|
To /
Destinataire : |
Agriculture
and Rural Affairs Committee / Comité de l’agriculture et des affaires rurales |
File/N° de
fichier: |
|
From / Expéditeur : |
Dr. Isra Levy,
Medical Officer of Health /
Médecin-chef en santé publique |
|
|
Subject /
Objet : |
Wind Turbines /
Éoliennes |
Date: January 6, 2010 |
The Council of the City
of Ottawa, at its meeting held on July 8, 2009, passed the following motion:
That Council direct the Ottawa Public Health Department to request a comprehensive review of the available peer-reviewed medical literature regarding wind turbine related health issues, in particular from Northern European countries, coordinated by the Province of Ontario and that the Medical Officer of Health report back to Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee within 6 months.
Councillors also requested
that this review look at all potential routes of exposure, including possible
health effects due to noise resulting from wind turbines.
On July 14, 2009, the
Medical Officer of Health sent a letter to the Deputy Minister of the Ministry
of the Environment (MOE) for the Province of Ontario to give notice of the
above motion and request information on how the MOE planned to proceed with the
request to coordinate a peer-reviewed medical literature review.
The Assistant Deputy
Minister of the Environment responded on August 28, 2009, with the assurance
that the MOE will establish and fund an academic research chair in renewable
energy technologies and health with the mandate to conduct literature reviews
on renewable energy health impacts.
Further to the response submitted by the MOE,
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Arlene King, released a
memorandum regarding wind turbines to Medical Officers of Health on October 23,
2009. This memorandum advised that the Public Health Division of the Ministry
of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) had collaborated with the MOE, the
Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and the Ontario Agency for Health
Protection and Promotion (OAHPP) to review the literature on the potential
health impacts of wind turbines.
A summary of the
literature review conclusions was circulated to Ottawa Public Health. The review concluded that “there is no
evidence of noise-induced health effects at levels emitted by wind turbines;
sound is sometimes found to be annoying to some people, which may result in
stress and sleep disturbances”. To
further reduce the public health concerns about wind turbines, Dr. King
reiterated that the MOHLTC would be collaborating with provincial ministries to
secure an academic research chair to further study and keep abreast of any
potential health effects of renewable energy projects including wind
turbines.
The Ontario government has fulfilled the request by Ottawa City Council
to conduct a comprehensive review of the available
peer-reviewed medical literature regarding wind turbine related health issues.
The review did not find evidence of health effects that would warrant public
health interventions at this point in time. Ottawa Public Health will continue to follow the work of experts and
provincial ministries tasked with studying this emerging issue.
Attach. Correspondence to the Deputy Minister of the Environment from the Medical Officer of Health
Memorandum to Ontario Medical Officers of Health and Environmental Health Directors
cc:
