No link?

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health released a report Thursday stating there is no link between wind turbines and adverse health effects.

It’s a statement the Nor’Wester Mountain Escarpment Protection Committee, the group lobbying against Horizon Wind Inc.’s planned local wind farm project, says was expected.

"We know this is a political statement," said the committee’s health and safety spokesperson Margot Freitag. "It’s not a statement about health."

As stated in a news release issued by the province, the report – prepared by Chief Medical Officer of Health Arlene King in consultation with the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Council of Ontario Medical Officers of Health – said scientific evidence does not show any direct link between wind turbines and adverse health effects.

While the report acknowledges some people living near wind turbines have reported dizziness, headaches and sleep disturbance, there is no evidence supporting turbines are the cause.

However, Freitag said the World Health Organization and Health Canada says those symptoms are adverse health effects.

"There is absolutely no doubt that people are getting sick because of turbine low frequency noise and vibration," she said. "The scientific evidence that they’re looking at is the same literature reviews that have been looked at over and over again. We’ve never had a health study don so all of their decision-making is based on literature, not a health study."

The Protection Committee wants an independent health study to be done on the effects of turbines and Freitag said the existing literature is often biased.

"These people are maybe constitutions or just basically looking at sound modelling or that kind of thing," she said. "There’s never been a study done with people. I would say that if you want to find out if people are getting sick, we need to do a study on people."

Horizon Wind CEO Anthony Zwig told Thunder Bay Television another study is not needed and that the province has already spent millions on studies.

He said the report from King reconfirms that wind turbines are safe and they’re glad to see the report completed and it will help them move on with their plan for a wind farm in Thunder Bay. 
 
To read the report visit  the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care website.