Publish the health impact opinion

On BBC Radio Shetland’s Speakeasy programme on Wednesday night, Bill Manson said, regarding the promised Health Impact Assessment by Viking Energy, that there were no measurable ways of assessing some of the health impacts that are or have been cited in respect of wind farms, and that changes in the Addendum had addressed those that were measurable.

In an article of the Shetland Times of 10 October 2008, David Thomson of Viking Energy is quoted as follows:

“David Thomson says he is sympathetic to the concerns of people like Donnie and Evelyn [Morrison], particularly in regard to the health issue. But he believes that the human health impact assessment, being conducted by the Institute of Occupational Medicine as part of the planning process, will allay fears of any negative effects on human health.

“It is a very understandable concern,” Mr Thomson says. “This is a huge project and the scale of potential impact, ranging from the economic and social to the environmental to the human, is a genuine thing. There are always going to be positive and negative impacts. We believe the positives will outweigh the negatives.”

He insists that the giant turbine blades will be turning at too slow a rate (12 revolutions per minute at their fastest) to cause any flicker effect. The rotation, he says, has the potential to be a nuisance, but not to affect human health. “The speed and frequency will never be fast enough to cause medical harm.”

Mr Thomson also states that the location of the turbines will be far enough away from houses to prevent a shadow effect being created.

“It is important that we have a debate around this project based on the evidence and we will be publishing the human health impact assessment along with a range of other studies in time.”

I believe it would go a long way to allaying fears and suspicions if Viking Energy were to publish the opinion of the Institute of Occupational Medicine that a credible Health Impact Assessment could not be delivered – and their opinion that shadow flicker would never cause medical harm, particularly in the case of people living within two kilometres of the proposed turbines.

James Mackenzie
The Lea
Tresta

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