Skip to main content

Living Near Wind Turbines Causes Adverse Health Effects


Source: http://www.theobserver.ca/2014/01/16/review-of-scientific-literature-found-adverse-health-effects

ENERGY: - A Lambton citizens group is hopeful that recent scientific literature that documents health impacts from wind turbines will provide ammunition in its battle against a planned wind farm.
The review of existing research literature was published in the winter edition of the Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine and concludes turbines placed too close to homes "can negatively affect the physical, mental and social well-being of people."
The group We're Against Industrial Turbines Plympton-Wyoming (WAIT-PW) is now touting the results in its efforts to lobby against Suncor Energy's plan to build up to 46 industrial wind turbines in rural Lambton County.
The review also states there is sufficient evidence to support the conclusion that noise from industrial wind turbines "is a potential cause of health effects."
Ontario requires wind turbines be built at least 550 metres back from neighbours, but opponents argue that's too close.
The Town of Plympton-Wyoming has a bylaw, being challenged in court by Suncor, calling for a 2-km setback for wind turbines.
"Our conclusions are finding, based on all the evidence we've collected and reviews we've done of the material, some genuinely do suffer adverse health effects," said Carman Krogh, one of the article's co-authors.
She and her co-authors have been researching the risk to human health from industrial wind turbines for about five years.
Krogh said health effects found in their literature review include headaches, ear pain, psychological distress from stress, but the number one impact reported was sleep disruption
"That's a very serious issue because it's known that chronic sleep disturbance will lead to more serious medical conditions," she said.
Ingrid Willemsen, with the group WAIT-PW, said, "In our opinion, if this literature review involved a drug, a car, a toy, there would be an immediate withdrawal of the product from the market."
Krogh said current setback distances and sound levels proposed for wind projects in Ontario "aren't working because, at the people end, we're having some pretty serious effects occurring."
That includes neighbours who are no longer able to live in their homes after turbines were built nearby, she said.
Krogh said she believes the government should stop approving wind projects to allow time to research the correct placement of turbines so health impacts can be avoided.
Kate Jordan, a spokesperson with Ontario's Environment Ministry, said Ontario is a leader in establishing clear wind turbine setbacks that protect human health and the environment, adding it has among the strictest in sound level criteria in North America.
"The ministry continues to review emerging scientific, health, acoustics and engineering studies to ensure Ontario's requirements remain in line with the best available science," she said.
Suncor's wind project for Lambton County has been posted on Ontario's Environmental Registry as part of the province's environmental approval process for renewable energy projects. Public comments are being accepted until Feb. 3.
paul.morden@sunmedia.ca

Popular posts from this blog

New Book on Wind Farms

Click here for a BBC interview with the book's author The Wind Farm Scam John Etherington This book argues that the drawbacks of wind power far outweigh the advantages. Wind turbines cannot generate enough energy to reduce global CO2 levels to a meaningful degree; what’s more wind power cannot generate a steady output, necessitating back-up coal and gas power plants that significantly negate the saving of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, there are ecological drawbacks, including damage to habitats, wildlife and the far-from-insignificant aesthetic considerations. Dr Etherington argues that wind power is being excessively financed at the cost of consumers who have not been informed that their bills are subsiding an industry that cannot be cost efficient or, ultimately, favour the cause it purports to support. "The book should be required reading for every high school, college, and university student. It explains wind energy, and its limitations and environmental insults,...

Resident Researches Living with Turbines

This writer wanted to research the effects of the wind industry in the community after wind developers proposed coming to her region of Sardinia, NY. Read on to discover what she learned... Sue Sliwinski of Sardinia, N.Y., writes (Sept. 27, 2005): Over the past nine days and 3,000 miles and seven wind farms, Sandy Swanson and I took many still shots, reams of video, and copious notes and conducted numerous interviews. What's happening is an absolute crime. Every single impact that is denied by developers has been confirmed again and again in wind farm after wind farm. Lovely rural communities are being turned into industrial freak shows. In some places people have just accepted their fate and live with it, not understanding how empowered they actually are by their situations . . . meaning that all they'd have to do is get noisy enough and the developers would stop ignoring them. One told us she's learned how to go outside in her garden and block everything from her mind . ...

People Are Catching On...

From: Smoky Mountain News The answer’s still blowin; but the times may be a’changin’ By Don Hendershot I was heartened recently by two op-eds I read in area newspapers regarding industrial-sized wind turbines in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The reasoned commentaries were written by individuals with firsthand knowledge of science, the scientific method, Appalachian history, energy emissions and the environment. The first commentary I saw, in the May 19 Asheville Citizen-Times, was written by John Droz Jr. of Morehead City and Greig, N.Y., and a frequent visitor to Asheville and WNC. He is a physicist and environmental activist. Droz believes critical thinking and common sense have been eschewed with regards to wind power for the sake of being green. He writes: “As a physicist and long-time environmental advocate, I believe we need aggressive and meaningful changes in our state and federal energy policies. This urgency, though, shouldn’t mean we abandon critical thinking — in...