Sugar | Page 13 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 22, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

‘We are learning the Star Spangled Banner’

The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started at Kōloa on Kaua‘i in 1835. It was to change the face of Hawai‘i forever, launching an entire economy, lifestyle and practice of mono-cropping that lasted for well over a century.

Hawaiʻi had the basic natural resources needed to grow sugar: land, sun and water. Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape. However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

There were three big waves of workforce immigration: Chinese 1852; Japanese 1885 and Filipinos 1905; several smaller, but substantial, migrations also occurred: Portuguese 1877; Norwegians 1880; Germans 1881; Puerto Ricans 1900; Koreans 1902 and Spanish 1907.

Then, in May 1909 on Oʻahu, 5,000 Japanese plantation workers went out on strike.

The serious problems involved in the plantation labor situation continued to occupy the center of attention of those interested in the welfare of the sugar industry in Hawaiʻi. (American Sugar Industry and Beet Sugar Gazette, February 24, 1911)

An opportunity soon presented itself in the person of a Russian national, AV Perelestrous, who came to Honolulu for medical treatment and rest on Waikiki and saw a good opening for business.

He introduced himself to the secretary of the Territory of Hawaiʻi and the Territorial board of immigration as a major railway contractor in Manchuria and offered his services in delivering Russian workers to local sugar cane plantations. (Khisamutdinov)

“The efforts to obtain Russian immigration were in the final results rather disastrous both in the object sought and financially. … the board of immigration was given to understand that the Russian Government would not look with disfavor upon an attempt to recruit from that quarter.”

“(I)t was decided to introduce approximately 50-families as a trial lot, and Mr ALC (‘Jack’) Atkinson (US District Attorney) was chosen to proceed to Harbin, accompanied by Mr AW Perelestrous, who some time previous had represented himself … as a Russian contractor familiar with the conditions in Manchuria. Mr Atkinson departed August 30, 1909, accompanied by Mr Perelestrous”. (US House Committee on Immigration, 1921)

The recruiting took place in Harbin, Manchuria, on the Siberian border, the center of the Chinese Eastern Railroad, where Atkinson opened his office. That way it was easier to draw up exit papers: emigrants left through the port of Dalny, where there was no Russian customs post. (Khisamutdinov)

They returned to the Islands on October 22, 1909 “with 108 men, 67 women, and 79 children, a total of 255. These people were to all appearances, both physically and otherwise (so far as could be determined by the board,) the most desirable lot of immigrants ever introduced.” (US House Committee on Immigration, 1921)

“The Russians are a clean, sturdy, fine appearing lot of people, apparently with the willingness to work and certainly with the physical strength to do so. They are peasants, the older men and women uneducated. This was to have been expected. The children, however, are” bright, active and healthy, such as should grow up to be helpful citizens with the advantages they will have in this country.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 22, 1909)

“They accepted such employment as was offered them and so highly were they spoken of by their employers that, in November of the same year the board decided to introduce some three or four hundred additional families of the same class.” (US House Committee on Immigration, 1921)

“The liner Siberia, which arrived here yesterday from the orient, landed 212 Russian immigrants at Honolulu. There were men, women and children in the party. In Russia the men had been working long hours for a monthly wage of 5 rubles and were enchanted at the prospect of a free life on the sugar plantations. That they have no intention of returning”.

“At the request of some of the passengers, one of the ship’s officers requested the Russians to sing the Russian national hymn. The quartermaster who carried the message returned shaking his head. … (They effectively told him) ‘To hell with Russia; we are learning the ‘Star Spangled Banner.’”

“After landing at Honolulu every Russian tore up his passport and threw the scraps into the Pacific ocean.” (San Francisco Call, October 29, 1910)

Later shipments weren’t as enthusiastic. “Diphtheria broke out in quarantine. Bottled up, bored, hearing stories of real plantation life, they balked. … Most new recruits refused to sign up for jobs … Saying they’d rather starve than work on plantations, the immigrants exited quarantine April 4th, many of them following the Spaniards to California.” (Elks)

Later shipments met with similar resistance; Russians refused to accept the working and living conditions. As soon as steamers with settlers began approaching the shore, shouts were heard: “Don’t go to the plantations! Better drown in the sea than go there and work!” (Khisamutdinov)

The total number of Russians introduced into the Territory amounted to 1,799, at a total cost of $139,021.59, exclusive of the quarantine expenses here of $17,735.79. Of the number introduced, only a little more than 60 per cent accepted plantation employment. (US House Committee on Immigration, 1921)

On March 21, 1910, Russian emigrants went on strike. The authorities suggested that they should elect representatives who would tour the plantations and familiarize themselves with working and living conditions there. But they refused to do so because they no longer believed any promises.

