James Stewart
Submission to Health Canada Wind Turbine Noise and Health Study, 2012
Please accept the following comments when considering the upcoming research on industrial wind turbines.
1. Health Canada is not the appropriate agency to be doing the research. They are regulatory and have very limited research capacity. Furthermore they are on record as supporting wind energy. Their results will be suspect.
The research should be conducted by an independent organization. CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) is the top health research agency in Canada.
Health Canada documents reveal that the results are not intended to show causation, nor become a tally of how many people have been impacted. Why not? This suggests the study is simply a political ploy, with no intent to get at the real issue.
2. Studying 2000 homes is not an adequate sample, and will not likely give reliable results. It allows the investigators to cherry-pick locations - possibly avoiding people who have complained of turbine-related illness. Better to find those people and interview them directly. It's common knowledge that not everyone exposed to turbines gets sick. It is similar to motion-sickness in that only a certain percentage of a given population will suffer the symptoms. Why not investigate those cases, to determine if the cause of their distress is something other than their proximity to turbines? And, if turbines are the root cause, determine what treatments might be available to alleviate their distress.
3. Many worldwide experts are not included in those listed as being consulted. Include the following experts:
Dr Robert Y. McMurtry, M.D., F.R.C.S. (C), F.A.C.S., Canada
Carmen Krogh, BSc Pharm, Researcher Wind Turbines - Adverse Health and Social Justice, Canada
Stephen Ambrose, Acoustician, USA
Dr Jeffery Aramini, Epidemiologist, Canada
Dr Arline Bronzaft, Noise and Health Specialist, USA
Dr Steven Cooper, ENG Fellow Australian Acoustical Society and Member of Institute of Noise Control, USA
Professor Phillip Dickinson, Acoustician, New Zealand
Barbara J. Frey BA, MA and Peter J. Haddon, BSc, FRICS, Scotland
Dr Christopher Hanning, BSc, MB, BS, MRCS,LRCS, LRCP, FRCA, MD, Sleep Disturbance & Wind Turbines, UK
Professor Colin Hansen, Acoustician, Australia
Dr Magda Havas, Biological and Health Effects of Electromagnetic and Chemical Pollution, Canada
Richard James, INCE Acoustician, USA
Dr Mauri Johansson, Specialist in Community Health and Occupational Medicine, Denmark
Dr Sarah Laurie, CEO Waubra Foundation, Australia
Professor Henrik Moeller, Acoustic Specialist, Denmark
Dr Michael Nissenbaum, Radiologist, USA
Dr Carl Phillips, Epidemiologist, USA
Dr Nina Pierpont, Author of Wind Turbine Syndrome, USA
Robert Rand, Acoustician, USA
Dr Daniel Shepherd, Noise and Health Specialist, New Zealand
Dr Malcolm Swinbanks, Acoustician, UK
Dr Robert Thorne, Health Sciences and Acoustics, Australia.
Respectfully submitted,
James Stewart
RR#2
Zurich, ON Canada N0M2T0
519-236-7914