(Published in print: Tuesday, October 13, 2015)
NORTHFIELD — Northfield Pipeline Awareness will present a talk on the health effects of gas pipeline compressor stations on Oct. 25 with Dr. Curtis Nordgaard.
The event will take place at the Northfield Trinitarian Congregational Church at 147 Main Street at 3 p.m.
Dr.
Curtis Nordgaard is a resident pediatrician at Boston Children’s
Hospital and Boston Medical Center. He has an interest in environmental
health, and in particular, climate change and asthma, two environmental
health problems facing many of today’s children.
The
proposal of natural gas projects in New England challenged him to
explore their potential health impacts. He’s been particularly focused
on the Spectra Pipeline expansion and the health impacts from compressor
station emissions in affected communities in the eastern part of the
state.
Northfield
and Windsor, N.H., have been targeted for large compressor stations by
Kinder Morgan subsidiary Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s Northeast Energy
Direct Project. Natural gas compressor stations burn methane and emit a
mixture of volatile organic compounds. In general, these pollutants have
been linked to heart disease, respiratory diseases, low birth weight
and pre-term births.
There
have been very few studies looking at local pollution and health
complaints around compressor stations. The few that have been done
suggest pollution levels are high enough to increase local health risks.
Communities with compressor stations face multiple challenges of
learning about the risks these compressor stations pose to local
residents, deciding whether the risks are acceptable and determining
what can be done to address them.
The
talk will address what data are known about how air pollutants are
distributed from compressor stations, what kinds of pollutants are
released, what the health consequences are for local residents where
these facilities are located, and what communities facing natural gas
infrastructure development can do to prepare themselves.
There
will also be discussion on how residents can get involved at the local
level, and information will be available from the Northfield Pipeline
Awareness group.
No comments:
Post a Comment