The 2010 report by the Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ontario is old, irrelevant, and just plain wrong—time to say goodbye
In 2010, after media reports of citizen complaints about excessive noise from Ontario’s fleet of wind turbines, and to support the government’s push for more wind power, the Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) for the province issued a brief document, The Potential Health Impact of Wind Turbines.
The conclusion of that report, and many other government communications, was that there is no relationship between wind turbine noise and direct health effects. The Ontario government, then under pro-wind Premier Dalton McGuinty, pledged it would protect Ontario citizens by keeping up with research on wind turbine noise and health around the world, provide new updates, and make changes to regulations as needed.
That never happened.
A new review was carried out and a new update prepared for publication in 2014, but it never saw the light of day.
Direct vs. indirect
Today we know that research shows that an indirect relationship exists between wind turbine noise and stress or distress that can result in serious health impacts such as cardiovascular problems. Ontario’s Environmental Review Tribunal noted in 2011 that it was concerned about the lack of consideration of indirect health effects. And other documents such as a 2015 review by the Council of Canadian Academies highlighted the inadequacy of current noise assessment protocols as are used in Ontario, and the lack of studies that uses actual measurement of wind turbine noise at people’s homes, instead of computer-generated models.
The Ontario government took no notice.
The truth is, the original 2010 CMOH report was limited as a research effort: it was based on a review of selected research papers, discussion covered just seven pages, and the report was never subjected to an independent peer review.
Nevertheless, in 2021, that 2010 Ontario document is still promoted to communities and public health officials as the definitive statement in answer to the question, Does wind turbine noise cause adverse health effects? It is even cited by international authorities as Ontario government policy.
Why we need to act now
The landscape has changed dramatically for wind power. There are far more wind turbines operating across Ontario than in 2010, and the size and power rating of turbines has increased. Despite the Ontario experience with higher electricity bills, environmental noise and community opposition, the current federal government is hinting that it wants more renewable energy across Canada.
With thousands of noise complaints from Ontario wind turbines on record, and with international research spurring other jurisdictions to revise regulation and setbacks, it is clearly past time for Ontario to “retire” the 2010 CMOH report and remove it from the public domain. Public health officials should be informed it cannot be relied upon, and a review of more recent literature should be conducted in order to revise regulations that will be protective of health.
Obviously, COVID-19 is what everyone is focusing on right now, but the health impact of the environmental noise pollution caused by grid-scale wind turbines is an important concern, too.
It deserves government attention.
Now.
Read the Wind Concerns Ontario report here: Why the 2010 CMOH report must change
Read the unpublished 2014 report here: Evidence Update-2014
contact@windconcernsontario.ca
9 Comments
purplefungus
While we are taking out of commission the Arlene King fiasco, the same request should be in place for the Health Canada Report. Simply put, it should be trashed. The HC study specifies that it is not to be used as a ‘resource’ to determine safety and/or adverse health impacts/outcomes. Yet it is used against victims of wind by government agencies to belittle the concerns and reports of adverse health impacts. Both studies are given the golden star and referenced around the world, especially in ON from the MECP, MOH, yet, both studies fall short of criteria to be called a ‘study’ and both come with very strong limitations.
And if nothing else, the ‘studies’ are out dated and incomplete and extorted beyond its intentional use.
Please note quoted info:
In 2013 and 2014 Health Canada cautioned that regarding the Health Canada
Study design:
• results will not provide a definitive answer on their own [37];
And that:
• results may not be generalized to areas beyond the sample as the wind turbine locations in this study were not randomly selected from all possible sites
operating in Canada;
• results do not permit any conclusions about causality; and,
• results should be considered in the context of all published peer-reviewed literature on the subject
Indications are in some cases, the Health Canada Study findings appear to have been interpreted beyond Health Canada’s advisories of the above limitations and/or failed to differentiate these
quoted from https://docs.wind-watch.org/Krogh-et-al-review-Health-Canada-study.pdf
So lets add Health Canadas Study to the list of retirement.
How many entangled, bias, tow the liberal party line bureaucrats do you think we can get to retire while we are at it?
Wind Concerns Ontario
Agreed.
Richard Mann
Wind turbines need to stop due to known health harm.
Please see the following talk,
September 12, 2019. University of Waterloo.
Mariana Alves-Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal). “Infrasound and Low Frequency Noise: Physics & Cells, History & Health”.
Livestream:
https://livestream.com/itmsstudio/events/8781285
Wind Concerns Ontario
If you could edit that talk to 15-20 minutes and/or publish a Summary, it could get to more people. Thank you
Richard Mann
I will not edit a talk down to a “summary”. Anyone in decision making capacity should be prepared to investigate fully. To hear, in their own words the researchers and the citizens of Ontario.
They have had plenty of time, and they have been informed in writing. I received no response.
Unlike WCO and others, I have not been granted an audience with our rulers. Instead I have been called an “advocate” and somehow dismissed for this.
How is advocating for the health of citizens a bad thing?
Sincerely,
Richard Mann
Wind Concerns Ontario
You have an interesting view of ministers’ schedules. Often, our letters go straight to a correspondence unit and we get a boilerplate response. It is very difficult to get to the decision-makers. And we have NOT had meetings for a very long time due to legal actions and then the pandemic.
Richard Mann
Quoting WCO: “Often, our letters go straight to a correspondence unit and we get a boilerplate response.”
Why did you get meetings? I never got any.
Also, [redacted] got two meetings recently, in Jan and Feb 2021.
He communicated with you about this via. Email as well.
Despite this, no one has communicated to the government about infra sound.
Richard
Stan Thayer
Yes it is shameful that our elected officials chose to review and promote data produced by industry lobbyists over experienced tradesman providing the provable facts. The entire wind industry has developed and operstes on taxpayer subsidies and most are involved for a financial share. The electrical power aspect is simply a selling point.
Ex U.S. President Trump did many questionable things but he did not lift the softwood lumber embargo towards Canada which has saved some of our dwindling forests. Most of eastern Ontario was logged out in my grandfathers generation and the few Lynden and Balsam left on our property are harvested for their seed not the wood.
Most of the light pliable softwood for windmill blades is now being harvested along the Amazon river and the clear cuts are easily visible from the international space station window camera or the Google earth map.
Having grown with the wind energy industry I realize that wind turbines of any size or type will never be a major contributor to the electrical needs of Ontario. The more windmills we have the more maintenance needed using fossil fuels.
IWTs are a make work project for other countries but Canadians get the grief!
Nufsed!
Stan Thayer
Stan Thayer
Sheesh, another cold calm winter morning and the 8000+ Wind Turbines around Ontario are providing just over 500 MW into the pandemic grid demand of 15,000 MW.
At 1 MW each that means 500 turbines are producing useable electrical output,,,,,,,, so are 7500+ operating on magical cosmic waves?
Hmmmm!
Stan the head scratcher