Antinuclear

SIMON LAUDER: The assertion that wind turbines make people sick has been a sticking point for the industry for years. Opponents of turbines say they produce inaudible sound that affects the health of people who live close to them.

Now Victoria’s Health Department has produced a report dismissing that claim.

It says if you can’t hear a sound then there’s no way known that it can affect health, regardless of the frequency. It says the level of noise produced by a wind farm is somewhere between a rural night-time background noise and the sound of a car passing 100 metres away…….

SIMON LAUDER: Victoria has tough restrictions on wind farms, allowing anyone to veto a new turbine within two kilometres of their home.

The Government has never linked those restrictions with health concerns but Mr Garner says it should now reconsider them anyway.

STEVE GARNER: And a lot of those objections come about from the myth of your health and now that that myth has been taken away, then maybe revisiting those laws is something that ought to be done.

SIMON LAUDER: The Victorian Health Department report follows a recent report by South Australia’s Environmental Protection Agency, which also rejected the link between wind farms and sickness.

But the health argument is still a barrier for the wind industry.
Victoria’s Civil and Administrative Tribunal has put off its decision on a wind farm project near Seymour, until the National Health and Medical Research Council completes a review of evidence about the health effects…….