2012 January Press Releases

1/17/12 Press Release

Windwise ~ Massachusetts calls for immediate epidemiological study on health effects of wind turbines

CONTACTS:

Mark Cool, Falmouth, (508) 728-6508, (508) 540-6078 markjcool@yahoo.com

Barry C. Cosgrove, Wareham, (310) 717-7503 bcosgrove01@cox.net

Virginia Irvine, Brimfield, (413) 245-3179 irvinvir@gmail.com

Eleanor Tillinghast, Great Barrington, (413) 446-3990 etillinghast@greenberkshires.org

Brimfield, MA — Windwise ~ Massachusetts calls for an immediate epidemiological study on the effects of living near wind turbines, charging that the DEP and DPH have failed the people of Massachusetts with the inadequate study that they released today.

Last year, as the departments of environmental protection and public health (DEP and DPH) prepared to convene their wind study panel, Windwise ~ Massachusetts submitted hundreds of studies, reports, personal accounts, video clips, and other materials compiled from around the world demonstrating the damaging effects of living near wind turbines. In some cases, those impacts were felt over a distance of up to six miles.

Despite all that evidence, the report released by the state today concludes that the available literature shows there is limited and insufficient epidemiological evidence to determine an association between wind turbines and certain health impacts. For that reason, a rigorous epidemiological study by a truly independent team of experts is essential.

Last year, the Falmouth Board of Health asked the state to take a lead role in conducting an investigation to determine if negative health effects are associated with wind turbines operating in Falmouth. So far, the state has not responded with a commitment to sponsor such a study. It is doing a noise study of one town-owned turbine in Falmouth, known as Wind I, but not a health study.

“We have a living experiment right here in Falmouth, and I’m part of it,” Mark Cool of Fire Tower Road in Falmouth said. “We’ve been begging DEP and DPH to come down and do an epidemiological study of wind-turbine neighbors, and gotten nowhere. They did not contact us for this report,” he said.

“We knew from the beginning that DEP’s report would be politically motivated with a predetermined outcome,” said Eleanor Tillinghast, a steering committee member of Windwise ~ Massachusetts. “This whitewash is no surprise,” she added.

Virginia Irvine, another member of the Windwise ~ Massachusetts steering committee said, “The governor and his staff have been dedicated to removing all obstacles to the buildout of hundreds of wind turbines across the state, and dismissing the concerns of the many people experiencing the ill effects of wind turbines has been a goal all along.”

“This panel was not independent, its work was not conducted in public or with any ongoing involvement by the public. Everything was done in secret, so who can take this report seriously?” asked Barry C. Cosgrove, also of Windwise ~ Massachusetts.

Windwise ~ Massachusetts expects that people from around the state who are now experiencing the effects of wind turbines as neighbors will participate in the upcoming public meetings that DEP and DPH are planning to accompany the release of their report.

Windwise ~ Massachusetts is a statewide alliance of groups and individuals who support the responsible siting of renewable energy projects and are concerned about the negative health, environmental, and economic impacts of poorly sited wind turbines. The alliance members are all volunteers.

For more information, please visit our website, <windwisema.org>.

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1/18/12 Press Release–Expert State Panel’s Report on Wind Turbine Health Effects contradicts the Falmouth Experience

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 18, 2012

Falmouth Wind Turbine Neighbors Travel to Statehouse to Refute DEP / DPH Expert Panel’s Findings

Contact:  Malcolm Donald     508.566.5830 or MD@Zefarus.com   

Falmouth, MA – In the wake of yesterday’s release of the Department of Environmental [DEP] / Department of Public Health [DPH] “expert” panel’s report on its Wind Turbine Impact Study, neighbors of Falmouth’s wind turbines traveled to the Statehouse today to express their disbelief in the report’s assertions.  The finding that there is no association between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects on people living nearby flys in the faces of Falmouth’s wind turbine neighbors who experience sleep deprivation, ear pressure, depression and tinnitus among other ailments.

The Patrick administration has a very ambitious goal for renewable energy and needed this panel’s conclusions to support its program.

One of the Falmouth residents at the statehouse, Neil Andersen, asked “How ignorant does the Patrick administration believe the public is?   Common sense tells people if there were no health issues before the Falmouth turbines started and then people started feeling the onslaught of head pressure, depression, and tinnitus, etc. after the turbine started turning, then what can be concluded?”  The very cause and effect the panel has denied has just been demonstrated to be true as a result of Falmouth selectmen having turned off its Wind-1 wind turbine.  Falmouth wind turbine neighbors’ maladies have now gone away as the turbine stands motionless.

Studies from all over the world that the panel could have considered would lead one to conclude just the opposite of the experts’ conclusions.  These reports are readily available over the Internet for the public to read and make their own conclusions.

The McPherson study recently conducted in Falmouth clearly documents the adverse effects of infrasound.  Citizens of Falmouth ask the governor to please review this ground-breaking study.

Both Falmouth’s Board of Health and neighbors have been asking the DPH to conduct an epidemiological study in Falmouth but in the Wind Turbine Impact Study all the state did was a literature review.

Problems in Falmouth won’t go away until its wind turbines are removed.  This DEP / DPH report just adds more idiocy to the Falmouth Experience now known internationally for how not to site wind turbines.

“The DEP / DPH report just makes the governor look foolish” says Andersen.