Huron Expositor, 2016-03-16, Page 7Board of Health hears delegation on wind turbine health issues
Valerie Gillies
Postmedia Network
Area -wide Concemed Residents of
Huron County were granted time to
make a presentation to the Huron
County Board of Health at their
March 3 meeting in Clinton.
There had been enough chairs set
up to accommodate an audience of
45, but it was soon evident that this
was insufficient as many more chairs
were added and yet there was stand-
ing room only by the beginning of
the meeting. The Concerned Resi-
dents estimated there were over 80
people in attendance. This is signifi-
cant as the public does not often
attend Board meetings. The Board
voted to allow the group an extended
time to present, granting them 20
minutes instead of the usual 10 min-
utes allotted to delegations.
Jeanne Melady and Gerry Ryan
gave the presentation. The Concemed
Residents group cited that they were
speaking on behalf of those affected
by wind turbine developments in St.
Columban, Ashfield-Colborne-
Wawanosh and Grand Bend. Melady
stressed that they were not speaking
out as victims, but rather to protect
the health of those who are affected
by these developments.
"The goal is to share the experi-
ences of those living here in the form
of impact statements. She indicated
that, "The residents who have been
affected are no longer holding back
from expressing the pain that they
feel. They live with it daily."
Melady informed the Board that
Huron County has the third highest
number of wind turbines in Ontario,
following Bruce Countywhich has the
most and Chatham/Kent is second.
These turbines are at a higher wattage
than previous developments have
been which is believed to be the issue
which causes the health effects that are
present. They faster spinning turbines
cause a higher noise level, both in
audible noise and in infrasound.
The presentation was put together
to inform and to increase awareness of
the health issues that residents close to
these developments are living with.
Melady pointed out that within the 26
impact statements provided by the
Concerned Residents group to the
Board of Health use the same descrip-
tors. This indicates that the experi-
ences are shared across many house-
holds exposed to the infrasound
created by the high wattage turbines.
The effects are widespread as there are
six wind projects in Huron County
with 270 turbines currently in opera-
tion with the total poised to reach 317
when the development at Grand Bend
comes on line next month.
Melady drew attention to two of the
impact statements as containing the
most common complaints. Some of
the descriptors which appear repeat-
edly in impact statements include:
sleepless nights, ear aches, headaches,
foggy brains and the inability to think
clearly, short term memory loss and
confusion, agitation, irritable, high
blood pressure, nosebleeds, vibration
on the chest and nausea.
The sounds heard when the tur-
bines are turning are described as
whomping and whooshing sounds.
In many cases it is cited that it is loud
enough to not be able to get back to
sleep if wakened in the night. It is
reported that susceptible family
members do not like to visit as they
get headaches after a brief visit that
go away shortly after they leave. Mel-
ady revealed that and Environmental
Review Tribunal and a Ministry of
Environment tribunal were required
to be held before the wind projects
were allowed to be built. These tribu-
nals were to determine if there would
be harm to human health or the
environment. Melady explained that
the answer to this would depend
upon the degree of harm.
Most of the data given were based
on lower wattage turbines. Another
troubling fact is that the wind compa-
nies asked that studies be made only
on the audible noise, not the full spec-
trumwhich includes infrasound. Mel-
ady gave examples of how it was evi-
dent in reports and statements that the
wind companies were aware that
infrasound did have the potential to
negatively affect the health of people
with sensitivities to it. It came to be
apparent that these same effects are
happening in every community that
the wind projects are in. Withthisprior
knowledge, Melady is concemed that
in Huron County, there are fairly dense
populations in the communities into
which these turbines are dropped.
The Concerned Residents are ask-
ing
sking that the Health Unit conduct a
health hazard investigation. The
impact statements submitted are not
the only people who are affected.
More are being gathered. The health
impacts are severe and previous stud-
ies have not included children in the
investigations even though children
are in the households and are being
affected. The residents who are expe-
riencing the effects are concerned
that there is no way to resolve the situ-
ation as they have no place to go to be
heard. This is why they are asking the
Health Unit to become involved.