The magazine In Foreign Parts (Russians in America and Australia) wrote this about Hawaii: “At first our workers suffered numerous hardships on the Hawaiian Islands, but gradually they began to adapt.”

“Some emigrated to America, some found jobs in accordance with their skills, some bought farms of their own on time, while the majority for the time being accepted their fate and were working.” (Khisamutdinov) Complaints were spread about the misinformation given while recruiting in Russia.

On January 12, 1912, members of the Russian staff assisting in the emigration were arrested and sent to prison. This was the end of the Russian resettlement to Hawaiʻi. (Khisamutdinov)

The image shows a front page photo showing the arrival of Russian immigrants; it is labeled ‘Hawaiʻi’s New Citizens’ from the Pacific Commercial Advertiser. (October 22, 1909)

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Russian_Immigration-‘Hawaii’s New Citizens’-PCA-Oct_22,_1909

Russian Collection, Hamilton_Library, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Russian_Immigration_’Hawaii’s New Citizens’-PCA-Oct_22,_1909

Russian_Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii at Manoa

russian-passport-application-album-uh_manoa

Russian Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Russian Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii at_Manoa

Russian Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii_at Manoa

Russian Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii_at_Manoa

October 5, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Molokans

“Two hundred years ago in central Russia a group of farmers defied the Russian Orthodox Church by drinking milk whenever they pleased, even on holy days. Despised and persecuted, they were called Molokans – milk drinkers.” (Southeast Missourian, November 11, 1964)

“The Molokans have been compared to Protestants for rejecting the parent church’s orthodoxy, and also have been likened to Presbyterians for having lay ministers and a loose council of dominant elders.”

“In about 1905, thousands of Molokans left Russia to escape religious intolerance and the threat of the military draft, which violates their religious principles. Church prophets instructed the Molokans to migrate to ‘the promised land.’”

“But the prophecy was not clear on an exact location, so some members ended up settling in Baja California where they established a small community known as Valle de Guadalupe. Others migrated to Northern and Central California. The majority, however, settled in East Los Angeles.” (LA Times)

“Their only occupation is agriculture and horse, stock and sheep-raising in connection with it. They live in communities of different sizes, the villages comprising from forty to 500 families. The land is owned in common, and redivided at certain intervals according to changes of working forces in families.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 26, 1905)

James Bicknell Castle became interested in members of the Molokans, “and immediately began efforts to induce some of them to come to Hawaii, and to that end invited Captain Demens (formerly a Russian nobleman and liberal leader, who has been a resident and citizen of the United States for the past thirty years) to come and examine conditions here to see if he could recommend them to his fellow countrymen.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 26, 1905)

“Captain Demens came, was pleased with soil, climate and conditions and agreed to recommend his people to come to Hawaii, upon the condition however, that they could secure land at reasonable prices on which they could locate and make a living.”

“Negotiations were immediately opened with the government for land under the homestead settlement law, and with the Makee Sugar Company which holds a lease with eighteen months yet to expire, on the government land of Kapa‘a …”

“… with a view to secure a cancellation of the lease, the homesteading of the same by the proposed settlers and favorable terms for grinding cane raised by them.”

“The day when 600 god-fearing, moral, industrious, educated people, of western civilization, become established on their own land, and doing their own work, will be a red-letter day for Hawaii.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 26, 1905)

“The first detachment Molokan settlers for these Islands arrived yesterday afternoon the China from San Francisco. Exactly 110-men, women and children composed the party, representing about 30 families. They came in charge George Thellen representing James B Castle.” (Hawaiian Star, February 20, 1906)

“It will be remembered that agents for them visited Honolulu some months ago, to spy out the land. They were looking, they said, for some kind of ‘Land of Promise,’ which their religion taught them would be given them …”

“… where they would be free from governmental tyranny, where the soil and climate would be good, and where they could live their own lives in their own way, at peace with their neighbors and infringing no man’s rights. The agents of the Molokans expressed themselves, at that time, as highly pleased with the Territory.”

