Still blaming victims 

I just read the article Engineers suspect DNA to blame for reported turbine ailments (published Aug. 2) regarding wind turbines and infrasound in The Banner.
An engineer in partnership with another engineer/doctor thinks maybe some people are “sensitive” to infrasound and that’s why wind turbines bother them. They talk about collecting DNA from these individuals to see what it is that makes them more sensitive.
Once again, the victims (I simply cannot find a more appropriate description) of this wind turbine mess are to blame for the ills they suffer.
They’ve been accused of having psychosomatic symptoms, attitudinal problems, NIMBYism, whatever is flavour of the month.
It doesn’t matter that small children and animals, unable to have an “attitude”, are affected too and that people whose families have lived peacefully for generations in their homes have been forced to leave.
Let me cut to the chase and save the taxpayers a lot of time and a lot of funding for another university research “experiment” on wind turbines.
At a recent wind turbine company open house, a “health consultant” insisted to me that the infrasound from wind turbines was no different than that from waves crashing on the beach or from traffic.
I have spent many a day and night on a tropical beach enjoying the sound of waves. I have spent many a day and night at the cottage listening to waves, natural and motorcraft wake induced, crashing on the rocks. I have lived on a four-lane highway in a city. None of these things kept me awake or drove me to leave my accommodations.
Wind turbines are 400-plus feet tall and are mechanically driven. Some houses get hit and some houses do not. Infrasound from wind turbines has been measured by acousticians. It exists. There is ground work done.
Common complaints are of vibration, headaches, nausea, chest and head pressure etc. Is it “infrasound” or is it “low frequency vibration”?
Technically, I don’t know, but I will bet a c-note these professionals are not living in areas impacted by the cumulative effect of multiple wind turbines and electrical sub-stations placed way too close to their families and pets.
Will these newly surfaced engineers like DNA samples from the other people who felt symptoms and left with headaches after visiting affected homes? Would they like DNA samples of the people who have audibly heard homes vibrating?
Ministry of Environment field officers were writing a formal document reporting to their superiors at the ministry’s Toronto office that people were getting sick and some abandoning their homes and that this needed to be addressed. They commented on the vibration. They also suggested audible sound levels be reduced to 30-32 decibels to lessen the impact on families.
I found this out through a costly and procedurally frustrating Freedom of Information Act request. I also found out those documents were shelved and no action was taken.
In 2009, the Green Energy Act was rammed through the legislature with lightning speed, no due diligence, no mitigation of the already major problems being experienced, and ever since, the people who are being assaulted by the noise and vibration have been routinely humiliated and demeaned by so-called professionals and their work.
I would never have dreamed so many licensed professionals would compromise their integrity to fall in line with a blatantly harmful policy that is destroying lives around the globe.
McGuinty’s green dream has big gaping holes and from my extensive “expert” experience, they’ll try anything to keep those subsidies afloat, even testing the DNA of “sensitive” people.
Barbara Ashbee, Mono