Biomass Injustice

Two Bio­mass Injustices

- by Ron Saff, M.D., Octo­ber 27, 2013. Source: Gainesville Sun

Turkey Creek res­i­dents face two deep injus­tices: health risks from air pol­lu­tion and noise pol­lu­tion. Tons of car­cino­gens will soon belch from the bio­mass plant. In a 2009 let­ter to then-Sen. John Ker­ry, the Amer­i­can Lung Asso­ci­a­tion stat­ed that bio­mass burn­ing releas­es tox­ic gasses that can cause can­cer and scar the lungs. The let­ter con­cludes, “Giv­en the tech­nol­o­gy and nat­ur­al resources avail­able to us, we do not believe that any­one should have to choose between elec­tric pow­er and their health.”

Noise pol­lu­tion also has numer­ous health harms. Accord­ing to the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion, pro­longed noise pol­lu­tion may result in per­ma­nent effects such as hyper­ten­sion and ischemic heart dis­ease and the accel­er­at­ed devel­op­ment of latent men­tal disorders.

Noise pol­lu­tion was used as a form of tor­ture by the Nazis who blast­ed loud Ger­man march­ing songs into the Dachau con­cen­tra­tion camp. Sur­vivors have spo­ken bit­ter­ly about how destruc­tive this was.

Let’s stop throw­ing away good mon­ey after bad. The plant can be dis­man­tled and its pieces sold for scrap.

Ron Saff, Mem­ber, Physi­cians for Social Respon­si­bil­i­ty, Flori­da Chapter