Probably not too aviation related this time however some might find the following very interesting........
The select committee into Windfarms continues on and today has provided some very interesting evidence from witness Simon Chapman who is a exceptionally highly qualified Professor of Public Health from Sydney University. Aside from his oral evidence,
His Submission (No.369!!!!) provides some very interesting insights into the medical rationale behind windfarm complaints and is quite thought provoking in many regards as evidenced in the following couple of quotes from the submission.....
Currently there are 244 different diseases and symptoms that have been made about wind turbines. I do not believe there is anything in the whole of health and medicine which has attracted such a large and often bizarre and frankly often absurd range of claims (eg: lung cancer, skin cancer, hemorrhoids, herpes, alcoholism, disoriented echidnas
We found that the large majority of complainants in Australia were concentrated at just 6 of the 51 wind farms and that most had occurred after 2009.
I am unaware of any medical practitioner who has ever diagnosed any patient in Australia with “wind turbine syndrome”. Those claiming to have been made ill by wind turbine exposure are all self-diagnosed. This “syndrome” is not a diagnosis recognized by any authoritative diagnostic classification scheme anywhere in the world.
Many of the most common symptoms attributed by complainants to wind turbine exposure are symptoms commonly found in all communities, regardless of the presence of wind turbines. (see http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/6/e005374.full.pdf) For example, 35% of people experience fatigue and headaches and 26% sleeping problems in the last 7 days.
These symptoms are often symptoms of anxiety, stress and anger. It is understandable that some people who do not like wind farms, who would rather that they did not have them in their locality, who resent neighbours earning considerable rent from hosting turbines when their own adjacent properties may be topographically unsuitable, or who have “negative”, complaining personalities, may “worry themselves sick” via the nocebo effects described in my 2104 publication in Frontiers of Public Health (full reference above). Sir Simon Wessely, current President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, has also published a review on nocebo effects and wind turbines (see http://www.noiseandhealth.org/articl...;aulast=Rubin] which reached broadly similar conclusions.
Go figure!
Stiky
