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County hosts first symposium on wind turbines and health

Prince Edward County will host the First International Symposium on adverse health effects from industrial wind turbines this weekend.
The event, to be held at The Waring House, Oct. 29-31, is organized by The Society for Wind Vigilance, a dedicated group of volunteer physicians, and will feature experts from around the world.
The two-day symposium “The Global Wind Industry and Adverse Health Effects: Loss of Social Justice?” will shed light on the controversy surrounding the adverse health effects for people living too close to industrial wind turbines.
Speakers from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada will present research relating to health issues.
International speakers include Nina Pierpont, M.D., PhD. (U.S.A.), Christopher Hanning, M.D. (U.K.), Michael Nissenbaum, M.D. (U.S.A.), John Harrison, Ph.D. (Can) and Arline Bronzaft, Ph.D. (U.S.A.) who will discuss the adverse effects of wind turbine noise on sleep, impacts on children and urgent need for human health research. Reported Symptoms: Chronic Sleep Disturbance, Cardiac Arrhythmia, Hypertensive Episodes, Vertigo, Skin Rash, Nausea, Migraine, Tinnitus, Nosebleeds and Vomiting.
The Society for Wind Vigilance was formed in response to the growing number of health complaints arising internationally with the arrival of industrial wind developments near homes. The Society is calling for a full, clinical study into these health problems, mitigation of the problems now existing and a moratorium on wind development until these actions have been completed.
Space is limited. Call The Waring House for details.

FRIDAY October 29
12 pm – Registration begins
7 pm – Introductory Evening Session
Session I No Rules, No Caution, No Accountability
Orville Walsh, Co-Chair – Opening Remarks: No Global Standards
John Harrison – It’s Pure Physics
Rick James – Acoustics 101

SATURDAY October 30
8:30 am Session II What Clinicians Need To Know
Dr. Robert McMurtry, Chair – Opening Remarks
Dr. Nina Pierpont (Key Note) – Defining a Syndrome
Dr. Alec Salt – Infrasound: Your Ears Hear It But They Don’t Tell Your Brain
Coffee break 15 minutes

Session III Cause and Effect
Dr. Arline Bronzaft – Children: Canaries in the Coal Mine
Dr. Christopher Hanning – The Torment of Sleep Disturbance
Session Working Luncheon
Robert Bryce – A Journey of Discovery

Session IV Research and Motion
Dr. Michael A. Nissenbaum – Deleterious Health Effects are Undeniable
Dr. Carl V. Phillips – The Absence of Health Studies Proves Nothing
Coffee break 15 minutes

Session V The Consequences – Violation Of Social Justice
Carmen Krogh – A Gross Injustice
Eric Gillespie – Social Justice and the Law
Dinner 7:30

SUNDAY OCTOBER 31
8:30 am Session VI Social Marketing – Disinformation
Dale Goldhawk – Media and Pre-emptive Stereotyping
Dr. Ross McKitrick – Coal Kills-Where Are the Bodies?
Coffee Break 15 minutes

Session VII Toward A Global Movement
Dale Goldhawk – Moderator for Next Steps
Dr. Robert McMurtry/Orville Walsh – Wrap Up & Proceedings

Guest Speakers and Themes
SESSION I: No Rules, No Caution, No Accountability
JOHN HARRISON, PhD – John Harrison obtained his PhD. at Leeds (UK) in 1964 and completed post-doctoral fellowships at Cornell (1964–67) and Sussex (UK) (1967–69). He was a member of the Department of Physics at Queen’s University from 1969–2002 and is retired. Harrison has conducted research, taught physics and engineering physics courses and participated on many national and international committees. He was the Co-Editor and then Editor of the (International) Journal of Low Temperature Physics (1978 – 1992) and served a 2-year term as an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Physics. He has made presentations regarding wind turbine noise to community groups, the International World Wind Energy Conference (2008) and the annual conference of the Canadian Acoustics Association (2009). He is a member of the Ministry of the Environment Stakeholder Focus Group on Wind Turbine Noise.

