Metcalfe, V.C.K. To ACNC in Support of Waubra Foundation
There comes a point where it will become obvious to populations everywhere that their best interests are not being served. We are at that point.
Dear Commissioner Pascoe,
I hope that you will consider the following view on the ruling by your Assistant Commissioner David Locke that the Waubra Foundation was not a Health Promotion Charity.
In view of the seriousness of the current situation world wise involving health impacts for citizens from the technology of wind power, it becomes a matter of extreme importance that no blocks or restrictions are imposed upon organisations which promote and help to establish the precautionary principle in this respect. This is a pillar of the U.N’s Aarhus Convention of which you may have heard. Having been actively involved in submitting a complaint on behalf of my Community Council, to the Compliance Committee’s Tribunal (which was subsequently upheld by their ratified decision in respect of a UK breach of Article 7 of the Convention) I strongly value the democratic right of the ordinary citizen to be both heard and where/when necessary, defended, without bias, in the light of prevailing experiences and emerging evidence.
So if we examine the opinion/ruling of David Locke i.e. “to date there has been no rigorous independent scientific evidence that finds that the ill health complained of is caused by the physiological effects from wind turbines nor that there are human diseases called “wind turbine syndrome” or ‘vibroacoustic disease” it is to be found wanting on many fronts.
Decision makers both in the political and non-political arenas have a responsibility and duty to stop denying or ‘misunderstanding’ the existence of new, current, and past crucial research evidence. To dismiss the now logged and measured experiences of those suffering harm as ‘anecdotal’ is no longer an option for those who have studied and recognise the problem. Sadly, Mr. Locke’s decision reveals his inability to recognise the scale of the potential problem and harm such a ruling can do to the overall ability of the public to be adequately informed about ALL emerging reports, and expert studies.
To clarify, I would ask you to carefully re-examine the evidence of the many diseases caused or exacerbated by excessive environmental noise at night, & the sleep deprivation issues so often reported by affected residents. I would then ask you to question why Mr. Locke’s ruling inexplicably avoided reference to this. No-one should be limiting a focus, which should be on evidence about psychological and psychiatric health problems/diseases, to that of purely physiological effects. That narrow focus avoids the extensive body of evidence about diseases caused by sources of environmental noise other than wind turbines. This is in spite of his acceptance that the Waubra Foundation works to help people adversely impacted by a range of noise sources, which is clearly somewhat perverse.
In conclusion, I am aware that Professor Mariana Alves Pereira has written to you about the thirty years of research into vibroacoustic disease by her team has been dismissed. That is not something of which any organisation charged with protecting the well being of the population can be proud. Many are left wondering to what extent the work of researchers / clinicians / acousticians which has been similarly ignored or dismissed by this decision will react. There comes a point where it will become obvious to populations everywhere that their best interests are not being served. We are at that point.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. V.C.K. Metcalfe
United Kingdom
7 February 2015