“The (Los Angeles) Times said that there would be sixteen thousand of these people to follow the first movement to Los Angeles, and commented very favorably upon the gain that their coming would be to the State.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 25, 1906)

“Hawaii has cut in ahead of Los Angeles and if the Molokan experiment here is a success, there is little doubt that these sixteen thousand people will find their future home in the Territory.”

Eventually the project failed … “The Kapaa section, once flourishing with green sugar cane, is now a barren looking place. It is government land and is being set apart for homesteaders and until it is fully settled it will be bleak and barren.”

“It is said that the Molokans were disagreeably surprised when first they entered the canefields to cut the juicy stalks. They failed to fasten the bottoms of their trousers legs, as advised, and soon they were hopping about with centipedes clinging to their calves, the Japanese laughing at the predicament of their field rivals.” (Hawaiian Gazette, September 10, 1909)

George H Fairchild, the Makee plantation manager, “gave up on the Russians, declaring them too individualistic to accept supervision and too unreliable as laborers.” (Alcantara)

The ‘Molokan Experiment’ ended about as fast as it started … “(it) seems now pretty well at an end, although twelve families still remain on Kauai.”

“Thirty-four of the colonists, of which such high hopes were entertained when they were brought here, arrived in Honolulu this morning definitely announcing their purpose to leave the islands. Perhaps the trouble was that too generous terms were offered them.” (Hawaiian Star, June 9, 1906)

Castle met the expense of shipping the Molokans back to California, but the cane lands that he caused to be planted by this colony afterward became the nucleus of the plantation operated by the Makee Sugar Co. (Nellist)

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Kealia Mill-KHS, Cultural Surveys

July 26, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Puakō Plantation

In Hawaiian tradition, there was a man named Puakō, “a very handsome man whose form was perfect.” At the place where he lived, he would carry “sea water and filling pools for salt making.’ (Fornander) Some suggest the name Puakō is associated with salt-making.

Others suggest Puakō (sugarcane blossom) is associated with sugar, “Mr. WL Vreedenburg (sic) one Sunday came to Hawi in a state of considerable excitement, with four or five sticks of fine looking cane strapped to his saddle …”

“… which, as he put it, he discovered at Puakō the day before while on a shooting trip. This cane was grown without irrigation, and he enthusiastically announced, there were large areas of as good land as that on which these particular sticks were grown…” (Hind; Maly)

“Puakō is a village on the shore, very like Kawaihae, but larger. It has a small harbor in which native vessels anchor. Coconut groves give it a verdant aspect. No food grows in the place. The people make salt and catch fish. These they exchange for vegetables grown elsewhere.” (Lorenzo Lyons, 1835; Maly)

“Not infrequently at Kawaihae and Puakō there is no food to be had. The people live without food for days, except a little fish which prevents starvation. Nor is this to be had everyday, the ocean being so rough they cannot fish, or a government working day interferes, when the sailing of a canoe is tabu – unless the owner chooses to pay a fine.”

“The water too at these places is such that I cannot drink it. I would as soon drink a dose of Epsom salts… On the way to Puakō, all is barren and still more desolate. After an hour’s walk from my house, not a human dwelling is to be seen till you reach the shore, which requires a walk of about five hours.” (Lorenzo Lyons, 1839-1846; Maly)

In 1880, Bower noted, “At Puakō there is some grief for the eye, in the shape of a grove of cocoa-palms, which are growing quite close to the water’s edge. These had been planted right amongst the lava, and where they got their sustenance from I could not imagine. They are not of any great height, running from twenty to sixty feet.”

