24 Jan 2012
The clean energy industry today urged governments and the broader community to beware of misleading claims about wind farms and health by anti-wind power activists and to reject their calls for extra regulations that would send jobs and investment out of Australia. Clean Energy Council acting Chief Executive Kane Thornton said government documents indicated that NSW Health had repeatedly warned state ministers ahead of the release of recent draft wind planning guidelines that there was no evidence for so-called 'wind turbine syndrome'."While people's health should always be the number one priority, the approach taken by governments must be informed by legitimate health experts", Mr Thornton said. "But news reports today demonstrate yet again that statements about the health impacts of wind farms made by anti-wind farm interest groups should be taken with more than a few grains of salt".
This was further borne out in a statement released today by the Climate and Health Alliance, a coalition representing groups such as the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Australian Psychological Society, that renewable energy such as wind power provides a safe alternative to fossil fuels. "The medical community has rejected the scare campaign being run by interest groups such as the Waubra Foundation, which was set up and funded by anti-wind power campaigners", Mr Thornton said.
"This group's claims run completely counter to the findings of an opinion poll released by Pacific Hydro last week showing that some 80% of those surveyed in NSW, Victoria and South Australia support wind power, an energy source that now provides power for the equivalent of more than 900,000 Australian homes. "The NSW Government's dismissal of second-rate science about wind farms and health is a warning to Australians about the danger of taking the claims of anti-wind power groups on face value".
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