Thousands of American homeowners are having to move from their new or renovated homes because of stinking drywall.

The gypsum board, imported from China, is giving off fumes that owners claim are causing illness and even corroding pipes.

The drywall problem is just another in a long line of complaints about the safety and quality of goods and materials made or built in Asian or Third World countries because labour is cheap.

This latest one hits a little closer to home, though.

In 2007, the Lafarge gypsum board plant in Corner Brook — one that had operated profitably since the 1950s — shut its doors because there just wasn’t a market for the product it produced.

There are doubtless many reasons the market for Newfoundland made drywall dried up, but there is little doubt the cheaper product coming for China fit into the equation somewhere along the way.  We had a good safe product, a skilled workforce and raw materials almost next door to the plant, but none of that could compete with operations overseas who pay workers slave wages in some cases.

However, as in other alarms raised over milk and toys imported from China ... cheap isn’t always the best or the safest as homeowners in the southern U.S. are now finding out.

More than 50 workers lost their well-paying jobs when the Lafarge plant shut its doors, and while it wasn’t a shocker on the national scene, it was a major jolt to the local economy.

And it may be a indication of things to come.

China is on the way to supplanting the United States as the biggest economy in the world, and more jobs close to home could soon be at risk.