+1 on this, although its been happening to me since I got the phone in august.
NOTE that this is only the Samsung Email client that does it for me - I don't use the google effort as I don't like the way it handles html messages.
Did a Factory Restore yesterday and its got a lot worse, each time the pile of crap email notification fires up it gets to about 16 new emails before it stops.
I've tried turning off gmail mail syncing, ive disabled the gmail app, notifications in case it was a problem with that also.
I'm on stock samsung code - 2.3.4.
Any one any ideas?