In a spin:New research finds no evidence of adverse health impact from wind turbines.

In a spin:New research finds no evidence of adverse health impact from wind turbines.Credit:Stefan Moore

"There is no direct evidence that exposure to wind farm noise affects physical or mental health,"the council said in a statement.

Despite that conclusion,the council has made a Targeted Call for Research"to encourage Australia's best researchers to undertake independent high-quality research",particularly for impacts within 1500 metres of a wind farm.

Precarious balance:Cutting the renewable energy target will damage the industry,companies say.

Precarious balance:Cutting the renewable energy target will damage the industry,companies say.Credit:Bloomberg

Ina later clarification,the NHMRC said funding would be as much as $500,000,and focus on improving measurement of noise,particularly low-frequency. It would also include expanding beyond self-reported symptoms to more objective gauges,and look at the social circumstances and how that might influence perceived impacts.

The council noted that while exposure to environmental noise is associated with health effects,"these effects occur at much higher levels of noise than are likely to be perceived by people living in close proximity to wind farms in Australia".

The reason given for the call for additional research,firstreported by Fairfax Media last month,is that some residents report annoyance from wind farms.

"There is some poor quality evidence to suggest that wind farm noise or living in close proximity to a wind farm may be linked to annoyance and,to a lesser extent,with disturbed sleep and poorer quality of life,"the council said.

Advertisement

The study wasordered by the Abbott government in January 2013 even before the results of a separate review of the issue by the council had been made public. The decision for another review stoked fears that the government was being swayed by anti-wind farm campaigners,including Maurice Newman,a senior advisor to Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The latest report,released on Wednesday,also ruled out suggestions that wind farm noise impacts would differ from effects from other noise sources at similar levels.

"[W]ind farms would be unlikely to cause health effects at distances of more than 500 metres,where noise levels are generally less than 45[decibels],"the report said.

By comparison,wind farms beyond 1500 metres would have 30-35 decibel range,while household devices have 35-70 and traffic 70-85 decibels.

Will it also be recommending spending precious taxpayer dollars on research into chemtrails and alien abductions?

While welcoming the report's overall findings,wind farm operator Infigen Energy said it was surprised by the reference to 1500 metres as a yardstick.

"No wind farm in Australia could be built 500 metres from a household,according to Australian regulations,"Ketan Joshi,an Infigen spokesman,said."We are perplexed by the focus on 1500 metres in the media release."

The council panel studied published research from 1981 up to May 2014,including two of previous council reviews.

Since then,Health Canada has published its own comprehensive study released in November 2014 that examined 17 different models of turbines and collected data in 1238 homes in two provinces. It too found no evidence linking turbines and dizziness,migranes,measured quality of sleep and other factors.

"Any future research ought to incorporate the direct and indirect health impacts of fossil fuels – an issue recognised and acknowledged by the Australian scientific community,"Infigen's Mr Joshi said.

Alien abductions?

The diversion of funding into further wind farms studies will be wasteful and stoke unnecessary concern,Greens health spokesman Richard Di Natale said.

"It's disappointing that the NHMRC called for further research because of'concern expressed by some members of the community,'Senator Di Natale said in a statement."Will it also be recommending spending precious taxpayer dollars on research into chemtrails and alien abductions?"

"Not only may it give the pro-coal,anti-wind groups the wiggle room they want to claim that the issue isn't settled but every cent spent on this nonsense is money not spent on cancer research or finding a cure for diabetes,"he said.

Bruce Armstrong,chair of the NHMRC Wind Farms and Human Health Reference Group,said that"while we say it's unlikely that they are health effects beyond 500 metres,we're not excluding it".

Professor Armstrong said the choice of 1500 metres was"inferred"in the report but said the number"was not pulled out of the air".

License this article

Most Viewed in Environment

Loading