I actually didn't read the comments section in my last diary until recently. I had something better to do, and anyway, I really couldn't bear to experience the knashing of teeth that goes with every reality based linkage of actual performance of solar PV systems with the faith based concept that they will actually do something meaningful in the life times of anyone now living.
Anyway, the diary also criticized palm oil plantations in Sumatra, where they threaten the habitat of the Sumatran Tiger, the Sumatran Rhino, and - as I forgot to mention, the organgutan - and the use of their output to make biofuels. An airhead who likes to check into my diaries here and there checked into tell me that um, he (or she) worked on a Liberian Palm Oil Plantation and therefore I was full of biodigestable feces. (I seriously doubt that the correspondant has ever worked.) According to the correspondent, palm oil is food, and therefore palm oil plantations in Sumatra are, um, good, which is like arguing that corn bread proves that corn based ethanol should go in cars.
The argument is, if you think...
...about it, tantamount to announcing that if one pumps gas, one is therefore an expert on the ecology of the oil soaked Gulf of Mexico.
I claim, one's physical presence on a palm oil plantation in Liberia has nothing to do with special insight to the ecological effects of palm oil plantations in Sumatra.
(I note that my critics here like to assume that I work in the nuclear industry, since their schtick seems to include the rather dubious materialistic idea that no one ever does anything for any reason other than money.)
Anyway. I don't have much time today. I'm in the Engineering (gasp) Library where - while looking for something else - I came across a swell paper about um, petroleum mining and health consequences in, um, Nigeria. Anyone who pumps gas at say, a Shell station (or a BP station) should feel free to check in and tell me if I'm full of biodigestable feces.
The paper is entitled "Burns and fire disasters from leaking petroleum pipes in Lagos, Nigeria: An 8-year experience" and it is published in the journal Burns. The reference is here:
Burns 37 (2011) 145-152
Some excerpts from the paper:
Fire disasters from exploding pipes carrying petroleum products began to cause mass casualties in Nigeria in the late 1990s [1]. The explosions usually follow breaches in safety procedures in the handling and use of these products [1]. The network of petroleum pipelines in Nigeria was constructed in the 1970s. The pipes are of carbon steel with API-5 L grade.They were buried underground with surface markingsindicating their positions. With passage of time, some of the
pipes are either completely or partially exposed to the surface. Petroleum pipeline fires have left in their wake human and material destruction on disastrous scales [2] and adverse effects on the environment [3].The natural balance in marine ecosystems is disrupted by pollutants, by products of incomplete combustion and by the fuels themselves in the coastal areas [4]...
...Nigeria is currently the sixth largest exporter of crude oil among the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) [5]. More than 2 million barrels of crude oil are produced daily from the various oil wells [5]. Most of these are exported and a small proportion reserved for local refining and domestic consumption. As a result of poor
maintenance, the local refineries cannot function efficiently...
The article is an epidemiology article. It focuses only on the area around Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria, and not the country as a whole.
Previous studies on burn epidemiology from Nigeria focussed on either childhood burns or burns from all causes [5,7,8]. There is a paucity of studies specifically addressing burns from petroleum pipeline fires. The demography and risk factors for injury from petroleum pipeline fires are likely to differ from those from other causes. This study has been designed therefore to delineate aspects of the epidemiology of these incidents and highlight the attendant morbidity and mortality in a major Nigerian city over a period of 8 years.
A table in the article lists 646 deaths in the last decade from fires and explosions in the Lagos area related to gas lines, from 9 incidents, most of them in 2006, leaving out those accidents for which the death toll could not be determined.
As an aside, it notes an accident in the Nigerian interior, in 1998, at a place called Jesse, in which 1082 people died.
Too bad the oil wasn't radioactive. People would give a rat's ass about it.
The paper follows 87 admitted patients and their outcomes. Of the recruited patients, 33% survived. The rest, um, didn't.
It's um, not pretty to read about their treatments.
The length of hospital stay (LOS) ranged from 1 to 107 days
with a mean of 23.34 +/- 6.24 days. Surgical procedures including escharotomies on six (12.50%) cases for circumferential burns of the extremities, escharectomies on 19 (39.68%) and meshed skin graftings on 25 (52.08%) patients were performed. Escharotomies when indicated were done within 24 h of admission; escharectomies were commenced from 72 h and meshed skin-grafting from after 2 weeks of hospital admission.
Complications that developed in the admitted cases include wound infections in six (12.50%), hypertrophic scars in 12.50%, dyschromia in 8.33% and psychotic manifestations in 6.24%. Ten (25.64%) cases from the out-patient clinics developed wound infection and 10.26% post-burn contractures.
As for the psychosis, I would expect that the pain was so intense, the victims were driven, um, crazy. That's not all that surprising really.
An escharectomy is removal of dead skin down to the level of the fatty tissue beneath.
The conclusion of the article:
This study has highlighted issues in pipeline fires in Nigeria and adds to the body of knowledge on the epidemiology of burns in developing countries [8,21]. As Forjuoh has pointed out, low- and medium-income countries, of which Nigeria is a part, account for over 95% of the global death burden from fire related burns. Preventive measures based on epidemiologically determined risk factors cut burn mortality in the developed world to the level it is today [22]. We hope that our study, by highlighting the consequences and risk factors for petroleum pipeline fires, can inspire measures that do the same for Nigeria and other countries in similar situations.
Anyway.
Have a nice day.
I'm fairly disgusted, and will dispense today with adding one of the amusing polls I sometimes add to my diaries.