At the table where the Field family once gathered for dinner, dishes were replaced by a quart bags and pencil-thin vacuum tubes as the Florida Department of Health gathered air samples at the Parkland home.

Built in 2006, the Fields' 4,200-square-foot home is one of many newer South Florida houses lined in Chinese drywall. This week's test aims to determine whether health problems blamed on the building material are truly linked to it.

At issue are sulfur compounds emitted by the imported drywall that corrode air conditioning coils, copper wiring and blacken metals in homes and purportedly cause nosebleeds, chronic headaches and sleeping problems for occupants. The Florida Department of Health had received reports of concern about drywall from 434 homeowners as of Tuesday.

Although previous tests by state and federal authorities found that drywall manufactured in China emits three sulfur compounds, no scientific study has connected it to health problems. Testing the Field house and a control house -- which does not have Chinese drywall -- will cost $40,000 to $50,000.

''There's not enough for us to say there's not a link to health problems, but there's no smoking gun,'' said Dr. David Krause, a toxicologist with the state Department of Health. Not all homes made with imported drywall are affecting homeowners' health.

Krause said it could be several months before the department has definitive results. Although waiting that long may prove maddening to politicians and suffering homeowners, Krause said the testing takes time.

''As we review the data, if there's an obvious or apparent chemical that raises alarm, we would communicate that to the public post haste,'' he said.

The testing procedure used at the Fields' home is similar to tests for mold and formaldehyde, said René Salazar, a certified industrial hygienist from Tampa who collected many of the samples.

The air samples were sent to a private laboratory in Lakeland for analysis, along with those from the control house -- a home in the same neighborhood built at about the same time but with a different kind of drywall. The state will use the samples to establish a testing protocol that can be widely used.

The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting its own air tests at three homes on the west coast of Florida and three in Louisiana.

But applying the findings to thousands of homes with Chinese drywall may be difficult, said Krause. ''Each home is unique,'' he said. ``Each person's own health is unique.''

For the Field family, the results can't come too soon. In April, the couple, their three young children and two dogs moved in with Leslie Field's parents in Delray Beach. But it's a tight fit at the two-bedroom home that usually holds two. Renting another place isn't an option: The family is still paying their mortgage and homeowners' association fees at their spacious home in the Parkland Golf & Country Club.

The Fields have sued the home builder, WCI Communities, which has filed for bankruptcy. Other builders have offered to gut and rebuild homes, but lawsuits against builders, drywall suppliers, distributors and installers are swirling in state and federal court.

''I feel dizzy just being in the house again,'' Ted Field said. ``I just didn't feel right when I went to sleep. I didn't feel right when I woke up.''

Now that the family has moved out, he said, ``We all feel much better.''

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