Couple Faced with a 107 Turbine Wind Project Email AMA President
As a proud member of the health profession as a Registered Nurse and retired Midwife, I feel the aims and objectives of caring for our fellow humans are being ignored. Why are you not listening to the concerns of those affected individuals?
Email to the President of the AMA from a couple facing an approved 107 turbine wind project
Dear Dr Hambleton,
As an older Australian married couple aged 74 and 72, we are faced with the prospect of living only 1000 metres from an approved but not commenced 107 turbine, each 150 metres high, wind farm in the Moorabool Shire near Ballarat and Ballan. We wish to draw your attention to the fact that your position statement re wind farms and health is completely lacking in any understanding of the subject.
There is an urgent need for meaningful and thorough investigation and research into the obvious adverse health effects already evident all over the world. Your third bullet point about the reporting of health scares and misinformation regarding wind farm developments indicates that you or many others in your profession have not done your homework, have not listened to or even tried to see that people do not leave their homes, farms, business, schools, community groups, churches and a life they may have known for generations without a very serious cause.
For the past five years we have followed the absolute saga, the arguments for and against the theory that infrasound does indeed cause health problems in susceptible individuals; we have read two very well written articles in last October 2013 MJA where the effects of sleep deprivation on the community were discussed in great detail.
We realize that it is all about vested interests which is very sad. As a proud member of the health profession as a Registered Nurse and retired Midwife, I feel the aims and objectives of caring for our fellow humans are being ignored. Why are you not listening to the concerns of those affected individuals? I am a strong believer in the concept of renewable energy and am not a pro-coal person but have been put into that basket deliberately because it suits the proponents of wind farms.
We are two quite active individuals, my husband still runs a small accounting practice from home and I still join the workforce each ‘flu season to help with herd immunity. The threat of being sleep deprived for the rest of our lives is quite daunting as my husband has LQT Syndrome and has had a stent for coronary heart disease , but is otherwise well. We have begged the wind farm company to site the 5 or 6 offending turbines a further 1000 metres from our bedroom window to protect us as we age, but they refuse to even consider it.
As the project has not yet commenced, we feel it imperative to ask for their help as in the long run they may have a case to answer if we are adversely affected. Just as a matter of interest, Powercor, our Victorian electricity company who installs Smart Metres complied with our request not to place a metre too close to our house as they said they could not guarantee that if my husband had a pacemaker inserted (a possibility at some time in the future) that he would not be harmed.
Please do not ignore the plight of those already affected, and restore our faith in the Medical profession. In the past, as with the Westwind project near us, community consultation consisted of a sham panel, entirely paid for by the proponents of the wind farm.
Yours sincerely,
(Name withheld)