October 11, 2011
Wisconsin

State Sen. Frank Lasee pushes for wind turbine health study

Reporter: Kristin Crowley, www.fox11online.com 10 October 2011

TOWN OF GLENMORE – Wind farms have been a controversial issue here in Northeast Wisconsin. A proposal bill could take the wind out of future projects.

Darren Ashley says when these wind turbines went up in the Town of Glenmore, his family’s health problems began.

“My 15-year-old daughter started complaining about ear aches, my wife started saying she was waking up with headaches,” said Ashley.

Ashley says the family’s pain went away when the turbines weren’t turning. Last May he says their health got so bad, they moved away.

Now, State Senator Frank Lasee is pushing a bill to study how turbines affect health. He says until it’s complete, no more wind farms should be created.

“Let’s do a study to find out how bad or how good they affect people and their health in the nearby area and use that as a basis to establish setbacks,” said Lasee.

“There was an extensive study done by our health department…and came to the conclusion that there was no evidence that there were particular health outcomes or adverse health impacts,” said Keith Reopelle with Clean Wisconsin.

Clean Wisconsin, a group that supports the wind turbines, says it has no problem with more health studies being done. However it does have a problem putting a moratorium on future wind turbines.

“Basically putting probably dozens of businesses either out of business or sending them to other states while Wisconsin waits for the study just seems like a bad idea,” said Reopelle.

And while the Ashley’s worry the turbines are to blame for their health problems, their neighbors across the street say they’ve felt just fine.

“Really, no sound, no shadow, so no problem for us,” said Kay Laundrie.

But The Ashley’s say until turbines are ruled out for causing health issues, they won’t be convinced otherwise.

Lasee is working on getting co-sponsors for the bill. He then plans to bring the proposal before the public health committee.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/10/11/state-sen-frank-lasee-pushes-for-wind-turbine-health-study/