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(AOL Money & Finance)  Hawaii may need to help some farmers move away from Kilauea volcano so they can escape the effects of vog and stay in business, the chair of a special legislative committee on volcanic smog said.

The state helped Hilo farmers move to safer ground after the 1946 and 1960 tsunamis, said Rep. Bob Herkes. Something similar should be considered now even though the idea may first shock some farmers, he said Monday .

"Maybe we need to take a good hard look at providing other farmland somewhere so they can move and stay in business," said Herkes, D-Volcano-Kainaliu. "At some point, we need to be able to move farmers to another area."

Herkes spoke to reporters after the House Special Committee on Vog Effects held its last meeting before it prepares a report it will submit to House Speaker Calvin Say, D-St. Louis Heights-Wilhelmina Rise.

Big Islanders have long lived with vog, which is formed when sulfur dioxide from Kilauea mixes with sunlight and dust particles.

But the volume of vog in the air above many communities has jumped dramatically ever since March when Kilauea started emitting more than double the amount of sulfur dioxide it had been spewing before.

Protea and other flower crops have been particularly vulnerable to the effects of vog, with some farms losing all their plants.

Flower farms downwind of Halemaumau Crater - including those in Ocean View, Pahala and Wood Valley - have been hit especially hard. The financial loss for farmers alone is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Herkes said the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture is developing ways to protect protea so the industry can survive.

Even so, Kelvin Sewake, the college's extension agent for floriculture, said the situation is deteriorating.

"It gets worse and worse. More and more growers have looked to move their farms out of the area, have put their farms up for sale," Sewake testified before the committee.

Scientists say they do not know when the sulfur dioxide emissions may subside.

Many residents in Ocean View and the Pahala areas have also complained of health effects though little is known about how exposure to large amounts of vog may affect people. Those with asthma and other respiratory problems are most at risk.

Herkes said many of the steps the state and the community could take would be preventive.

"How do you deal with schoolkids that are exposed to vog? You don't wait until they're sick and send them home," Herkes said.

Department of Education officials told the committee that all schools in the area have a "safe room" that can be equipped with an air purifier or air conditioner to insulate students from vog.

Some students don't have air conditioning at home and can't block vog out of their lives.

The emergency room at Ka'u Hospital, the only hospital in the region, also lacks air conditioning. That makes it a poor place for people with respiratory problems to seek refuge when vog levels jump.

The Big Island representative said the Ka'u district, which encompasses Ocean View, Pahala and Kilauea, should have a better evacuation center than the current center at Ka'u High School.

Herkes said he expects to submit the committee's report before the Nov. 4 general election. The committee has heard 12 hours of testimony since it was formed in May.


Source: AOL Money & Finance
Author: AUDREY McAVOY