Comments(15)

1. Rona Rittner says

   October 5, 2012 at 8:42 am

   The lack of careing for our health by messing with the clean air and putting the burning crap and dust and plastic in our air while we are still in bed and getting ready for work is just not healthy for are lungs. We have to have this stoped now forever.

2. DAKOTA says

   September 26, 2012 at 10:42 pm

   When I heard on the news that HC&S will shutdown all the mills on Maui except the Pu’unene Mill years ago. I thought Yay!!! No more cane burning. Wrong!!! For many years my children and I suffer from lung&sinus problems due to toxins in the air. The main toxin that always bothered us was CANE SMOKE. Headaches, coughing, sneezing, allergies, wheezing. Years later after I discovered I had Bronchitis my doctor would ask have you always had ASTHMA? I would answer NO… I never had Asthma ever? I’m on Oxygen Therapy now. When asked about my illness I say it’s because of CANE BURNING. We live on Pu’unene Ave. a mile from the mill. Every time there’s a burning in the area, my chest gets tight, I have a hard time breathing and a headache. I will stay in my house or in the car as long as I can to avoid the smoke inhalation. Its not easy to avoid pollution. But STOPPING this health problem will help with the health cost. I have had people come up to me and ask if they can get oxygen for their parents who live in Kahului and have breathing symptoms, when there is Cane Smoke in the air. I hate it when they burn the fields and I hate it when they fertilize the fields it smells like dog poop! TOXINS IN THE AIR! HORRIBLE SMELLS. HORRIBLE.

3. deb mader says

   September 24, 2012 at 9:48 pm

   I moved from N Kihei because my kids kept getting sick from the cane burning. My son ended up in ER, gasping for breath. My whole family has itchy eyes, sore throat, cough, fatigue, nausea every time the sugar cane smoke blows our way (almost every day in the summer). We moved to Maui Meadows and the smoke still manages to get up here too. We can see the smoke as it drifts through Kihei and falls from the sky into the ocean. Huge brown “Clouds” cover the surface of the ocean. No wonder the coral is suffocating. I can only imagine how terrible it is for the workers breathing in all the smoke. I’ve seen burnt pvc piping in the fields after they burn. So we are not only breathing in the cane dust, but chemicals from the pipes, and whatever pesticides and other agricultural chemicals they have sprayed on the cane. I loved living in North Kihei, it’s so sad what’s happening to all of us. We could replace those 800 jobs AND create new ones with increased tourism and proper harvesting of sugar cane without burning. Since we import so much of our food, how about growing organic food that is actually good for us? We can find new jobs for the employees, but it’s not so easy to replace a child once he or she has passed due to respiratory failure. I hope we can all work together to stop the burning practice and clean up Maui.
   Mahalo

   • Maria SIMS says

     December 2, 2012 at 5:48 pm

     We have the ability to move to the west side or to Maui Meadows. I work in Kihei but if I have to can move father West. I ready your post about the smoke in Maui Meadows. Is it bad or just 1 or 2 times a year. My husband has been driving up there to see if the air quality is better and it is, but it sounds like it is still bad. Can you share your insight.

     • Maui Tomorrow says

       December 3, 2012 at 1:30 pm

       It depends on what field is being burned (fields are burned every 2 years so half are burned in even years and half in odd years).

       It also depends on weather conditions.

       So there is no way for us to predict when it will hit Maui Meadows.

       Ma’alaea gets hit quite often because it is in the path of the collapsing plumes during normal tradewinds.

4. Concerned Local says

   September 23, 2012 at 8:45 am

   One childs life lost from an asthma attack is not worth 800 jobs. Particularly 800 jobs trapped in another century, an unprofitable industry stealing water not meant to be owned.

5. Maui Tomorrow says

   September 17, 2012 at 8:39 am

   I am writing to register another formal complaint about cane burning today. I live in S. Kihei (above Kam I), and just closed all of my doors and windows due to the suffocating smoke that is filling my house and now making my throat and eyes burn, and a throbbing headache is coming on just as I need to begin a day of productive work. I check the HC&S web site for the burn locations regularly, but it doesn’t seem to matter where they burn – even burns in Paia hug the base of Haleakala and make their way around to Kihei. And this far south!

   How many complaints, how much agony will it take for something to be done to provide Maui residents with healthful breathing conditions? I sincerely hope someone is taking these complaints seriously and, instead of quoting the current laws back to residents, considering how to make the laws comply with the standards elsewhere in the country that put public health and safety before a single company’s profits.

   December cannot come soon enough this year.

