using non-virgin resin materials, which proved to be unsuitable for the performance requirements of the piping. The problem is one of "evolutionary degradation" of ASTM F628 ABS DWV lurkir g under the homes and in the walls of hui idreds of California residences. Th< majority of the defective and fail ing pi pe has been linked to one manufac turer, Centaur Manufacturing, which has long t een gone from the scene after filing for bi nkruptcy in 1985. The reason for the fi ilures is simple, says Birka-White and a 1 industry experts familiar with the failur ts which have been reported. A small number of piping manufacturers fount it more profitable to manufacturer their iroducts bv sidestepping the ASTM stand irds and using recycled and re ground ABS resins in their manufactur ing process, rather than using pure virgin resins, as the standard's writers and sup porters assumed manufacturers would. To date, few have really questioned the merits or performance capabilities of ABS DWV products per se, only those prod ucts which were manufactured without complying with the spirit and letter of the ASTM standard. "It is not my position that ABS pipe is inherently defected and it cannot per form," Birka-White explained. "If the pipe is manufactured with the proper vir gin resins, it's a good product." The problem is, however, that certain manufacturers allegedly found it more profitable to cut corners by combining or thinning their virgin materials with much cheaper "regrind" grade products which have been made of reprocessed or recycled resins. The ASTM standards al low for manufacturers to use "reworked" resin materials, which are virgin resins which are scrap from the manufacturer's own operations and which have not been mixed with other products. Recycled res ins, however, have been proven to come from such sources as surplus plastic spoons, telephone casings and even foot ball helmets. According to plastics industry sources, it is possible for manufacturers inclined to use less than virgin resins to acquire materials which do not comply with the ASTM standards through various bro kers. Typically, brokers will purchase "off-spec" or "off-grade" resins from ma jor resin manufacturers for purposes other than plastic pipe applications. An unscrupulous broker, however, can make a handy profit if he is able to sell the res ins to pipe manufacturers, who may or may not know they are receiving pure virgin materials. Some pipe manufactur ers may be willing to take a chance on using such resins in their products, par ticularly if the materials meet the cell class requirements outlined in the ASTM specification D3965, which calls for a cell classification of 4-2-2-2-2. (ASTM stan- Page 32/Reeves Journal SPI-01611 CODES & APPLICATIONS Rodio s C I R Plumbing wax complet ing between 1,500 and 1 500 new homes annually using DVV\ pipe manufactured bv Centaur in mane ot his prefects. All installations went normal lor Radio's well trained and highly experienced crew un til failures began to show up a few years after installations, "The first few years, we were going in and making the repairs, and we were glu ing the Radio explained ot his company's cal back activities Tt took a while tor us tc notice that we were duplicating repairs i n some of the same homes, and it took us years to put the whole thing together- that the pipe was bad. There are some pi imbers who went bankrupt over these oblems who still don't know what ha a pened to them." Radio openly admits that problems CMS General Ledger Service History Employe Costing Accounts Ret eivable Time & Material Billing Estimating Accounts le Checkbooks Heat Loss 1 Inventory Counter Sales Proposal Forms Payroll Pu chase Orders * Word Procqssing On-line Support d Updates . CAIL FOR A FREE . , _ fjJJ, DEMONSTRATION Contractor's Management Systems of NH 6C3-335-2427,2-29 Box 24A Lai gdcn, NH C3602 HYDRO SWIRL Acrylic Jetted Baths and Shower Bases 2150 Division St. Bellingham. WA 98226 (206) 734-0616 Branch Offices: Sacramento, CA Vancouver, WA with ABS repairs "literally destroyed our business." He noted that he is currently involved with a direct arbitration on what has been spent on repairs alone, and that the total known costs to his company have exceeded $837,000. "And that was not to fix a problem," he said. "That was just to put a band-aid on it. For the first couple of years [of reported failures] we didn't know what the prob lem was." Rodio said he purchased the Centaur piping from one northern Californiabased wholesaler which has reportedly faced more than $65 million in lawsuits over defective pipe. Centaur has since de clared bankruptcy and has long been out of the