Arsenic and old sugarcane: cleaning up Hawaii in the fallout from wildfires

When canec, Hawaii's building material, is damaged, it can release toxic dust like asbestos - requiring special cleanup

When fire engulfed Lahaina last year, some of the older structures that burned contained canec, a historic Hawaiian-made building material made of solid sugarcane waste and potentially harmful inorganic arsenic.

To date, the US army corps of engineers (USACE) has hauled off an estimated 14,000 tons of ash suspected of arsenic contamination from the drywall-like material once manufactured in Hilo.