Cane Smoke on Maui... (Kihei, Lahaina: condo, home, allergies)

[LovinMaui]

I moved to North Kihei about 1 month ago and the cane smoke is insane! My condo is constantly filling with ash, not to mention the health affects it is causing us. I have never had allergies in my life but am now finding myself congested and coughing all the time and more recently have been waking up in the middle of the night with a bloody nose (which I haven't had since childhood). My boyfriend and I have recently had to take antibiotics for sinus infections. It seems like every morning around 7-ish I have been waking up needing to close all the windows due to the intense smoke in my house. I had always thought it was something that happened once in a while... not close to everyday!! Can anyone shed some light on this? Does this happen year round or there there some kind of season for this? I read awhile back that HC&S is trying to come up with alternate methods to the burning... anyone heard anything??

[mauidude]

Its a year round thing because they grow sugar cane year round. It seems like about every six weeks they burn it somewhere. Kihei gets the worst of it.

Although I have never seen it this bad, here is a video to give people and example of what it can look like.

YouTube - Black Snow Covers Kihei Village, Maui Hawaii

[mauigirl6]

That was a great Video. I lived in building 31 at Kihei Villages for 4 years.....my son was in the ER for major Asthma several times a year. Once after a paticularly nasty burn he came down with a rare form of pnumonia related to asthma and almost died when he was 7. We live near Foodland now. It's better to a degree. Interesting thing he has been to L.A. 3 x in the past 2 years and had no asthma.....one of many reasons we are leaving our lifetime home and heading to the mainland......he has to take 3 medications just to prevent the attacks plus drugs for the attacks. Plus diet changes (no milk. etc) to keep the mucus low in his lungs....

[LovinMaui]

That is a crazy video... I have been driving on the Pi'ilani before when it has been raining ash like that...

I go running every night and have been getting winded very quickly lately. I am starting to worry about the long term affects breathing that stuff in could be causing me. That is scary about your son MauiGirl... I used to live in LA and never had any problems as well.

I think my best bet would be to get a couple of air purifiers for my home and run those at night with the windows closed... I will miss my island breeze, but at least I will be able to breath!

[Jungjohann]

I'm just above Kamaole 1, so we don't get it quite as bad as those near Suda store. I would recommend one of those air purifiers from Shaper Image, I've got two of them, and they do make a difference. The cane smokes going to get you, depending upon which way the wind is blowing. Given the wind of the past few days, I'm suprised they burned at all. Normally HCS will only burn early in the morning, or at night, when there's no wind.

Aloha,
Thomas Praetzel

[Eh It's Me]

Sorry to hear about the ashe Problem , Things is cane was first that supplying someone a job to do , Way before anything else , I lived In Kihei work In Wailea, Move wake up early drive in to Kihei Realtors never tell You everything "Thats Why Hard "

[samsmall]

Just cause they been doing it a long time don't make cane burning right. People kept slaves for a long time, was that right? Make 'em stop cane burning now, time enough!

[hotzcatz]

Patience, Sam, it will pass. That's the last of the cane pretty much in the state and I'm sure they've got some sort of hold on the legislature in order to keep burning the stuff. I'll ask some of the old cane folks around here, but I sort of remember they had some way of gathering it in without having to burn it first.

In a small community where you can't get away from folks you disagree with "make 'em" doesn't work very well. You may win the argument and "make 'em" quit doing what ever it is you want them to stop doing but then you still have to live with them afterwards. Generally folks like to discuss things and reach a consensus and some sort of compromise that works for everyone. I'm not on Maui, so I can't help you with the details of who to see and chat with to start working on this, but an attitude of working together instead of working against is usually what works best.

Cane is a two year crop, though, so it should run in some sort of two year cycle although that would be on a per field basis and if they intermix different ages of fields close to each other then burning could happen frequently.

[Jungjohann]

Well, if HC&S were to just switch to a slightly more lucrative agricultural product, perhaps you wouldn't mind being downwind of the fire,,,,,,,,,,,, The old Lahaina plantation switched to growing coffee, quite good actually, and tried experimenting with corn for a while, don't know how that ended up. The cane smoke is indeed a PITA, we used to call it "Maui Snow" way back, but, what would you rather have, the occaisional "Maui Snow", or LA smog every day of the year?????? Wouldn't mind seeing windmills or voltaic solar panels lining the Mokulele Highway from Kihei to Pu'unene, maybe some day??? Oh yea, moku=ship, lele=to fly, hence Mokulele Highway, where you can still see the old airstrip, and dragrace there if you care to. Pu'u=hill, nene=goose, don't ask me why, wasn't there when they named it,,,,,, looking forward to the Inauguration!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aloha and okolemaluna

[Danette He]

HC&S has legally been allowed to print a pamphlet, which is also on line, protesting that there no adverse affects to people's health from cane burning; and yet, there are so many of us that actually have developed chronic sinus infections and bronchitus from that said cane burning. Even my doctor has acknowledged that my chronic sinus infections are a direct result of the cane burning. If you have money, you can control the government and print up lies, pretend to be just a hard working environmentally friendly, harmless little agricultural business. You can spin it so that it looks like you're just a nice little farmer out there growing your crop, like it's tomatoes and corn. It's sugar for crying out loud, which we now are beginning to realize is an addictive drug. We have all these ordinances against cigarette smoking, which I totally support, and yet HC&S is allowed to polute the air and our environment on a much grander scale year round. It's amazing that money can talk so loudly that the health of all of us regular citizens means nothing at all.