picture as far as liability collections are concerned. A typical scenario for Rodio's plight can be illustrated with an on-going law suit being filed by homeowners in the Bridle Path housing tract of Simi Valley, Calif., a Los Angeles suburb. Rodio's com pany installed plumbing in 268 new homes less thanTve years ago and several are now inundated with ABS DWV leaks and failures. Rodio estimates that 42 of the Bridle Path homes were plumbed with Centaur ABS. As of press time, nearly a dozen homeowners have banned together in a lawsuit which names among others, Rodio, the Larwin Co. and IAPMO. Rodio noted that his company has made countless repairs on the homes. The developer has also hired another plumb ing contractor to make repairs as it at tempts to avoid further litigation from homeowners. The beleaguered homeowners now find themselves frustrated in attempting to cope with the problems and suffering caused by their faulty plumbing. Rodio notes that in some cases, homeowners have had raw sewage seeping through the walls of their residences. Also, homeowners complain of the difficulty in sell ing homes when they must disclose the faulty plumbing to prospective buyers. Birka-White places much of the blame on the ABS problems with the plastics in dustry itself and asks what it is doing to police its own manufacturers. Los Angeles attorney Sanford I. Millar, spokesman for the ABS Institute, an orga nization of manufacturers of ABS prod ucts and their raw materials suppliers, contends that the responsibility of polic ing the industry should fall upon IAPMO, which is charged with inspect ing and certifying manufacturers whose products are used under the Uniform Plumbing Code and which carry the IAPMO seal. "IAPMO inspects and gets paid to per form inspections by each manufacturer as Page 34, Reeves Journal Circle No II8 on Reader Ac ion Card SPI-01612 part of its inspection and listing proce dures," Millar pointed out. He added that IAPMO's inspection policies provide for four unannounced inspections per year and for testing of materials to be done through a laboratory for resins and pip ing. "If there was an inadequate policing of the product, was that not a result of the people doing the inspection?" Millar added that the ABS Institute's primary objectives include providing education and end support for regulators, end users and elected officials. "The pur pose of the ABS Institute is to instill in the ultimate consumer and in the regulator a sense that members in the industry are committed to quality, and that the prod uct is safe and reliable." Millar also suggested that in some cases the wrong types of cements have been used in installations. He also expressed concern that a cam paign against ABS products could be in spired by organized labor in an effort to eliminate a non-labor intensive product from the market place. According to Millar, the ABS industry has produced hundreds of millions of lin ear feet of ABS piping with "somewhat less than 7.500 linear feet " of ABS piping subject to warranty claims. "That's statistically inconsequential," Millar said. "It's not inconsequential to the person who had the failure, but in terms of rampant failure in an industry, it certainly doesn't bear our." Birka-White also suggests that inspec tion procedures be tightened. "IAPMO's got to be tough," he said, "the regrind in dustry has got to be put out of business, vis a vis the plastic pipe." He would also like to see legislation passed to make it illegal to circumvent the A5TM standards by using non-virgin resins. Ed Wachter, executive director of IAPMO, told Reeves Journal that IAPMO has undergone a number of changes in its testing and inspection pro cedures over the course of the last year under his direction. He also noted that personnel changes have been made and that he is satisfied that IAPMO is provid ing efficient and effective inspection services. "I feel confident that with the new quality control procedures instituted by IAPMO they will be able to go a long way in preventing any repeat of what has pre viously occurred in recent years," Scarano said. In the meantime, the lawsuits continue to mount as homeowners across the state discover failures in their homes, and con tractors such as Rodio and his wholesaler find themselves faced with millions of dolla lawsuits rexultinc :r, ucts th ev assumed vvere manat.Kt.ircd ic- cordi g to the ASTM .undard- Efft rts are currentlv under1.' a\ m a numt er of areas to ban ABS product-, in- cludn g Lancaster, Calit , where Rodio s fathei serves as vice mavor A hearing ohgir ally scheduled for April 2 is being resch duled for later in the month due to the t emendous response citv council members expect to get trom advocates and opponents of the product Rodio also notes that there are efforts to expand the use of ABS DWV to commer cial and high rise buildings in certain ar eas "I'm having enough problems with houses that ABS under slabs," Rodio said. 1 can t even fathom how to fix a problem under a 20-story building. All I see is a waterfall of sewage." 