Whether H-POWER complies with emissions standards or not, the fact remains that O`ahu’s air quality is not helped by its operation. According to Jim Morrow, director of the American Lung Association of Hawai`i, the result will most likely not be acute, but chronic. No one will fall over dead simply from breathing more contaminated air. But in the long term, Morrow says, the State can expect to see lung disease exacerbated among adults and more frequent lung disease among children, whose immature lung tissue is made more susceptible to disease by exposure to irritating pollutants.
Also, while it is a relatively straightforward process to figure out the health effects of a single pollutant, it is far more difficult to figure out what happens when pollutants combine. “There are synergistic effects, additive effects – and even protective effects.” Morrow noted.
The form of exposure is important. When a molecule of sulfur dioxide is in gaseous form, a person can inhale it – but because it is water soluble, it won’t get as far as the lungs. If, however, that same molecule is in aerosol form – as it would be if it attached itself to a fine particle – it could much more easily reach in to the alveolar region of the lungs, where it could do serious damage.
In fact, particles in general tend to be an overlooked problem of stack emissions. While cilia are able to trap dust particles as small as 5 microns – 5 millionths of a meter – in diameter, finer particles go straight to the deepest region of the lungs.
A good discussion of fine particles may be found in Rachel’s Hazardous Waste News, Numbers 131-134. (Rachel’s is published weekly by Environmental Research Foundation, P.O. Box 3541, Princeton, N.J. 08543-3541.)
“As fine particles move upward in the smokestack, they are immersed in a bath of gaseous chemicals that are cooling and are “looking for a place to turn from a gaseous to a solid state. Fine particles, with their large surface area, provide an inviting place, and so the surfaces of fine particles become covered with pollutants (‘enriched’…) before they are released into the local air. In particular, fine particles become coated with toxic metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, and zinc) and with sulfur and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons…
“Once lodged in the deep regions of the lung, fine particles, with their enormous surface area enriched with toxics, provide a particularly efficient means for delivering metals and organic pollutants directly into the blood stream… Once in the circulatory system, toxics are then distributed throughout the body.”
Volume 1, Number 4 October 1990
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