Biomass Health Care Costs

Bio­mass Health Care Costs 

- by Dick Stokes, August 16, 2013. Source: Gainesville Sun

Physi­cians warned Gainesville offi­cials for years about the increased health risks and health-care costs from bio­mass-burn­ing emissions.

There’s noth­ing green, clean or healthy about haul­ing over 22 coun­ties’ worth of wood on diesel-belch­ing trucks every day to burn in our backyard.

Diox­ins, fine par­ti­cles, volatile organ­ic com­pounds and oth­ers spew­ing from the Gainesville Renew­able Ener­gy Cen­ter smoke­stack will be odor­less and invis­i­ble. Peo­ple won’t notice they’re being dam­aged until increased rates of asth­ma, heart dis­ease, stroke and can­cer are apparent.

When that hap­pens, cit­i­zens will know the blame falls square­ly on the Gainesville com­mis­sion­ers who vot­ed for the bio­mass boon­dog­gle and those who lat­er failed to take reme­di­al action when it was still pos­si­ble: Pegeen Han­ra­han, Susan Bottch­er, Yvonne Hin­son-Rawls, Randy Wells, Lau­ren Poe, Thomas Hawkins, Jack Dono­van, Jean­na Mas­trod­i­casa, Craig Lowe and Scher­win Henry.

Vis­it www.energyjusticenetwork.org/biomass/health for infor­ma­tion on the health risks and costs of bio­mass incineration.