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That is certainly true with the plumb ing industry and its continual contro versies over materials. As documented in recent issues, the industry is currently feeling the backlash of failures which have been popping up across the West with ABS DYVV piping. While the majority of the failures have been attributed to a single manufacturer, there have been rumblings that the events which led to such failures were not isolated. The primary cause for the reported failures (which have led to scores of lawsuits involving millions of dollars in damage) has been attributed to the use of non-virgin ABS resins in the manufacturing process. The bottom line in such incidents is that while a product may appear to be the same as one produced with pure virgin mate rials, it often fails in the field. We recently called for the industry to go on the alert and to call attention to any manufacturer known to be cir cumventing the spirit and integrity of the applicable ASTM standards. While this call was hailed by many sectors of the industry, one group which, not unexpectedly took excep tion was the ABS Institute, which represents several manufacturers and resin suppliers. The ABS Institute contends that the problems have been confined to one manufacturer. Hopefully that is the case. Howev er, due to the varietv of reports of fail ures we have received from several different segments of the industry, and with documentation that several manufacturers purchased reground Manufacturers contend that much of resins fro n at least one common sup the hysteria whipped-up about their plier, we emain a bit skeptical. products is the result of an organized While he ABS Institute bases -its campaign by labor and competing argument on the grounds that there materials interests to eliminate yet are currently no lawsuits pending another plastic product from the mar against manufacturers other than the ketplace. A casual look at those who one prim iry culprit, there are ques- are leading the fight against the prod uct certainly reveals 'Th>re has been no indication of any kind hat ABS DWVproducts manufac a familiar cast of characters from pre vious campaigns tured in accordance to the applicable stand.'i rds are not perfectly good products whi :h are very effective and popular against various plas tic products. As with other ma terials battles, this in the marketplace." one should be set tled strictly on the tions to b i asked. After seeing the ac- merits of the product in question. tivities have taken place with There has been no indication of any other pnODlem materials, it is obvious kind that ABS DWV products manu that one of the most common prac- factured in accordance to the applica tices is fcr a manufacturer to make a ble standards are not perfectly good settlemeh t out of court. In many products. cases, set lements include gag orders The challenge now is to find out if that prevlent the case from being dis- the problem is indeed limited one cussed Tpus, there is no report of the manufacturer or if there were, or are, failure others who have cheated. In order to The ABS Institute further notes address this issue, Reeves Journal that ifr th re is a failure and the manu- would like to request that readers facturer cts responsibly to correct it, write in with any information that it should not be construed as a prob- can lead to the answering of such lem. Wh le that certainly displays a questions. Any contractor, inspector very eth cal manner of doing busi- or installer who has experienced fail ness anc a commendable practice ures with ABS DWV piping is urged which should be adhered to bv all to write to us. We also welcome any manufac urers of all goods, it still letters that state your good experi does no address the question at ences and satisfaction with ABS. The hand, W 1a t caused the failure? If the names of writers will be held in con failuret was a result of not living up to the stan la rd, then it should never fidence upon request. Let us know about your experi have occ rrred. Also, it is tantamount ences bv writing to: Pipeline, Reeves to believ ng that deviations are okay Journai, P.O. Box 30700, Laguna as long a , the product doesn't happen Hills, Calif. 