Politics can make you "sick"

Presidential hopeful, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has found room in his austerity budge for a $250,000 study of the health impact of wind turbines.

It's not that this hasn't been studied before.  Those other studies just didn't get the results Gov. Walker and those who favor the fossil fuel industry wanted.    

For example, an advisory group to the state's public service commission reported to the state legislature last fall that "some individuals residing in close proximity to wind turbines perceive audible noise and find it annoying, [but] it appears that this group is in the minority and that most individuals do not experience annoyance, stress, or perceived adverse health effects due to the operation of wind turbines."

The Canadian health department did a large-scale study in 2012 and concluded that wind turbine noise could not be linked to sleep disorders, illnesses, dizziness, ringing in the ears, migraines or headaches, perceived stress, or quality of life concerns. The only thing Canadian health officials did find to be related to wind turbine noise: annoyance with features of turbines, such as noise, shadows cast by the blades, blinking lights, vibrations and visual impacts.  A study by experts in Massachusetts in 2012 reached similar conclusions.

In fact, the executive director of RENEW Wisconsin told Huffington Post:  "All peer-reviewed studies to date indicate using the wind is a safe way to generate electricity, far safer for human health than other forms of electricity production, such as coal."

Thanks to Kate Sheppard of Huffington Post for this information.

Those studies have not diminished the complaints of some residents who live near turbines, however;   and some renewable energy advocates also welcome additional research, as long as it's based on good science.   But it seems unnecessary except as a way to try to quell these people who are "getting sick" for political reasons.

Perhaps it would be worth it, if those complaining are consulted on the design of the study, in exchange for their agreement to accept the results -- and then shut up about it.

This clearly is an annoyance for some people, exacerbated by conservative politics -- with emphasis on the latter phrase.    What about the very real health hazards both to the environment and to individual people of the wastes from the coal industry, the leaks of oil pipelines into rivers, the pollution from fracking, etc. etc.

To try to make a health issue out of clean, renewable energy is politics at its worst.

Bah humbug.

Ralph