“There are about a dozen native huts in the place. These buildings are from twenty to forty feet long and about fifteen feet high to the ridge of the roof. They only contain a single room each, and are covered with several layers of matting.” (Bower; Maly)

“At Puakō and South Kohala is the most unique affair on the Island. There, a little pocket of alluvial soil covering an area of 300 acres, lying between lava flows and fronting the ocean, has been secured from the great landed proprietor, Sam Parker, and converted into the Puakō plantation.”

“Wells have been bored and an abundant supply of good water secured for irrigation. The cane is of the Lahaina variety and grows as rank as the bamboo kind.”

“A mill with a capacity of 2000 tons is to be erected soon. A good road to Kawaihae, a distance of four miles, is greatly needed. The enterprise is under the management of Mr (Wilmont) Vredenberg.” (Honolulu Republican, July 29, 1900)

“Puakō Plantation, which was started near Kawaihae about fourteen months ago, is making a good showing under the management of Mr Vredenberg.”

“Samples of cane brought from there this week show excellent growth, the sticks running eighteen feet long and having six to eight Inch joints. The samples are of cane planted a year ago. The two pumps are doing excellent work and the quality of the water is fairly good.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, August 5, 1901)

A wharf was constructed, just south of the present day boat launch, to facilitate the shipment of materials for mill construction. In his journal, John Hind wrote, “a fine up to date little mill with all the appurtenances which go with a modern plantation was installed (ca. 1905,) on an ideal site, a hundred or so yards from the landing”. (Hind; Rechtman)

This area contained crushing machinery, mixers, vats, and all the other mechanical necessities for the mill, along with dormitories and a camp for over three hundred workers, a company store, two schoolhouses, an office building, various storehouse and warehouse facilities, and a shed for honey processing machinery.

A rail line connected the mill operations with field operations. Other improvements to the plantation included the construction of an approximately eight-mile long section of flume that carried water from Waimea Stream to the plantation.

“We found a good rain was of very great benefit, and finally as a forlorn hope, after keeping tab, on the Waimea stream for over eighteen months, put in an eight mile flume, but strange as it may seem, the water failed just before the flume was finished.”

“Mr. Carter the Manager of the Parker Ranch (1903) attributed the failure to the unprecedented dry weather in the mountains, but as the stream, never after that, continued to flow with any degree of regularity, it would appear the shrinkage of forest area in the mountains was having its effect.”

(This 1903 “severe reduction in rainfall” also brought about discussions which led to the development of the Kohala Ditch. In 1904, John Hind “launched his ditch campaign”.)

(The Honokāne section of Kohala Ditch was opened on June 11, 1906; waters of Honokāne began flowing to the Kohala, Niuliʻi, Hālawa, Hawi and Union mills; the Awini section was finished in 1907. The ditch carried the water for 23-miles northwest toward Hawi (mostly as tunnel.))

“Puakō, as a sugar proposition, I was satisfied, was hopeless, so finally was closed down, and parts gradually sold off at what they would bring (closed by ca. 1914.)” (Hind; Maly)

Hind continued to foster other economic development in Puakō even after the failure of the sugar plantation, “extending his ranching interests (a kiawe feed lot and cattle shipping operation), honey making, and making charcoal on his lease lands”. (Rechtman)

By 1930, additional grants were being awarded the few native families living on the beach, and by 1950, the beach lands had been subdivided into more than 165 Beach House Lots which at the time were generally “vacation” houses. (Maly) (Lots of information here is from Maly and Rechtman.)

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Kawaihae to Anaehoomalu-DAGS2786-zoom-zoom-noting Puako Plantation Site

Puako Bay-DAGS4027-zoom-noting Grant 4856-Puako Mill Site

July 6, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Cane Fire

Slash and burn agriculture is a widely used method of growing food in which wild or forested land is clear cut and any remaining vegetation burned.

The resulting layer of ash provides the newly-cleared land with a nutrient-rich layer to help fertilize crops. (EcoLogic)

In the Islands, between AD 1100 and 1650, there was a period of expansion and agricultural intensification in Hawaii that accompanied an increase in human population. (Pratt)

Until about 1500 AD, agriculture was shifting cultivation using slash and burn techniques and long fallow periods. Between 1500 and 1800 A.D., agriculture expanded, intensified, and became permanent. (Cuddihy & Stone)

During that period the lowland vegetation below 1,500-feet elevation was almost entirely replaced by cultivated fields, dispersed settlements and grasslands, caused by repeated fires; while upland sites remained little disturbed. (Pratt)

Several of the large field systems have pronounced burn layers that represent wither the original removal of native tree cover or the use of fire for clearing fallow fields.

