12-30-2014, 08:24 AM
quote:
Originally posted by gypsy69
Obviously Puna is not everybody's HOME, where they were raised that is. Not everyone has lost family and or friends at early ages from rare cancers that did live within 1 mile from geothermal. Some facts may be buried, rip. How can we know if geothermal was the killer of these young souls, without a proper health study?. Because of the lack of health facilities or health studies, a known dirty, sneaky, power plant so close to residential living couldn't be why some are left with heartache.
How can anyone know for sure the community has not been poisoned by our neighbor as Opihikao states?.
It seems from this and your other posts, that you have already made up your mind - whether there is any data or not to support the alleged health effects.
A very extensive health study was conducted of a large population that experiences much higher exposures to hydrogen sulfide (and other geothermal gases) than has ever been experienced in the area around the Puna geothermal plant. How much higher? annual exposures that were ten to one hundred times higher than the worst extended (two week) averages recorded around PGV in any given year. Two scientific articles published on that work found that the highest exposed individuals showed no evidence of adverse respiratory nor neurological effects from those exposure levels. And, in fact, the indications were that the highest exposed individuals had fewer respiratory issues and better neurological responses than those in the lower exposure group.
You asked for links - these are links to the articles:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3594811/
http://www.ebire.org/hcnlab/papers/ReedWoods2014.pdf
I'm sure gypsy69 that you and others will have a hundred reasons why this study doesn't apply to Puna, or that it was done incorrectly, or didn't look at every conceivable health impact that you have conjured up as being associated with your (trivial) exposure to geothermal emissions. But it's the best, most extensive study of long-term exposure to geothermal emissions that has ever been done - by a respected group of health researchers with no ties to any geothermal industry - and it's findings are completely contrary to all your and PPA's claims.
The very expensive health study that the county will contract for will likely come to the same conclusions - if they can somehow filter out the prejudicial bias that you and your cohort will do your best to infiltrate into the results.