2004-07-02 TISHIMARU - Laserfiche WebLink

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childrens development and the effects on children in relationship to cement plants and rock-crushing plants. And you think, oh, okay, well, the natural things, you dont see big clouds of junk blowing to people, that the problem was theres particles causing some problems for these kids. And the result of those three separate studies show that kids who live within three miles of these plants had a higher, much higher rate of lung cancer. Because this is pesticide particles, theyre small, you cant see them, theyre almost microscopic in nature. Theyre so small that if you, the whole room is filled with them you probably wouldnt be able to see them because theyre really very small. Thered have to be a huge concentration to be visible; and these are the things that are getting to the small areas of the lungs. And Im speaking on my expertise as a registered nurse. I worked on restorative/intensive care treatment to Mayo Clinic, I had to handle a lot of people with lung disease and asbestosis, silicosis, a lot of people would come with long- term damage. So it slowly accreted in their lungs, and nobody knew where they necessarily got it from, until maybe 30 years later theyre sick and asked in the last 30 yearsdoyouknowwhereyoulived. Well,therearestudies,andthatswhytheyrereallylandmarkedstudiesintermsofthe cement plants and rock-crushing plants, is because nobody has ever really had the chance to do this type of study. It takes 20-30 years to get this kind of information out. And theyve just been released. I was reading a American Society cite that these particles are a side effect of these rock-crushing and cement-type plants, that theyre real, it suggests, certified. Back in 72, nobody had any idea about this. Some people were starting to get some ideas that maybe we should study it. But these studies didnt get started until the late 80s. So, it already indicates damage that you get from this. I feel that this location is very bad. We certainly do need a cement plant, we need to have access for gravel. Theres going to be growth there whether people like it, whether I like it or not. And to accommodate that we certainly will be seeing some sort of cement and rock-crushing plant out there. Its a matter of where. I think in that site its just asking for trouble. As an elected representative, I have to go back to the Constitution and look at the charters that I have to take care of the health and welfare of the people of Hawaii. I think that given what we know now and given the location of this plant, this is an ill-considered move, in my opinion. And I think that what you might want to do before we move any further forward with this is to ask the, if youre going to pass this, ask for a public hearing in Ka u so those people who are immediately impacted can have some comment on it. Because I had three phone calls this morning from people who didnt know much about this. I have to say Im really ill-prepared for this. I did not get the chance to read the report on it. Im just relying on information Ive gotten from other sources about rock- crushing. I just luckily happened to come into it. I didnt even research it for this reason. I just care about peoples lungs and their health; and its just a professional component of my life so I couldnt ignore that. I dont know, also, given this and since I didnt read the report, I dont know what the archaeology of the area is. It does deeply concern me, cause this is one of the most deeply, thickly populated areas of the island, pre-contact. So theres a lot of stuff in there. Perhaps that has been taken care of, but I really hope that if its not in this report, 12