Fire was the primary tool used by Hawaiians to clear lands prior to cultivation. This was true in areas adjacent to irrigated valleys and windward slopes as well as in the great field systems. Fire may have been repeatedly used to periodically clear the secondary growth on fallow fields. (Cuddihy & Stone)

Fire was also used in marginal cultivations to burn off vegetation and increase the cover of ‘ama‘u ferns used as pig feed. Large expanses of the lowlands were regularly burned to clear woody vegetation and stimulate indigenous pili grass. (Pratt)

Agricultural burning is standard practice for many other kinds of crops on nearly 9-million acres throughout the country, including rice, wheat, corn, cotton, lentils and soybeans. (HC&S)

Fire was later used in the harvesting of sugarcane. Burning the cane before harvesting removes most of the dead vegetation without causing significant damage to the interior of the cane stalk. (James)

The sugarcane plant consists of about 75 percent to 80 percent net cane (stalks) from which the juice is extracted and the sugar crystalized. The other 20 percent to 25 percent of the plant consists of leafy material, including tops, from which little or no sugar is produced.

This leafy material is called trash. Burning sugarcane before harvest (or milling) removes from one-half to two-thirds of this trash that would otherwise contribute nothing to sugar production. (LSUAC)

In many countries, such as Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, and Costa Rica, pre-harvest burning is a common practice. In the US and Philippines, sugarcane fields are burned either before or after harvest, but in India, most of the sugarcane residues are usually burned in the field only after harvest. (de Azeredo França)

In Australia, sugarcane burning started in the 1930s to combat Weil’s disease (leptospirosis) among cane-cutters. In other cane growing areas, burning was sometimes done to clear the field of snakes before hand-cutters cut the cane. (Cheesman)

There were attempts to use fire to get rid of pests, “When as an experiment, a patch of about nine acres of cane, so heavily attacked by leaf-hopper as to be useless, was set on fire all around to destroy these, it was noticed that the adult hoppers rose from the cane in a cloud and spread to other fields; so this plan for destroying them was of no value.” (HSPA, 1906)

It appears that the practice of burning sugarcane started in the early-1900s (some suggest in 1908.) Prior to that, cane trash (nonproductive leafy parts of the cane) was removed by hand (men chopped the cane; ‘holehole’ work, stripping the dried cane leaves, was deemed ‘women’s work.’)

The sugar in burned cane inverts after 48-hours and the lack of ability to quickly transport burned cane to mills limited its practice until the late-1920s when a macadamized road system and diesel trucks across the islands became widespread. (Hayakawa)

Later, pre-harvest burning, in the field, was the only economical means sugar planters found for removing the dried leafy material from its crop.

Removal of this dried leafy material reduces the quantity of material which needs to be hauled to the factory, including the soil adhering to the harvested material; reduces the number of haulers traveling back and forth and therefore reduces fuel consumption; reduces the amount of material the factory must handle and therefore its energy consumption; and improves sugar recovery. (HC&S)

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Sugarcane fire

Sugar Cane in Field-UH-Manoa-Library

Cane Fire-UH-Manoa-Library

Workers loading sugar cane-1905-BM

Chinese_contract_laborers_on_a_sugar_plantation_in_19th_century_Hawaii

Japanese sugar plantation workers in Hawaii around 1910 (BishopMuseum)

Sugar harvesting

Sugar_Cane_field-UH-Manoa-Digicoll-1900

Sugar-harvesting-UH_Library

April 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Canec

Between 1879 and 1948, Waiākea Mill Company conducted mill operations at Waiākea Pond. Bagasse – a by-product of sugarcane – became a secondary industry, first as a fuel for the mills’ boilers, then as the main ingredient for a wallboard product.

As commercial fuel oils became increasingly available in the late 1920s, the use of bagasse as a fuel declined. This byproduct of production was then creatively used to manufacture a wallboard product for construction.

