Health Canada: disappointing, perhaps unprofessional, performance?

This commentary is still in draft form, prepared by a member of the Association to Protect Amherst Island (APAI), but it is an excellent commentary on the summary released by Health Canada last week. The summary, that is, of the results of its $2.1 MM study on wind turbine noise and health, which was released in breakneck speed last Thursday, and which the media picked up as “no health effects seen.”

This is false, of course—our question right now is, WHY is Health Canada putting these results out there as “gospel” when the neither the results or the summary have been properly peer-reviewed, and there is in fact NO actual report…just this summary? One might also ask why a government department is touting its results summary–again, not reviewed or published–as “the most comprehensive” study in the world? Perhaps the PR budget might have been applied to the actual research.

Plenty of people in Ottawa are disappointed at the lack of professionalism demonstrated by Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety at Health Canada.

Here is the audit report on the summary: HC IWT Noise study comments V1.0._Preliminary draft_Denise Wolfe

Just for interest, you may wish to read the testimony of the principal investigator, Dr David Michaud, at a wind power project appeal. In his testimony, Dr Michaud allows that there is research indicating an association between wind turbine noise and health effects, and he acknowledges that there are large studies ongoing throughout the world. Read the testimony summary here: http://www.falconers.ca/documents/SummaryofMichaudEvidence.pdf