The Board acknowledged that there
had already been a meeting between
staff and the Concerned Residents
group prior to the March 3 meeting. In
their comments, the Board asked for a
report of that meeting be brought back
to the Board and must also become
available to the public for transparency.
A motion was passed that the staff will
submit a report of the prior meet-
ing. Since the meeting, the Area -wide
Concemed Residents of Huron County
released information on the prior
meeting that was held on March 1.
The release states, "On March 1,
2016, the Huron County Health Unit
(HCHU) stated it will investigate the
concems of residents regarding poten-
tial health effects of wind turbines, in
keeping with their legislative duty to
investigate potential population health
hazards." It goes on to state, "The
HCHU made this decision as a result of
correspondence from numerous resi-
dents of Huron County to the HCHU
describing negative health impacts
from living close to Insudustrial Wind
Turbines (IWTs):'
It was explained that as the delega-
tion for the Concerned Residents was
requesting information to prepare for
their presentation on March 3, and the
HCHU had decided to proceed with
the health investigation, that two meet-
ings were scheduled for March 1. Dr.
Clark and Carmen Krogh had been
working together since they were
introduced to each other by Safe Wind
Energy for All Residents (SWEAR) in
2014. The first meeting on March 1 had
HCHU meeting with Carmen Krogh to
discuss the complaint tracking form
that had been developed with Public
Health Ontario in 2015.
The second meeting had represent-
atives of the HCHU meeting with the
Concemed Residents representatives.
The representatives for HCHU were
Dr. Janice Owen Medical Officer of
Health, Dr. Erica Clark from epidemi-
ology and Jean -Guy Albert from envi-
ronmental health. Concerned Resi-
dents representatives were Jeanne
Melady, Gerry Ryan, Carla and Mike
Stachura. It was these representatives
of Concemed Residents who submit-
ted the information on these meet-
ings. In this particular meeting, the
HCHU outlined their plan to imple-
ment an investigation on health com-
plaints from IWTs.
The investigation will be in two
phases with the first being to
gather information and the sec-
ond being to analyze the results
from phase one to determine next
steps in the investigation.
Phase one has the HCHU develop-
ing a survey to trackwind turbine com-
plaints with the involvement of Car-
men Krogh and Tanya Christidis of the
University of Waterloo. A small pilot
test of the survey will take place in
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Wednesday, March 16, 2016 • Huron Expositor 7
Shaun Gregory
The Huron County Board of Health voted to grant Area -wide Concerned
Residents of Huron County extra time to give their presentation at their meeting
on March 3.
April. The goal is to have the survey
launched both electronically as well as
a paper survey in May. In order to par-
ticipate in the survey, prior registration
will be required with HCHU. This will
involve answering an initial series of
questions which will not be part of the
wind turbine complaint tracking, but
will provide a base of information to
work from. Once registered, partici-
pants will each receive a personal code
which will streamline the survey pro-
cessbynotrequiringparticipantsto fill
in their personal information each
time they access their survey. The sur-
vey would be completed each time a
participant is experiencing negative
impacts with each survey session
requiring less than 10 minutes to com-
plete. Residents who do not have inter-
netwill be suppliedwith paper surveys
to have their information entered into
the system later. The information will
be gathered for each person for one
year as negative health effects are often
dependent on seasonal weather
patterns.
The data will be analyzed season-
ally to determine trends. For a trans-
parent process, results will be made
available to the public on a seasonal
basis. Results will not include per-
sonal information, but be reported as
a grouping of data.
The release stated, "This is the
first county health unit investiga-
tion, in Ontario, regarding indus-
trial wind turbines, where the
affected resident's health com-
plaints will be tracked long term:'
Furthermore, "Dr. Owen stressed
that this is not a research study. Itis an
investigation. It will not prove causality.
The HCHU is required to do an investi-
gation when there appears to be a
community environmental health
issue. Due to the number of com-
plaints the HCHU is receiving from the
community, they believe they must do
an investigation. The Health Unit is not
making a judgement on wind turbines
with the survey. They are only investi-
gating whether there is a potential
population health hazard.
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