RICHARD R. JAMES, INCE – Richard James has been actively involved in the field of noise control since 1969, participating in and supervising research and engineering projects related to control of occupational and community noise. He has performed extensive acoustical testing and development work for a variety of complex environmental noise problems utilizing both classical and computer simulation techniques. Since 2006, he has been involved with noise and health issues related to industrial wind turbines.
ORVILLE WALSH, Chair CC-SAGE – Orville Walsh is a resident of Prince Edward County, Ontario and the Chairman of the County Coalition for Safe and Appropriate Green Energy. He is a board member of the Alliance to Protect Prince Edward County. Mr. Walsh has been closely researching the development of industrial wind energy both in Ontario and globally and has committed much time to organizing this Symposium. Orville Walsh held senior management positions with Honda Canada and recently retired after a 30 year career.

SESSION II: What Clinicians Need To Know
NINA PIERPONT, MD, PhD – Nina Pierpont is recognized as the first health specialist to identify a pattern of symptoms that manifest themselves when people live too close to industrial wind turbines. She named this Wind Turbine Syndrome.
In addition to her clinical research on industrial wind turbines, Pierpont has conducted environmental research. Her expertise in the conduct of research has been established. Pierpont attended Yale on a National Merit Scholarship and graduated in 1977. She earned a Ph.D. (1985) in behavioral ecology at Princeton and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC). She attended Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and earned her medical degree in 1991. Pierpont chose a pediatrics specialty and completed internship at the Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, D.C., with a residency at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH. Pierpont is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a practicing physician specializing in Pediatrics
with emphasis on Behavioral Pediatrics.
ALEC SALT, PhD
Alec Salt is a researcher with the Department of Otolaryngology at Washington University in St Louis. He gained a Ph.D. in cochlear physiology at the University of Birmingham, UK in 1977 and performed postdoctoral studies at the University of Southampton, UK and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA before taking an academic position at Washington University in 1984. He is currently a Professor of Otolaryngology. His research has been funded by NIH for over 20 years and has focused on how inner ear function depends on the fluids of the ear that bathe the sensory cells. For years, he and his group have been using very low frequency sounds as a tool to manipulate the inner ear while measurements were taken. These studies showed that infrasound at frequencies as low as 1 Hz had a major influence the function of the inner ear, even at levels that would not be heard. This raises the possibility that the inaudible, infrasound component of wind turbine noise could stimulate the ear.

SESSION III: Cause and Effect
ARLINE BRONZAFT, PhD. Arline L. Bronzaft is Professor Emerita of the City University of New York and serves on the Mayor’s GrowNYC.org as chair of its noise committee. She has given testimony on the hazards of noise to government and health organizations, serves as an expert witness in court cases, and advises U.S. public officials, both locally and nationally, on the dangers of noise. Dr. Bronzaft has written extensively on noise impacts, including chapters in nine books, articles in academic journals and writings in the popular press. Her latest chapter: Noise: Not Just Hazardous to your Ears – Harmful to Physical and Mental Well Being appears in The Consumer Handbook of Hearing Loss and Noise. Dr. Bronzaft frequently lectures on noise in the United States and abroad and has been quoted in the media internationally. She also advises anti-noise organizations in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. She received a Certificate of Appreciation from Region 2 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for her achievements in the protection of the Environment.
CHRISTOPHER HANNING, BSc. MB, BS, MRCS, LRCP, FRCA, MD- Christopher Hanning is Honorary Consultant in Sleep Disorders Medicine to the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, UK. He retired in September 2007 as Consultant in Sleep Disorders Medicine. After initial training in anaesthesia, he developed an interest in Sleep Medicine. He founded and ran the Leicester Sleep Disorders Service, one of the longest standing and largest services in the UK. He was a
founder member and President of the British Sleep Society His expertise in this field has been accepted by the civil, criminal and family courts. He chairs the Advisory panel of the SOMNIA study, a major project investigating sleep quality in the elderly, and sits on Advisory panels for several companies with interests in sleep medicine.

