In Brief
At a time when the Canadian Federal Government is cutting back on it’s environmental assessments a couple from Goderich are looking for Health Canada to weigh in on the health impacts of having a wind turbine 700 meters away from their home.
A study which would have provided conclusive answers to the health effects of wind turbines 700 meters, which is 300-800 meters closer then many US wind farms recommend, was to be conducted on 2,000 residents in Ontario.
The Drennans say they don’t want to be treated as ‘Guinea pigs’ and that he wants the government to do more research into health effects before they put up the wind turbines. However, the Ontario Provincial government say that they need more evidence before they can cancel construction to the wind turbines, trapping the Ontario Government and the Drennans in a giant circle jerk of “want more evidence, can’t cancel it without evidence, can’t get evidence because cuts”.
The Facts So Far
While some may claim you can not avoid Vertigo, nausea, insomnia, ringing of the ears when building wind turbines, the research to prove that wind turbines can cause all kinds of bad health problems has relied on the backs of only a handful of scientists for a few years which is why a conclusive study by Health Canada should have continued.
The Government likes to use the figure that “20% of all people will suffer the effects of wind turbines” and while this figure comes from the original study done by Health Canada the 20% figure is completely fabricated. The conclusion of one Health Canada study and one psychological study done on why people can’t tune out noise is where this 20% stat comes from. The study on noise comes from a completely unrelated study to wind turbines and stated that 20% of the test subjects were pre-disposed to noise sensitivity due to having a family history of tinnitus or tachycardia.
However, if your a nay sayer here in Toronto who claim that the effects of wind turbines are unavoidable, turn your eyes to Toronto’s Lake Shore near the Ex. WindShare turbines have been here in Toronto since 2002. It took four years to build them because studies needed to be done, but since they were built ten years ago they generate a daily average of 1000MWh to our cities main grid. Since 2010, there have been plans to construct something called the LakeWind Project which is TREC venture and will be the biggest wind farm venture of its kind.
While studies on the health effects of wind turbines remain inconclusive, the folks of Ontario fought for that health Canada study which would have been completed in 2014, if not for that cut to environmental assessments.
Wind turbines are an asset to Ontario, and when cuts are made for oil companies it’s plain to see that the Provinces all loose.
