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Wind and health

The Ontario government has put people in harm’s way and needs to address the situation says the chair of a provincial wind energy concern group.
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Bob McMurtry (Jamie Smith tbnewswatch.com)

The Ontario government has put people in harm’s way and needs to address the situation says the chair of a provincial wind energy concern group.

Society for Wind Vigilance chair Bob McMurtry was in Thunder Bay Friday to talk about wind turbines and the adverse health affects associated with them. McMurtry, an orthopedic surgeon and professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario, has been lobbying the provincial government to obtain third-party studies on wind farms since 2008. He said since that time, 102 people have come forward across the province with health issues from turbines, the most common being sleep deprivation.

"Our bottom line message is if you’re going to build them for Heaven’s sake don’t put people in harm’s way," McMurtry said. "At this time we (Ontario) are putting people in harm’s way."
McMurtry said he has been advocating for an epidemiological study, sleep-lab studies and a clinical evaluation of those impacted by wind turbines but the government has refused so far. McMurtry said SWV has repeatedly asked the province how they established a 550-metre guideline for turbines under the Green Energy Act but haven’t received a response.

He said the government’s claim of 18 months of research into the health effects of wind turbines is unsubstantiated. McMurtry said one of the reasons he thinks the government hasn’t acted is because the number of people showing symptoms from wind turbines has been too small to attract attention.

"The one thing we know for sure is that they haven’t evaluated any victims and that needs to occur," McMurtry said.

Carmen Krogh, also with SWV, is a retired pharmacist. She discovered her physical reactions to wind turbines while on vacation several years ago. Krogh said her symptoms include headaches and vibratory sensations in her chest and heart from the low-frequency noise generated by wind turbines. She said raising awareness and educating people that the symptoms are real is her main goal.

"The goal is to have people recognize that this is happening," Krogh said. "Currently our guidelines aren’t working that’s pretty clear."

With acknowledgments from Health Canada and the World Health Organization. Krogh said she’s starting to see a shift in recognition from authoritative sources but more need to be done. Speaking at Lakehead University Friday evening, Krogh produced excerpts from a diary kept by a person she knows who lives near wind turbines. The diary speaks of the "torture" of sleepless nights from the humming and vibration from the wind turbine. Krogh said she knows others who sleep in parking lots away from their homes just to escape the noise and vibrations.

"Once the turbines get in there’s nothing you can do," Krogh said. "You either have to leave your home or endure it."





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