In 1929, Hawaiian Cellulose Ltd, a subsidiary of the Waiākea Mill Company applied for a patent for the manufacture of it. (County of Hawai‘i)

On May 23, 1930, “The leading plantation agencies and a group of business men organise a $2,250,000 corporation for the manufacture of wallboard and other universally used bagasse fiber products. The name chosen was the Hawaiian Cane Products, Limited.” (The Friend, June 1930)

Later that year, the directors of the company “authorized the purchase of a one-hundred-ton daily capacity plant for the manufacture of insulating board from bagasse.” (The Friend, October, 1930) (It ended up costing $2.5-million.)

April 27, 1932, the company’s Hilo plant (at Waiākea, adjoining Wailoa Pond) was opened; the company emphasized “the overseas distribution for which the industry aims.” (The Friend, June 1, 1932) (By 1934, “five carloads were shipped … to Manchuria.” (Friend, July 1, 1934))

Canec was originally the brand name for pressed fiber board made by Hawaiian Cane Products, Ltd., but it has become commonly used to refer to all pressed board of this type.

It was formed into sheets similar in size to drywall, as well as other sizes for use as ceiling and wallboard. Canec was used for interior ceilings and walls in many residential and commercial structures throughout the state of Hawai‘i. (DOH)

Reportedly, Charles William Mason, a Scotsman who ended up in Olaʻa on the Island of Hawai‘i in 1919, was the inventor of Canec. Mason became the superintendent of Hawaiian Cane Products Company, Ltd., located in Hilo near the site of the Waiākea Mill Company. (Johnston)

The use of canec as a building material in Hawai‘i gradually expanded during the 1930s, but greatly accelerated after World War II when construction volume rapidly increased.

It was estimated that from the twelve plantations contributing bagasse to the canec plant, one million tons of bagasse would be available for the production of wallboard.

Hawaiian Cane Products was sold to the Flintkote Company in 1948. That year, the Hilo plant manufactured 120,000,000-square feet of canec panels; from 1945 to 1955; the majority of the housing in the Islands featured cane walls and/or ceilings. (HHF)

The original patent for canec wallboard called for the bagasse to be mixed with hydrated lime, caustic soda, soda ash and similar chemicals to digest fiberous portions of the trash. (Bernard)

It was treated with inorganic arsenic compounds to discourage mildew and insects. In addition, the wallboard was treated against termites with calcium arsenate and arsenic, and finally hydrosulfate was added to ‘set the size,’ inhibit the absorption of water and harden the board. (Bernard)

The canec plant discharged its waste through a sewer pipe that emptied into the water at the point where the pond flows into Wailoa River.

A NOAA report says, “An estimated 558-tons of arsenic compounds were released into the Hilo Bay estuary through this sewer line during the operational history of the plant.” (EH)

As was disclosed to the public in 1973, the canec plant had “discharged approximately 3.5-mgd of waste water into the Wailoa estuary for 29-years”.

This waste water included both toxic and lethal chemicals such as arsenic, hydrated line, hydrosulfate, ethyl silicate, hydrosulfate, calcium, arsenate and arsenic acid. (Bernard)

Arsenic concentrations in the sediments of Hilo Bay have been found to be as high as 6,370-ppm, approximately 34 times higher than anywhere else in the state (Department of Health.) (Hallacher)

Some suggest the canec plant was destroyed by the May 23, 1960 tsunami that devastated Hilo; actually, a fire destroyed the canec plant a month earlier (April 3, 1960.)

In 1971, the hotel complex known now as Waiākea Villas was built on the canec plant site (the adjacent Waiākea plant millpond was made part of Wailoa River State Park.)

“Although elevated in comparison to natural background, inorganic arsenic in canec material does not pose exposure or potential health concerns for building residents or workers, provided that the canec is in good condition and not rotting or ‘powdering away.’”

“No health effects caused by short time (acute) exposure to high levels of arsenic in canec, or to lower concentrations for a long time (chronic exposure) have been reported to HDOH.”

“However, daily exposure to very high levels of inorganic arsenic over many years can result in various health effects, including an increased risk of cancer. As a result, exposure to deteriorating canec should be minimized.” (Department of Health)

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