German Medicos Demand Moratorium on New Wind Farms

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In the last few weeks, the backlash against the wind industry has taken on a character almost unthinkable a year or so ago. Britain’s newly empowered Conservatives have slammed the bag on new subsidies for on-shore wind power and will give local communities the power to veto wind farm plans (see our post here).

Now, German Medicos have entered the fray too; calling for a moratorium on wind farms arguing that “the erection of more turbines close to settlements should be stopped until there was reliable data to exclude a safety hazard”.

Here’s STT Champion, Graham Lloyd on the latest retreat by health professionals on their usually breezy dismissal of wind farm health impacts.

German doctors push to halt building of wind turbines
The Australian
Graham Lloyd
21 May 2015

The “parliament” of Germany’s medical profession has called on its leaders to support a halt to further wind farm developments near housing until more research has been undertaken into the possible health impacts of low-frequency noise from wind turbines.

The issue was debated at the German Medical Assembly in Frankfurt on Friday and transferred to the executive board of the German Medical Association.

Association policy adviser Adrian Alexander Jakel confirmed a motion calling for research had been forwarded to the board “for further action”.

Germany is considered a world leader in adopting renewable ener­gy and the minutes of the Medical Assembly meeting said that, with the phase-out of nuclear power, more wind energy would be used in future. But it said the entire life cycle of renewable technologies, from the initial raw material supply to disposal and the planning and risk considerations, should be considered in advance.

The Medical Assembly motion said this required “scientifically sound findings of potential health effects, and a deliberate balance between benefit and validity to be able to make conscious weightings between the benefits and of the disadvantages and risks”.

“In particular regarding emissions in the low frequency and infra­sound range there are no reliable independent studies that investigate field measurement methodology suitable for this sound field below the threshold of hearing,” they said.

The assembly called for the federal government to close the gaps in knowledge about the health effects of infrasound and low-frequency sound from wind turbines through scientific research.

It said research should clarify open questions concerning meas­urement methods and, where appropriate, adjust regulations to “allow the expansion and the operation of wind turbines wisely, carefully, with integrated expertise, sustainability and overall societal responsibility”.

It said the health effects of infra­sound (below 20 Hz) and low-frequency sound (below 100 Hz) in relation to emissions from wind turbines were “still open questions”, as were “the effects of noise below the hearing threshold or lower frequencies with increasing exposure duration”. The assembly said the erection of more turbines close to settlements should be stopped until there was reliable data to exclude a safety hazard.
The Australian

STT thinks that the German Doctors’ about face is being driven by at least two factors:

1) that Doctors do what Doctors are supposed to do at an ethical level – you, know that ol’ chestnut about “first do no harm” etc; and

2) Doctors face mounting legal liability in malpractice and/or negligence suits if they continue to ignore the known and obvious adverse health effects of turbine generated low-frequency noise and infrasound, such as sleep deprivation. In other words, backing the “nocebo” nonsense pedaled by the wind industry and its spruikers opens them up to claims for misdiagnosing serious medical conditions, including sleep deprivation (and associated health effects) obviously caused by infrasound and low-frequency noise.

It’s the latter issue – ie the liability for hundreds of $millions in damages to victims – that has governments on their toes, including Denmark’s, where it’s called for a complete halt on new wind farms:

Denmark Calls Halt to More Wind Farm Harm

And local governments in the US, such as Brown County, Wisconsin declaring:

… the Industrial Wind Turbines in the Town of Glenmore, Brown County. WI. a Human Health Hazard for all people (residents, workers, visitors, and sensitive passersby) who are exposed to Infrasound/Low Frequency Noise and other emissions potentially harmful to human health.”

Board of Health Declares Wisconsin Wind Farm a “Human Health Hazard”

Expect to see more and more medicos (pressed, no doubt, by their professional indemnity insurers) to adopt an approach more like the Germans, and a whole lot less like the wind industry shills behind Australia’s AMA (see our post here).

Remember that the wind industry has been fully aware of the adverse health impacts of incessant turbine generated low-frequency noise and infrasound for over 30 years; and has spent every waking hour since then covering it up with noise ‘standards’ that deliberately exclude all reference to it:

Three Decades of Wind Industry Deception: A Chronology of a Global Conspiracy of Silence and Subterfuge

There’s nothing like the threat of litigation to sharpen the focus of those – like family GPs –  who have the least to gain and the most to lose from the greatest economic and environmental fraud of all time.