HONOLULU — Hawaii Island has the highest rate of sulfur dioxide emission in the nation, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, a distinction established before this month’s toxic eruptions began pouring from Kilauea Volcano.
Dr. Elizabeth Tam — chairwoman of medicine at the University of Hawaii medical school — found that the air pollution output from Kilauea was equal to one-tenth of the annual pollution for all of China, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Sulfur dioxide emission levels were “1,000 times greater than the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) definition of a major pollution source,” Tam’s team reported in the scientific journal Environmental International in 2016.
“It’s the volcano,” said EPA spokesman Dean Higuchi. “The volcano puts the Big Island highest in the nation for SO2 (sulfur dioxide) values.”
This was before the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on Sunday issued a new air quality warning because of the erupting Kilauea volcano.
The warning is due to lava haze, which is created when hot lava comes into contact with cold seawater.
The contact produces a dense white plume of steam laced with hydrochloric acid and glass particles, which is now occurring on the island’s southeast coast.