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www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, February 26, 2010 · 10 Letters to the editor Power plant in wrong location Re: Trans Canada 900 megawatt natural gas fired thermal power station in Oakville. During my career I have been responsible for the design/supervision of a number of thermal power stations and without exception they have been located in commercial/industrial non-residential areas. Quite rightly, much is being made of the emission of air pollutants, but the real problem for the residents in close proximity is noise pollution, which will be at intolerable levels. The safety concerns are a real factor because there is no odour. Natural gas is still very dangerous. The same also applies to nuclear power, which begs the following questions: · How long are the gas pipe lines before they have a pump house and where are they located? · What tests in the sub-strata have been made where the pipe lines come through? · Have any tests been carried out on the efficiency/safety of the cooling towers design? · What design provisions have been made to the structure to reduce air borne and impact noises to an acceptable level expected in a residential area? · The foundations to the turbines (known as turbo blocks) are a critical part of the structural design to the power station, there have been disastrous cases of failure. The design and detail drawings must be checked very thoroughly. · The turbine house needs to have safety/noise barrier walls. Have these been incorporated in the design? I understand the cost has been estimated at $1.6 billion, which is a cause for concern. I believe this is excessive and is an indication of poor design/tender documentation. A similar sized gas-fired power station was designed and built in 1999 (11 years ago) for approximately $614.5 million and is considered one of the most efficient in the world. I have been responsible for the project design/supervision of numerous nuclear power stations/research stations all of which were completed within three to five years at a cost in today's money of $5.2 billion. They are now taking 10-15 years at an estimated cost of $23 billion for two stations. I was also involved in the design of a hydro-electric power station in northern Québec. TransCanada is seeking to smoke screen the serious issues in the proposed power station and this must be rectified forthwith. The comments made by purported analysts are made by those with vested interests. Project Management Consultants (I am the founder) was first registered in 1968 and began trading in 1970. F. M. HATTON, PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS, OAKVILLE The case for single-patient rooms Re: New hospital stepping into the future, Oakville Beaver, Feb. 24. Wrong. The design for our new hospital -- like the others being built by the Province -- is a step into the past. The overwhelming weight of medical research indicates that the hospitals we are building today must be 100 per cent singlepatient rooms. The refrain "80 per cent singlepatient rooms" may sound good, but it isn't. Every patient must be in a separate room. There is no place -- there is no justification -- for semi-private rooms or four-bed wards in a modern hospital. Unless, of course, you're actually aiming to increase mortality rates in hospitals. Any U.S. Civil War buff can tell you that of the 620,000 soldiers who died in that war, one third died in battle, but two thirds died of measles, dysentery and other communicable diseases. The biggest danger to a Union soldier wasn't Johnnie Reb's bullets -- it was the bugs on the guy sleeping three feet away from him in his tent. Proximity to people with infectious diseases can kill. We all know that from SARS, swine flu and the like. And most of us know that hospital generated infections like MRSA and C. difficile have become the scourge of hospitals. Today in Canada, more of us die from hospital-acquired infections than die in road accidents. There are many things that can be done to fight the spread of infections in a hospital. The most important is probably having nurses and doctors unfailingly washing their hands before touching any patient. The second most important thing is having every patient in a separate room with a toilet used only by that patient. Keeping sick people apart as much as possible is good medicine. The research is very clear: Shared rooms and shared toilets are an invitation to contamination. Four-bed wards are bad enough, but fourbed wards with only two toilets, which seem to be the plan for Oakville's new hospital -- everything is so vague and murky about this billion dollar venture, it's hard to get clear answers -- are a disaster waiting to happen. All new U.S. and U.K. hospitals are being built on the 100 per cent one-bed room model. CHICA-CANADA (Community And Hospital Infection Control Association - Canada) comes out strongly for 100 per cent one-bed room hospitals. Apart from infection control, one-person rooms have been proved to lead to better medical outcomes and shorter hospital stays (and hence savings for the province and the patient). Why Ontario's provincial government chooses to play Russian roulette with the lives and health of citizens is mystifying. One-bed rooms are not much more costly, and they save lives and money in the long run. Oakville should not saddle itself with this huge debt for a hospital that is obsolete before it's even built. And think of the additional cost of retrofitting when new standards and new laws demand 100 per cent one-person rooms. GEORGE PATRICK, OAKVILLE Join Queen's Park rally against power plant I just read that there will be a public rally at Queen's Park on March 2 to protest the proposed Oakville power plant. This is our opportunity as concerned citizens to go and voice our displeasure. If there are enough of us we cannot be ignored. I for one will be attending and bringing my wife and three kids. I know that time away from work and home is difficult, but this is too important to miss. We must all make a concerted effort to be there. There is no sense in complaining about the power plant if you are not willing to step up at the crucial time. This is our time. BRENNAN HOWARD Celebrate our Grand Opening! Thursday March 4th, 2010 Prizes, Refreshments & Special Offers FREE PHOTO ENLARGEMENT Bring us your favorite 4"x 6" photo and receive 1 FREE 8"x 10" enlargement. See store for details. One coupon per customer. Offer valid on March 4, 2010. with Mayor Burton at 2pm. The UPS Store Across from GO station (Near Trafalgar) 165 Cross Avenue, Oakville t: 905.842.3149 store400@theupsstore.ca ®