Wind Farm Victims Vindicated: WHO Declares Turbine Noise ‘Serious Health Hazard’

The World Health Organization’s declaration that wind turbine noise is a serious health hazard, is a liability bombshell for developers and governments, alike.

No longer can wind power outfits and those that make a living running propaganda for them claim that ‘there’s nothing to see here, move on.’ The wind industry’s victims – mocked and denigrated for years – have been vindicated. Now comes the vengeance. Litigation is already on foot in Victoria, with more claims to follow.

The significance of the WHO’s new noise guidelines hasn’t been lost on STT Champions Alan Jones and Liberal MP, Craig Kelly.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly on renewables and the Paris agreement
2GB
Alan Jones and Craig Kelly
19 October 2018

 

Alan Jones: Look, this Wentworth stuff, seriously. Dave Sharma is an outstanding candidate, but you’ve got Kerryn Phelps. She has a profile. They’re saying in Wentworth, climate change is an issue. If the people of Wentworth swallow this stuff, they deserve what they get.

Kerryn Phelps says, Australia should be powered by 100 percent renewable energy, fifty percent by 2030. Where the hell does this come from? It’s not available. It’s not reliable. It’s not affordable. No new coal fired plants, says Kerryn Phelps.

She’s a health professional. On Medicare five years ago, she tweeted that reducing Medicare bulk billing rates could “be the best thing to happen to the Australian health system”. That means fewer people, I agree with it, fewer people on Medicare just signing the chit. Well now her election advertising says she’s all for Medicare and wants “a secure future for Medicare”. Are we kidding?

Reports say that Dr. Phelps charges well above the Medicare scheduled fee in her own practice. A standard consultation reportedly cost 101 bucks, an extended consultation $190. I don’t have a problem with it. I just have a problem with the fact that she’s now saying the best thing we have to do is secure a future for Medicare.

How does all this reconcile with her calls to end offshore asylum seeker detention and an energy policy which would put business out of business? We should be powered, she says, by 100 percent renewable energy, 50 percent by 2030. No new coal fired power plants.

Let’s just go back a little. In 2013, that outstanding liberal member for the seat of Hughes, Craig Kelly. He and I attended a rally on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra, supporting farmers who’d raised health issues they were experiencing from wind turbines installed close to their homes.

Now, as I said, if Kerryn Phelps is in favour of renewable energy, well stick a few wind turbines in Queen Street, Woollahra. There’s plenty of wind. Put them in New South Head Road. Plenty of wind there. Why? Why wouldn’t you put them there? I presume they are thought to be injurious to health, I would assume.

Anyway, Craig Kelly and I were speaking and Craig Kelly said that day, and I’m quoting what he said, last night in Parliament, we had a debate on wind turbines and one thing that really disturbed me is the completely callous disregard that members of the Labor government, this was in 2013, have for people who are having their health affected by wind turbines. He said a complete callous disregard. He said, I think Murray Hartin, he’s our bush poet. Murray Hartin said it’s best if a farmer tells you he’s sick, you better believe it.

Well way back then, the socialist green left ridiculed both Craig Kelly and me saying the wind turbine syndrome was something in a farmer’s head. The Australian Medical Association got into the act. They issued a press release in 2014 implying that our support for these farmers was “spreading misinformation” and contributing to “heightened anxiety”.

And the AMA vice president and chair of the AMA Public Health Committee, one Professor Geoffrey Dobb said, the available Australian and international evidence does not support the view that wind farms cause adverse health effects. So there you are.

At the time Craig Kelly issued a statement accusing the AMA of violating the Hippocratic oath by issuing statements mimicking the lines of the wind lobbyists. We’ll fast forward five years after that rally. Last week, what do we hear? “Global health authorities have finally recognised what residents living near wind farms have been saying for years.” This is the World Health Organisation.

The noise they emit is more than an inconvenience. It is a risk to health. New guidelines for Europe, published by the World Health Organisation, put new limits on the amount of noise that wind turbines can emit.

Craig Kelly’s in Canberra. Craig, good morning. I presume that you’ve had an apology from the AMA in the last week?

Craig Kelly: I haven’t Alan. Maybe I need to check my email this morning to see if something came through overnight, but I don’t think I’ll sort of be sitting by the phone waiting for it.

Alan Jones: No. The World Health Organisation Europe chief, Zsuzsanna Jakab, said more than a nuisance, excessive noise is a health risk contributing to cardiovascular disease. That’s not Craig Kelly or Alan Jones. That is the chief of the World Health Organisation of Europe. That more than a nuisance, excessive noise is a health risk. This is the first time the World Health Organisation has made any recommendations regarding wind turbines.

