MMS vote opposes biomass

By DAVE CANTON
Staff Writer
WESTFIELD — The Massachusetts Medical Society, representing 20,000 physicians statewide, has voted to oppose development of wood-fired power plants in the Bay State as a wide-scale public health issue.
At its Interim Meeting in Waltham December 4 and 5, the MMS House of Delegates approved a resolution opposing large-scale biomass plants and specifically those in Russell, Greenfield and Springfield, as “unacceptable risks to public health.”
The MMS joins the regional Hampden District Medical Society in opposition to industrial-scale wood burning for electrical generation.
The HDMS formally voted its opposition to the use of biomass fuels in October.
The multi-part resolution approved by the MMS delegates calls on state government to adopt policies to minimize approval of new biomass plants in the state, to withdraw large-scale biomass plants from eligibility for renewable energy credits, federal stimulus funding and Mass. Technology Collaborative loans, and to urge the state to use the Department of Environmental Protection to regulate existing small-scale biomass facilities to ensure that the most protective air pollution controls are used.
At the same time, the state has called for a study of the “sustainability and renewability” of the state’s forests in relationship to their use as biomass fuels for power generation and large-scale heating. While it has halted issuing qualifications for renewable energy credits for applicable projects, the state is not suspending permitting of biomass plants currently in the permitting process.
The delegates voted to support the four-part resolution submitted by Turners Falls Internist Jefferson Dickey.
Dickey, a physician with the Community Health Center of Franklin County in Turners Falls, said yesterday that he submitted the resolution on behalf of his patients who live downwind of the proposed Greenfield biomass power plant.
“These plants are a significant source of particulate air pollution, and the Pioneer Valley already suffers regular episodes of high particulate levels,” Dickey said. “We have stagnant air masses over the Valley. Pollution flows up from New York and New Jersey and it comes in from the coal-fired plants in the Midwest. Particulate air pollution has been associated with respiratory illness, lost work and school days, more emergency room usage and hospitalizations and increased mortality.”
Dickey cited a 1993 study that correlated particulate air pollution to increased deaths among people directly exposed to high concentrations.
“The study found a linear dose response,” he said. “As air pollution rose, so too did mortality. This has been confirmed by dozens of studies.”
“In January of 2009, a study compared life expectancy versus airborne particulate levels. As particulate levels were brought down, life expectancy in the vicinity increased. If they build these plants, I think we can expect life expectancy to drop among people living in the vicinity of the plants.”
One part of the resolution calls for state and federal financing mechanisms, such as renewable energy credits, to be withdrawn from biomass plants. Dickey said he did not see the fairness in using taxpayer money to support the very air pollution generators that would cause deadly heart and lung disease among state residents.
Dickey said even small-scale biomass heating plants, used in state schools and even hospitals, generate particulate matter and should be regulated as stringently as large-scale plants.
“The issue is they all emit particulate pollution,” he said.
The Massachusetts Medical Society publishes the New England Journal of Medicine and provides medical education programs for physicians and health care professionals.

Published Tuesday, December 8, 2009