Health risks debated
Posted By Bruce Urquhart, SENTINEL-REVIEW
Updated 7 months ago
The managing director of the company behind two Oxford County wind farm proposals suggested the speakers at a recent "Wind Energy Information Night" overstated the alleged health risks of industrial wind turbines.
Bart Geleynse of Prowind Canada Inc. said the speakers at the Hickson Central Public School meeting were claiming a causal relationship between wind turbines and health risks without any compelling evidence.
"I've seen nothing that leads me to believe that except anecdotal and quite emotive statements by people making a name for themselves," Geleynse said.
But the speakers at the June 25th meeting didn't share Geleynse's skepticism. Both David Colling, an electrical pollution consultant, and retired pharmacist Carmen Krogh were adamant about the link between wind turbines and a number of adverse symptoms, including dizziness, nausea, headaches and tinnitus.
Colling, a longtime Ripley resident, told the audience of about 100 local residents about the alleged health effects of a wind farm development in his community. Describing how four Ripley-area families suffered from similar symptoms, Colling said his readings from the impacted homes indicated high frequency "dirty" electricity coming from the nearby wind turbines.
"This isn't just happening in Ripley," he warned the audience. "It's happening at other wind farms."
Geleynse, though, said the situation in Ripley was very much a "Ripley-specific" situation. While pointing out that Prowind was not involved in the Ripley development, Geleynse suggested the dirty electricity, if any, could be associated with the province's aging electrical grid rather than the turbines.
"There is nothing unique about turbines that would make the grid behave differently," Geleynse said.
Like Colling, Krogh's presentation focused on the more harmful health effects alleged to be caused by the towering wind turbines. The former editor-in-chief of the "Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties," Krogh talked about the "bundle of symptoms" -- including a persistent internal vibration -- associated with what has been dubbed "Wind Turbine Syndrome." Dr. Nina Pierpont, the author of a book on the syndrome, associates many of these symptoms with the production of low frequency noise.
"What's really eerie," Krogh said, "is (sufferers) describe all the symptoms the same. We call this a global description."
Echoing strong recommendations from Dr. Robert McMurtry, the former dean of medicine at the University of Western Ontario and a special adviser to the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care, Krogh called for a moratorium on wind farms until a comprehensive epidemiological study was done on the health effects of these turbines.
"Wind Turbine Syndrome is a sort of medical condition that is largely anecdotal," said Geleynse, reiterating that no causal relationship between turbines and these symptoms had been established.
"If (low frequency noise) was so strongly linked to health issues, you'd have problems with the people living along the coast where waves pound more rhythmically and consistently than wind turbines."
While Geleynse said his company was "not against studying the health effects of wind turbines," he said that any medical studies should include the potential health risks posed by other generating technologies, including coal-fired and nuclear power plants.
"If we want to continue using electricity, we have to be willing to put up with the impact of generating that electricity," he said, "We have to take ownership of the impact it has on communities. The narrow focus on wind turbines has people judging them in a complete vacuum."
The final Hickson speaker, engineer William Palmer, focused his presentation on the need for greater setback distances to protect people from the potential physical dangers of wind turbines. Pointing to the discrepancies between the setbacks recommended by the industry's Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA), the manufacturer, the provincial government and Hydro One, Palmer outlined a number of potential dangers from the 80-metre turbine towers and their 41-metre blades.
"Towers can collapse," he said. "Blades can fail. Ice can be thrown off them. They do. Not really often, but they do."
Geleynse said Prowind already used "conservative setbacks" that were already in line with the Ministry of the Environment's current proposal of 550 metres from dwellings or any other "receptors."
"As far as we're concerned, we're a small company that's always been concerned with agriculture -- that's our roots -- and integrating our developments into the community," he said.
Organized by the East Zorra-Tavistock Wind Concerns Group, the information session was a direct response to the Prowind proposal for an 18-megawatt wind farm between Hickson and Innerkip that would involve six to nine turbines. Prowind recently submitted the feed-in tariff application for this renewable energy project that, under the recently passed Green Energy Act, provides guaranteed prices for energy providers.
buruqhart@bowesnet.com