Craig Kelly: Look Alan, it just shows you the brainwashing that has gone on in our society. How anything to do with a wind turbine is fantastic and wonderful. And, finally the tide appears to be turning. I can remember going back, it’s now five years ago, and what Murray Hartin, the great poet, said is correct. If a farmer tells you he’s sick, you’d better bloody believe it. Farmers get up in the morning whether they’ve got a sniffly nose or they’re crook, they go and look after their crops and their animals. You know, they don’t normally complain about health, health problems, unlike us living in the city with our sort of like pampered lifestyles we live compared to farmers. And to think that the Australian Medical Association, that highly esteemed body, just dismissed their complaints.

Alan Jones: Well, let me just say that, let me just share with our listeners lest you think that this is Craig Kelly and Alan Jones making it up. And I quote the AMA, this is what they said. The available Australian and international evidence does not support the view that wind farms cause adverse health effects. Individuals residing in the vicinity of wind farms who do experience adverse health or wellbeing may do so as a consequence of their heightened anxiety or negative perceptions regarding wind farm developments in their area. Individuals who experience heightened anxiety or diminished health and wellbeing in the context of local wind farms should seek medical advice. The reporting of health scares and misinformation regarding wind farm developments may contribute to the heightened anxiety and community vision.

In other words, you and I were responsible for these people all being sick even though now we’ve got the chief of the World Health Organisation, Zsuzsanna Jakab, said the wind farms are more than a nuisance. Excessive noise is a health risk contributing to cardiovascular disease.

Craig Kelly: That’s right, Alan. And back then, you didn’t have to do too much independent research. All this was actually documented and detailed there and yet we had the AMA basically accusing you and me and other people so they’re saying, oh because you’re actually talking about this, you’re the one putting all this in the farmers’ heads. It was an absolute disgrace, Alan. The AMA, what they put out was actually almost a press release parroting the lines of the big wind turbine industries, and they even went on about the economics of these things.

Alan Jones: Yeah, forget that. Yeah, that’s another story altogether.

Craig Kelly: We also warned back then, we warned about what this would do to the economy, what it would do to the price of electricity and the Gillard and Rudd government said, no, no, no, don’t worry. You don’t know what you’re talking about. This is all wonderful, and here we are five years later with the most expensive electricity prices in the world, billions of dollars added on – that pensioners are having to go without heating in winter time, without air conditioning in summer time. We’ve now got the admission that this has actually caused adverse health effects to farmers.

Alan Jones: Yes, dreadful.

Craig Kelly: It’s just …

Alan Jones: It’s appalling, and people, these wind turbines continue to be approved by governments right across the country. You’ve got the Sydney University neuroscientist, not Craig Kelly or Alan Jones, the Sydney University neuroscientist, Professor Simon Carlile saying that wind turbines infrasound, now that’s the big issue. That’s the sound, not just the sound of the turbine spinning, that’s the stuff that goes through your head, affects the human vestibular system involved in balance and feelings of seasickness.

You’ve got the Australia acoustics expert, Steven Cooper found that people living near wind turbines in Cape Bridgewater in Victoria suffered “extremely severe health complaints caused by low frequency noise”. So the World Health Organisation deserves credit, does it not, for recognising wind farm noise as a health issue. Where do we go from here?

Craig Kelly: Well look Alan, this will have to, we’ll have to look at all the regulations that we put in. This basically should put hopefully a stop to any more wind turbines.

Alan Jones: Until we get some answers.

Craig Kelly: And protect the people’s houses.

Alan Jones: Yeah. Until we get answers. I mean we’ve got to now measure surely this insidious infrasound, that’s got to be measured. But all this should be done and known before we say yes, we’re doing it upside down.

Craig Kelly: Exactly right, Alan. This has gone on, we’re now talking about five years ago.

Alan Jones: Yeah.

Craig Kelly: This issue was raised.

Alan Jones: You and I spoke and they made fun of us.

Craig Kelly: And since then, thousands of these wind turbines have been built having adverse health consequences to people.

Alan Jones: On farms, on farms.

Craig Kelly: And then the real adverse health consequence, Alan, is people also being unable to afford electricity …

Alan Jones: That’s correct.

Craig Kelly:… To heat their homes.

Alan Jones:  Not available. Not affordable. Not reliable.

Craig Kelly: Here we go, today we’ve got this, the by-election tomorrow at Wentworth and you’ve got Kerryn Phelps running around saying she wants 100 percent renewable energy. She’s going to take action on climate change, as though somehow that’s going to change the weather. That is the climate denial that we hear about, Alan. Those people are the deniers. You know, the chief scientists have said there is nothing that we do in our nation that will have any effect whatsoever on the weather, and you’ve got everyone running around …

Alan Jones: Absolutely.

Craig Kelly: We’ve got policies …

Alan Jones: Well, now Prince Harry and Meghan are down on Bondi Beach. We’ll put some wind turbines on Bondi beach, if they’re not injurious to health.

Craig Kelly: And then you would, then you would hear people screaming all over the place.

Alan Jones: Absolutely. Good on you, Craig. Stick to it, my friend.

Craig Kelly: Thanks Alan.

Alan Jones: Good on you. There we are. We say we told you so. We told you so about a lot of things.
2GB