WORKING LUNCH SESSION: Journey of Discovery
ROBERT BRYCE, Author and Journalist Robert Bryce is an American author and journalist, living in Austin, Texas. His articles on energy, politics, and other topics have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Counterpunch, and Atlantic Monthly. In April, Bryce published his fourth book Power Hungry: The Myths of Green Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future, which discusses many of the problems associated with renewable energy in general and wind energy in particular. In researching the book, Bryce discovered numerous reports of adverse health effects from industrial wind turbines across the U.S. as well as in Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Bryce spent 12 years writing for The Austin Chronicle. In 2006, he began working as the managing editor of the online magazine, Energy Tribune. Bryce is now a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. In March 2009, he testified before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to discuss the limits inherent in renewable energy, saying “no matter how you do the calculations, renewable energy by itself, can not, will not, be able to replace hydrocarbons over the next two to three decades, and that’s a conservative estimate.”
SESSION IV: Research and Motion
MICHAEL A. NISSENBAUM, MD- Michael Nissenbaum received his undergraduate education at McGill University in Montreal and completed medical
school at the University of Toronto. He specialized in diagnostic imaging and completed his residency at McGill University. He received a Fellowship from the University of California. Currently, Nissenbaum is certified by the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, and American Board of Radiology. He is a radiologist at the Northern Maine Medical Center, Fort Kent, Maine. Previous positions include Junior Faculty at Harvard University and Associate Director of MRI at a major Harvard teaching hospital. Dr. Nissenbaum’s controlled study of adverse health effects of industrial wind turbines on the people of Mars Hill, Maine cannot be dismissed as anecdotal and indicates an urgent need for robust clinical health studies into this issue.
CARL V. PHILLIPS, PhD – Carl Phillips is an expert in epidemiology and related health sciences, as well as scientific epistemology and methodology. He has earned a PhD in public policy (with an emphasis on economics-based decision making) from Harvard University, completing a dissertation on environmental policy and economics. He completed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan followed by a second fellowship in philosophy of science at the University of Minnesota. While Phillips has worked in consulting, primarily analyzing energy and environmental policy issues, most of his career has been as a professor of public health. He currently directs an independent academic-style research institute. He has taught at the schools of public health at the Universities of Minnesota, Texas, and Alberta (Canada), as well as the evidence based medicine programs at the University medical schools of Texas, Alberta and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

