Australia’s NHMRC conducts another pretentious exercise in bullshit. No one is surprised.
Feb 28, 2014
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Editor’s note: Australia’s feckless National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC), with CEO Warwick Anderson at the controls, is engaged in an all-out war on (a) common sense, (b) innumerable first-hand reports from around the world, and (c) an abundance of reliable clinical evidence & research confirming that wind turbines do, indeed, “directly” cause illness — the illness known to everyone as Wind Turbine Syndrome (WTS).
Open the video, below, and watch Anderson and his lieutenants get hammered by federal Senator John Madigan over the NHMRC’s latest phony WTS report. (Note how Anderson et al. take pains not to use the term, Wind Turbine Syndrome.) Sit back, relax, and listen to 17 minutes of jaw-droppingly evasive answers to the obviously frustrated senator. (Senator Madigan has frequently appeared in these pages.)
Click here for the text of Senator Madigan grilling the NHMRC.
The other individual questioning Prof. Anderson, Senator Richard Di Natale, is a wind energy zealot preaching the Gospel of Big Wind up and down Australia while smiting infidels like Dr. Sarah Laurie hip and thigh. Surprisingly, Di Natale is a physician. Unsurprisingly, like most physicians he substitutes his medical credential for common sense and doing his homework on the subject at hand. In any event, in his exchange with the NHMRC brass, Di Natele is struggling to maneuver Prof. Anderson into conceding that WTS is such rubbish that further research is a waste of good tax dollars.
Such is the state of government — and medicine? — in that truly astonishing land called Australia. Watching Warwick and his henchmen, followed by Di Natale, is like watching burlesque minus the entertainment. (Truth be told, it’s really really depressing.)
Why do Australians tolerate these fools? (Is it their business suits? The white hair? The glasses? The titles?) Are Aussies not aware that their NHMRC and shills like Di Natale are a mockery of medical and scholarly research — and about 50 years behind the curve? (Is there something goofy about the “air” in Australia? The water? Too many kangaroos? I swear these NHMRC guys & Di Natale are the caliber of a small-town health board somewhere in Bible Belt Tennessee.)
Comment by Noel dean on 03/01/2014 at 8:07 pm
Dr Norm Broner’s position on the review panel was challenged by myself directly to the NHMRC on the grounds that SKM was involved in the design of the Waubra Windfarm and the design of the MacArthur windfarm and that Norm Broner is the acoustic leader at SKM. The Waubra and MacArthur windfarms are noncompliant because of the design-related issues that are continually ignored without any consideration given to the fact that the sound experienced is only by calculation and not the measured sound that is experienced. The constructive interference from badly placed turbines, which SKM is absolutely responsible for, has not been corrected.
So-called “independent expert” Norm Broner is hardly going confess to the NHMRC that the Waubra and MacArthur windfarms are non-compliant with noise/vibration and that his company is absolutely responsible for the mess, because it would breach his code of conduct with SKM and he’d be sacked.
The NHMRC should consider re-assessing its protocols for “expert advice,” given the fact that a person like Broner is in a position where he has no choice but to lie or deny.
Noel Dean
WTS victim
Comment by Bob in Castlemaine on 03/02/2014 at 3:30 am
Calvin, I really think you may be doing the Tennesse Bible Belt a disservice!
Comment by Bruce on 03/02/2014 at 5:26 am
The people from mental health need to be called in to see if the top brass from NHMRC have shit for brains, or any brains whatsoever in their heads, as they are talking BULL SHIT about the problems of health from the fans.
Comment by Geoff McPherson on 03/02/2014 at 6:06 pm
Perhaps a generic apology should be expressed on behalf of Australians here given the buffoonery witnessed in our parliament from some politicians and academics in special session on impacts of wind farms.
Let’s start by identifying the two Senators involved. The Senator asking the clear firm questions of the academics is a fully qualified blacksmith with basically micro party status. The second, the one with a power pole fixation, is a qualified medical practitioner and member of a party that received huge funding from the wind farm industry for the last election. By way of explanation to US readers, to mention Wind Turbine Syndrome in Australia is considered by some to be an attackable commodity by industry so in Australia the symptoms are discussed.
The wind turbine and heath review considered 2850 references,and an additional 506 references were received up to late 2012. 7 were considered acceptable. I guess they could not work out how not to see those. Three did indicate the downstream sleep issues so well documented.
The academic review that did this culling, that clearly indicated they thought some Australian academics were so much more clever than those in the rest of the world, is given as …… Systematic review of the human health effects of wind farms within the following website.
http://consultations.nhmrc.gov.au/public_consultations/wind_farms
If you are interested in wind turbine issues outside Australia and you feel somewhat slighted or affronted about being offhandedly delegated to “background status” then please by all means have a go at this lot. A warning, in the fine print they mention they wont accept emails and you can imagine why.