92654. to fail aan J you don't get caught, The si uation concerning ABS also has furth er reaching implications. - Page 6 Peeves journal SPI-01614 ABS Manufacturers (fry Foul, Claim ABS DWA Pipe Unjustly Banned in Lancaster, Calif. KcJileir's Note': 1 his is the tirst in j series of articles examining the urious aspects of the controeersi o'er \BS DU \ piping on the West ( oast. This month's installment presents the reaction of the ABS industr> to a proposed ordinance in Lancas ter. Calif. The ordinance "as official!} appro'ed June 19 as this issue as going to press, it is sched uled lo go into effect on Jul\ 18. I99(). bv Larr\ Dill est Coast manufacturers ol ABS posed ordinance is otticiallv adopted WD'A'V piping materials are up in That vote was tentativelv scheduled to be arms as thev face the possibility held lun 18 as this issue was going to of having approval for their propdreuscsts. withdrawn bv the Citv of Lancaster, The ont laught against ABS in Lancaster Calif. has been ed by contractor Arnie Rodio, The Lancaster City Council voted by a Jr., who h is become recognized as one of 5-0 margin June 4 to adopt the 1988 edi the most \ ocal and adamant opponents of tion of the Uniform Plumbing Code as its the projects. Rodio has personallv been official plumbing code, but ABS manufacturers con tend that the proposed or dinance contained a last minute amendment which virtuallv bans the use of cellular core ABS pipe and strictlv limits the use of other ABS products such as solid wall DU'V piping materials. Representatives of the ABS institute, an organiza tion which represents nine ABS manufacturers and resin suppliers, claims that the vote was tainted by the influence of outside forces and that it should be over ruled. According to ABS In stitute spokesmen, the Lan caster city attorney, however, has ruled that there were no impropri eties in the procedures and the election should stand. Plastics concerns are con tending that the amended version of the ordinance voted on bv the Lancaster citv fathers was presented illegally, since it was never subject to public discussion involved n several lawsuits over installa tions he n.ide with ABS products which A council meeting held approximately proved fa jltv and resulted in millions of two weeks prior to the June session in dollars in damages and claims Rodio's ex cluded approximate!'' four hours of heat periences hke manv other emitr.icte r' ed testimony by advocates and opponents of .ABS products The original proposed centered , round the use e if -olid " ail ABS products manufactured bv the now de ordinance' debated at that time, however, funct Centaur Manufacturing and its off did not lent.nn the added language to e\- shoot coil panics Centaur Marketing and clueie ABS Cellular core- predncts trom Phoenix f ipc Lancaster's plumbing code ABS concerns haw .allied I ml in In the !e\o lurk, le'llenwng that inert the l.anca ter incident, i lg the p. -moll ing Itulllstrv re pre'se'P tat 1 \'c's llle't with tlu- e.irii'iis eouiuil numbers tee pre-ent their ease in eie Ic-n se- e't \Bb n\y\ pipe file llllle 4 ' e t e lei link.ill'. must Is, - te'l- ot Rod III'' lather. Arnie R. lu'. M . as ii voting m niber of ihe c,t\ vt 'Ll IK I I -\k- cording t' i the ABS jn-titi.it . ! ht hcninr Jl" ".f. -kej to !it\ luniM !l le'i'i el h\ a -I eemk! eot, In tori' the pro m I in ot a possible conflict ot interest. The citv attorney ruled that there was no conflict and Rodio was allowed to vote. ABS interests have contended that the problems associated with the industry's products have been restricted to abuses ot the ASTM standard? by a single manufacturerand that the remainder of the indus try has no record of failures Those who oppose the product contend that the problems occurred when manufacturers by passed the standard's re quirement for virgin resins and used lesser quality mate rials, which, in turn, compro mised the integrity of the piping, causing it to fail in the field. Caught in the mid dle have been contractors who installed the materials, wholesalers who marketed it, and homeowners whose homes have been damaged by leaking DWY systems'. While the ABS Institute claims that only one manu facturer made faulty prod ucts through the use of non virgin resins. Rccvcs loumal has received reports of prob lems with several brands of products and has obtained documentation that at least one resin supplier provided lesser quality products to manv I'.S. manufacturers. The ABS Institute spokes man feel that the current as sault against their products is being led bv outside interests. 