Meetings to look at wind farm health effects

Posted By MARIA CANTON SUN TIMES STAFF

Posted 4 months ago

Health issues associated with large-scale wind turbine projects will be the subject of a public meeting being held tonight by the Grey Bruce Health Unit in Owen Sound.

Keynote speaker Dr. Ray Copes will present a paper titled Wind Turbines and Health: A Review of Evidence as part of the event that will also address the role of the public health unit in relation to wind turbines and the provincial certification process for such projects.

There are two large-scale, wind-powered generation sites in commercial operation in Bruce County, the Enbridge Ontario Wind Farm and Ripley South.

Copes is the director of environment and occupation health for the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. Prior to taking on that role this summer, he was the director of environmental health services at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and was a professor of population and public health at the University of British Columbia.

Further wind farm development is planned in Grey-Bruce and the health issues associated with turbines have been well documented and, in some cases, disputed.

Tonight's meeting will run from 7 to 9 p. m. at the Grey Bruce Health Unit in Owen Sound. A second public meeting, also featuring Copes, will be held Tuesday from 7 to 9 p. m in Walkerton at the Jubilee Hall.