   Thank you,
   LV

6. Rahimo Gleason says

   September 17, 2012 at 8:09 am

   It is now 7:56a.m. on Sept.17,2012 and the thick, acrid smell of cane smoke is permeating Central Kihei. On a beautiful Maui morning, I opened my door to the smell and sight of this cane smoke. Now I am fully feeling the effects of watery, burning eyes and the all too common dull headache that comes with the cane smoke. I was about to go work in my lovely, organic vegetable garden, but the smoke is too strong and anytime in it will start to affect my breathing. I know this all too well from all the other burnings that have impacted us. I feel that I must speak up because it is simply too unhealthy for myself, my family and the environment to live with this constant burning. 2012 has been a particularly bad year for the burning. We have experienced the effects of cane burning on many days this year with only intermittent days of relief. It is time to stop poisoning the air we breathe.

7. Aileen R. Lily Acain says

   September 15, 2012 at 1:19 pm

   It is so imperative that we have a healthy environment of air, water,and the soil of which we grow our fruits and vegetables in period. I’m born and raised on Oahu and didn’t experience this there. I have also lived in LA for 13 yrs.. I moved back to Hawaii because the air in LA was so bad for my son who has asthma. Since I’ve moved to Kihei 3 yrs. ago from upcountry, now I’ve developed respritory, sinus, and throat issues due to the years of inhaling cane smoke . I’m tired and haven’t been healthy since I’ve moved here. It enrages me that I moved back to Hawaii for the clean air, and environment but can’t enjoy that because of the cane burning,and the destruction of what the smoke, and ashes cause in smothering the land, and our coral reefs now. Our schools should educate our children that this is wrong on so many levels, and also we need our children to sign this petition. They are our future, let’s teach them the right thing to do.

8. Lynn Muramaru says

   September 15, 2012 at 12:58 pm

   I was a visitor to Maui, participating in the Hana Relays on Sept. 8, 2012. Breathing the thick smoke that was wafting over made for uncomfortable running conditions and to say the least, unhealthy. I even noticed black debris on the ground of our hotel in Kahului at 4:30 am when we left for the race site. While I was glad to know that the sugar industry still exists in Hawaii, I was surprised to see that Maui still maintains the old practice of open-air burning, with all the attention to environmental concerns and laws. I would think by now, there up-dated ways to harvest cane without polluting the environment and infringing on everyone’s right to breath clear air.

9. Alison says

   September 15, 2012 at 7:14 am

   The burning of cane has detrimental effects on my students and their ability to remain focused during lessons. The ash and smoke comes right into the classroom. Many of my students have allergies and the burning of cane triggers their allergies. Some have to go to the health room or do not even come to school at all. We have to think of our keiki!

10. Steve Madaras says

    September 10, 2012 at 8:45 am

    Aloha

    Please be informed with regard to Cane Burning. The ash & soot of each and every burn falls back to the ground and the Ocean. We have all witnessed ash on our cars, sidewalks & driveways during & after a Cane Burn. What we see on land will and is happening in our ocean. I have witnessed and now have photographic proof of the ash & soot accumulating on the sand underwater. Coral spawns by the full moon as it drifts to the surface it mixes with the remains of a Cane Burn. Soot & ash settles on the surface of the ocean, sinks through the water column & accumulates on the coral and the sand underwater. How long can this go on?

    Can we afford to continue issuing Cane Burning permits only to find out next month, or next year, that its too late for us or our children to restore our oceans treasures.

    Thank you for your consideration.

11. Justin Gilliland says

    September 9, 2012 at 4:12 am

    I am only on island a week or two per year and have experienced multiple times.

12. Ilse Menger says

    September 8, 2012 at 3:36 pm

    Mr. Volner, (from HC&S) about burning sugar cane that affects the health of many Maui residents).

    I know you are operating within the rules and regulations of the open air burn permit that the Dept of Health issues to your company. The Dept
    of Health issuing burn permits? It sounds like a contradiction to me. I will work diligently campaigning to have the state/county revoke your open air burn perm.
    it. Do you guys have a conscience at all? I used to hear your radio commercial about keeping Maui green, what about the health of it’s citizens? Do you guys ever think of that? I can’t evacuate my whole family in the middle of the night because you are burning at 4am. I have lived in many sugar producing countries in the world, all of them third World countries in the Caribbean and Brazil, they didn’t burn the cane, they harvested the cane green and they allowed it to grow the cane back 4x before replanting. We don’t live in a Third World country, we are supposed to set an example, what kind of example are you setting, what are our children learning from you? That it is ok to hurt other people because you are a big bully?

13. Bobbie Jo Curley says

    September 7, 2012 at 5:52 pm

    It is imperative that we have healthy air for our children and the future of Maui. This health hazard seems worse to me than all the years I spent living in Los Angeles.

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