'This is a matter of product integrity as much as it is a political battle that is being waged through claim? that have hvsteria as their .operative mechanism." Sant\'rd Miliar, leg'll counsel for the ABS Institute. told /vY, Millar explained that hi? organization feels that the assault on ABS products i? an outgrowth ot the continuing battle over the completion of approval tor an environmental impact rt P' r: on plastic plumbing pipe cemmi"-.- tied by the state''- Department ot i loa-.ng and Com munity [V v* -11 > p m r o ? 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J\ pii's a \ /aAAtjaq . 'j p-| ni alio jpqj A?p|dja>(ipiu a | j uaa.vMoq \.:o or or,.! oq; j usi AjAip jc `AjNUCiJ ; -/ini-UvUUA aj po-n; aw MUiqj [,. p j11 j luirtaojd I luiejjsaj Suipuauioiosaj oj pasoddo se `EIUJ0JIIE3 ui sadid 3i)SP[d isqio pus ggy jo sasn ajqissiuuad aqi Suipuedxa lOj uoijeayijsnl aqj apnjauoa oi pajeadde jaqjjnj pue jaqijnj sey yBjp yaeg' paie| -najp uaaq SEq )Eq) jjodaj pEduji |Ejuaui -uoiiAua aqj jo EJP 43BS MO" paseaus -ui SEq uisiuoSeiue jo ia.\a[ aqi Suidid DAd Pue S9V PUB 'IBJauaS ui adid ou -SE|d oj padsaj qiiM pacq Aja,\ jqSnoj srq >1,. PaPPe JEU!W ,,'ipunoo sapBJX adij EiUJOjqE^ aqi uaaq SEq ajusq isqi ui Usiu -oSeiue pjo.M Jauaq e jo jueai joi 'aqx., ,/adid Suiquin|d 3usc|d jo asn papurd.va pasodoid aqi uiojj qnsaj pino.vv spaqa asja.ipc lUEoqiuSis aiqEpiOAEur. ou,, icqi ucd ui sopr.puoo "ji|E3 'sJEd '0|uaj\ ']E sivrdzi vn S3Q03 v " 'M. u--r-' i1' ' .1 p- poar on b* rn*r i-r tnt.or pr k!..ct> D'jr;n^ the totinv'nv, however mane or the lo cal plumber-, reporvdlv -poke etp in tie- tense of ABS DWV v> "ten'.-' fleets Journal has received re Different Products ports of problems with several brant's of products and has ob- The ABS representatives admitted that it could be possible tor manufactur taine I documentation that at least one resin supplier provided ers other than the one in question to havelessei quality products to many purchased the non-virgin resins claimed to have been largely responsible tor many L.S., nanufacturers. failures. Still, thev say there has been no proof of anv other wrongdoing since no other companies are currently being sin gled out in lawsuits a .ir c.o..make I. Gro--rran pre-iueti: 't r.'lar:s Pipe Co . or' me o-ue ot w helper other manu facturer- purchased non-virgin ABS res ins .it mie time nr .mother "We're guiltv, but iee're probubiv guiltv because we re ABS manufacturers As I see it. neither .Mr Birka-White. Mr Rodio [or] somebodv else has really shown where any body's doing anything wrong. When it comes down to it. it's a moral issue I don't think anyone's trying to do anything. We're all trying to make a good product. Sure there's a chance we can [sometimes] make a bad piece of pipe, but we're trying to make a good piece ot pipe. We had a unique situation. And that's all there was to it." Millar added that the issue at hand deals with the political situation in Lan caster. rather than quality control mea sures by specific manufacturers over spe cific products, '"you have a legislative activity which is not designed to cure this problem," he explained, "but it's de signed to accomplish a much bigger polit ical purpose down the road. That's the in terlink here. This legislation is not going to fix a single piece of bad pipe that's in the ground right now. They don't have any documented failures in the City of Lancaster that haven't been fixed by the manufacturer or the plumbing contractor right on the spot, so they're dealing with something they can't prove. "What is really happening here is a very clever operation, whipping up hys teria for other purposes." "We want the same things they want," noted Rod Hughes, president of Hughes Processing and president of the ABS Insti tute. '[We don't want any pipe failures. None of the manufacturers do." Hughes notes that the one positive out come of the recent problems has been an effort bv all manufacturers to step up their own quality control efforts in order to avoid anv problems such as those that have been associated with the Centaur situation. 'T believe the producers are more conscious now than they've ever been " As of presstime the ABS Institute spokesmen were awaiting the final vote of the Lancaster Citv Council While their exact course of action teas not s et deter mined, it is anticipated that they w ill re spond to the new local ordinance with le gal-action m an ettorr to stop the ban on cellular core product- lb V pro pi "ed ord malice a> amended, il-o calls tor all ABS -olid core pipe manu facturer- `o rue eert:t:c.it:on -.cith Lancas ter- Do. i-.on o !'..odu'g and -atetv M a!. :.k : a: r - mu-t -tate the tone is iiuait u't'.it'd ;:t u .-J.ir-e w :!!'. WTM i! \--. ci.iooi- ; Plum -- g OJ W ram- I ' J ;p ^ A i ;n P ltd