SESSION V: The Consequences – Violation of Social Justice
CARMEN KROGH, B.Sc. Pharmacy Carmen Krogh is a retired pharmacist with more than 40 years of experience in health. She has made a number of presentations throughout Ontario and other jurisdictions about the adverse health effects associated with wind turbines. Krogh and another are conducting the WindVOiCe © (Wind Vigilance for Ontario Communities) self reporting health survey. She formed the support network VOW© (the Victims of Wind) whose members are suffering
adverse health effects associated with industrial wind turbines. She is in touch with many victims in Ontario and other jurisdictions. Krogh has held senior executive positions at a major teaching hospital, a professional association and Health Canada (Pest Management Regulatory Agency). She was a former Director of Publications and Editor-in-chief of the Compendium of pharmaceuticals and Specialties (CPS), the book used in Canada for prescribing information on prescription medication. Doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and other health care professionals use this publication in their daily practice.
ERIC K. GILLESPIE, LL.B. – Eric Gillespie practices civil litigation and administrative law with an emphasis on environmental issues. He graduated with Distinction from the University of Western Ontario Law School in 1994. He articled in part with the Canadian Environmental Law Association.
Since then he has appeared before all levels of Ontario Courts and a wide variety of administrative tribunals including the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal, the Ontario Municipal Board and at the Walkerton Water Inquiry. He has also assisted clients in other parts of Canada including New Brunswick, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Gillespie is a lead litigator in a class action lawsuit that resulted in an award of $36 million being announced in July, 2010, the largest environmental class action award in Canada to date. In October, 2009, on behalf of his client Ian Hanna, his firm filed a court application for judicial review of the Green Energy Act, 2009 based on the Precautionary Principle as it applies to industrial wind turbine installations. He also currently represents residents and community groups from across Ontario on wind related issues.
SESSION VI: Social Marketing of the Wind Industry-Disinformation ROSS McKITRICK, PhD Ross McKitrick, PhD is a Canadian economist specializing in environmental economics and policy analysis. He is professor of economics at the University of Guelph; a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute, a Canadian freemarket public policy think tank. He is the author of Economic Analysis of Environmental Policy (2010) McKitrick gained his doctorate in economics in 1996 from the University of British Columbia, and in the same year was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Guelph. In 2001 he received an Associate Professorship and has been a full Professor since December 2008. He has since published research on palaeoclimate reconstruction, including co-authoring “Corrections to the
Mann et al (1998) Proxy Data Base and Northern Hemisphere Average Temperature Series” and “Hockey Sticks, Principal Components and Spurious Significance” with Stephen McIntyre. He continues to publish research in economics, usually in the area of environmental policy.
DALE GOLDHAWK, Broadcaster Dale Goldhawk is a veteran journalist in Canadian newspapers, radio and television. He is also the host of Goldhawk Fights Back on The New AM740, Zoomer Radio. Throughout his career Mr. Goldhawk has been an advocate for people who have been disadvantaged in some way and whose voices have not been heard. In 2005, he won a Canadian Cable Television  Association Galaxi Award for Best Performance. Earlier in his career, Goldhawk worked for the Toronto Telegram, Global Television, CBC Television, CBC Radio and the CTV Television Network. He is host of Goldhawk Live, daily, on Rogers TV across Ontario, and Goldhawk Live on CPAC, out of Ottawa, seen across Canada on Sundays. Goldhawk was nominated by the Canadian Association of Journalists as one of Canada’s outstanding investigative journalists in 2001. He was a Gemini Award nominee for Best Reporter in 1996, and a National Radio Award nominee for Best Broadcaster, Phone-In Radio, in 1992.

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  1. This is an interesting symposium knowing that we our group also have good intention towards the use of wind turbines as a source of energy.

    Our most important goal is to be the venue for collaboration, interaction, networking, and promotion of wind energy. We also aim to become an indispensable resource for you and your website visitors.

    Wind Turbines – http://www.windturbines.net is positioned to be the largest social network for the wind turbine community where the public and the wind energy profession can come together to get advice, share ideas and network for career advancement.

  2. Doris says:

    Great conference with wonderful speakers. It is too bad that everyone in the county cannot hear what was said
    People were there from all over the world–totally amazing

  3. Lori says:

    to Jim
    I would rather believe a group of accredited Doctors from around the world than politicians and corporations (who lobby them). They are only interested in the money they can make so they tell us we have nothing to worry about. Since there are no ill health effects, they claim, we do not need to do any studies. Of course they settle any lawsuits out of court and force the victims to sign gag orders so that their cases cannot be documented. Reminiscent of the early tobacco companies’ strategies to refute claims that smoking caused cancer. If there are no ill health effects, why do they fight so hard to stop the studies that would prove their case?

  4. Doris says:

    The Society for Wind Vigilance of course promotes just that. It is important and to think that this is being featured in Prince Edward County. We should be proud that we are bringing all these important people here to be in our midst.
    Lets all enjoy this very special event as well as being at the wonderful Waring House with its special ambiance.

  5. Jim Hair says:

    Why would any politician show up to an event so loaded to one side of the debate? They need to show more balance.

    Creationists regularly trot out scientists with doctorates who are adamant the earth was created 4,500 years ago.

    This conference is more of the same.

  6. Robert Karp says:

    I meant to write….too much to hope that Leona will show up. It is not too much to hope that we can change policy.

  7. Robert Karp says:

    Probably too much too hope for, sadly.

  8. Chris says:

    I suppose it’s too much to expect that our MPP will show up at this event? If Oakville can force a change in policy surely we in the County can do the same?

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