The Effects of Volcanic Emissions on Health

[dakine]

A rather vague, but I believe still interesting, report showed up today in the Iceland Monitor in which it is being reported that:

Scientists from the University of Iceland have discovered a link between rates of cancer and the amount of time spent living in areas of Iceland which use geothermal water.

The team have recently been studying a possible link between cancer rates and living near hot spring and volcanic areas where all manner of chemical substances are released – and have confirmed that a link exists.

It emerges that there is a higher rate of cancer among those living in geothermal areas than in comparable cooler areas. This covers a range of cancers – such as pancreatic, breast, prostate, kidney, lymph nodes and Hodgkin’s disease...

I admit this is (as I said above) vague, and anyone wishing to diss it can jump all over the lack of scientific peer reviewed blah blah blah, but still with a portion of us being exposed to the same here, and there having been very little in the way of research to quantify what folks that live in places like Leilani are exposed to and its long term effects, as well as the controversy of the safety of having a geothermal industrial complex in what is otherwise a residential and agricultural community, I think the issue is very relevant to us locally.

I hope in time the mentioned Scientists from the University of Iceland will have their findings further quantified and published so that a more definitive understanding of what they are seeing will be widely distributed.

The article quoted above is from:

http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2...hermal_ar/

[David M]

We also know there is a higher incidence of ocean drownings of people who go to the beach. People who never visit the beach almost never drown in the ocean.

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

[PaulW]

If correlation was the same as causation then this would be bad news indeed for the good people of Volcano. Evacuation would be in order.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

People fly thousands of miles to visit volcanic hot springs, intentionally, for their positive health effects. I'm sure if you went to any Puna hot pond and asked the people floating in the warm volcanic infused waters, they would say it's good for them. Here's a list of some hot springs around the world which includes some of their beneficial properties:

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/02/01...g-for.html

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
-Joseph Brodsky

[Tink]

Again, some in Puna are begging it to be turned into an addition of National Park Land. Too hazardous to live in, eminent domain ( what do you mean cash compensation, we saved your life!), everybody out!
Be careful what you ask for!!

Community begins with Aloha

[leilanidude]

Scientists from the University of Iceland have discovered a link between rates of cancer and the amount of time spent living in areas of Iceland which use geothermal water.

The team have recently been studying a possible link between cancer rates and living near hot spring and volcanic areas where all manner of chemical substances are released – and have confirmed that a link exists.
---

Key here being that it is a natural thing. Don't try to relate it to PGV by using the "geothermal" word.

[geochem]

Some quotes from the published study:
"In these communities, geothermal water has been used for domestic and greenhouse heating, laundry, bathing, showering, and washing, in spas and swimming pools."

"The causes are unknown for the higher HRs (Hazard Ratio) of many cancer sites in the present study, which are related to length of cumulative residence in the study areas. In reflection on this, it is difficult to explain the risk for the different cancer sites by a single component of the ground gas emission in the geothermal area, or traces of chemicals in the geothermal water. When considering the classification of human carcinogens according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer [45], two carcinogens in particular i.e. As and Rn come to mind, as these have been mentioned in previous studies on cancer risk among populations in geothermal areas. A recent mortality study in an old volcanic area provided evidence of association of low dose (below 10 ppb) As in drinking water and cancer risk [46], and in a case-control study a positive association between BCC and a low dose exposure to As was found [47]. The concentrations of As in geothermal well water used for bathing in the geothermal heating area range from 11 to 116 ppb [48], and should be contrasted to < 0.3 ppb in water used for bathing in the cold reference area [49, 50]. According to a recent nation-wide survey of indoor Rn concentration in Iceland, a mean of 13 Bq/m3 is among the lowest in the world [51]. Nevertheless the amount of Rn in the geothermal water in the geothermal heating area (9 Bq/l) (used for bathing) [10] is approximately four times the amount of Rn in water used for bathing in the cold reference area (approximately 1.5 Bq/l) [49, 50]. The role of these differences in concentrations is unknown; bearing in mind that dermal exposure may in this situation be of greater importance than exposure through inhalation or ingestion."

In this study, as in all studies, the devil is in the details. Intensity of exposure (to what), duration of exposure, and mode of exposure are all important considerations. If these folks are drinking well water having as much as ten times the EPA permitted arsenic levels in drinking water, then a higher incidence of cancer is not too surprising (neither would be other effects of excess exposure to As). As noted, too, dermal exposure to high levels of arsenic are also related to higher incidences of cancer.

It would have been interesting to see how the indoor radon/radon daughter product levels compared between the geothermaly heated and non-geothermaly heated homes; if the geothermal water used for heating was venting its dissolved gases indoors (which would be occurring in any event for hot water uses of washing/bathing, laundry, and other indoor domestic uses) then you would have an ideal situation (with a tightly constructed home with low air exchange rates) for exposure to radon daughter products which are associated with increased lung cancer. (although not widely recognized outside the field, radon itself isn't the lung cancer threat, it is the radon daughter products that can be inhaled and stick to the lung tissue where they continue to decay and irradiate the underlying tissue. Hence, lung cancer threat is a two step process - access of radon to indoor air, and a long enough residency for significant amounts to convert to radon daughters...).

As long as you are not secretly piping PGV's reinjection water into your house for heating/washing/drinking, then the relevance of these findings to Leilani estates and other communities around PGV, are pretty tenuous.

If you want to read the publication from which the above quotes were drawn, this is the link that I used:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article...ne.0155922

[EightFingers]

Do not eat the lava! No matter what form it's in, it's going to be bad for your health

[pam jones]

I live 30 miles from the geothermal plant so don't think I'm britching and beating a dead horse here. What I do know is that on at least three occasions in the past 12 years I have had a long term, unexplained cough which lasted for a number of months. Numerous trips to doctors, more chest xrays than I can easily remember right now and no diagnosis. I recently asked a pulmonologist from Kaiser if there have been any studies on adults here in the Puna district and chronic coughs and his lame excuse for saying, "No", was due to lack of funds!
Somehow it feels like if this volcano was on Oahu there would be massive studies with truckloads of data. Truth is truth.
Google isn't gospel truth but a simple search is a very eye opening experience. Whether one believes the science or not all I need do is look in my collection of medicines (I hate medicine more than my feeble words can express!) to tell me the truth of living within 10 miles of a live volcano. I realize B&B owners and others have a ve$ted interest and I get that; however demonizing or minimizing the realities of this paradoxical paradise don't make the realities any less harsh or real. It is just an ironic tradeoff that those of us who stay here are apparently willing to tolerate.

[Rob Tucker]

I've lived five miles from the geothermal plant for twenty years and unless I was actually driving in the plant gate I would not know it was there. Just my experience... not implying anything for anyone else.