LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Layperson evidence on alleged health effects limited 

Credit:  Patrick Duffy and Sean Gibson, Canadian Energy Law, www.canadianenergylaw.com 5 March 2012 ~~

The Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT) has released a decision limiting the ability of laypersons to testify about health effects allegedly caused by proximity to wind turbines without providing medical records/expert opinions to substantiate their testimony.

The issue arose in an appeal to the ERT by the Middlesex-Lambton Wind Action Group of a Renewable Energy Approval (REA) issued to Zephyr Farms Limited for a wind farm under the Environmental Protection Act In its appeal, the Appellant alleged that the proposed wind farm would negatively affect the health of the surrounding community. In pre-hearing disclosure, the Appellant listed numerous witnesses aiming to testify that they had suffered negative health effects caused by living in the vicinity of wind turbines. The Appellants provided no corresponding medical reports to substantiate, further explain, or allow professional medical scrutiny against, these statements.

In response, the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) requested an order for the Appellants to produce medical reports to corroborate the allegations. The MOE argued that, without medical reports properly subjected to medical scrutiny, the ERT did not possess the necessary expertise to judge how relevant, applicable and transferable the witnesses’ experiences would be to Zephyr Farms’ proposal. Consequentially, the MOE claimed that layperson evidence would be of little use in determining whether the Zephyr Farms project will cause serious harm to human health.

The Appellant argued that, largely due to the expedited timeline for the hearing of the appeal, the time and cost it would take to obtain the necessary medical records to buttress the witnesses’ statements made the exercise impractical and that if the ERT did require such records for its consideration, a significant adjournment would be necessary.

The ERT largely agreed with the MOE, and citing its own decision in Kawartha Dairy Limited v. Director, Minister of the Environment, found that the ERT cannot simply accept the assertion of a layperson that they suffer from a certain medical condition, let alone the cause of that condition. Such conclusions require the diagnostic skills of a qualified health professional. Accordingly, the ERT would only be willing to hear and consider the subjectively reported symptoms of such a witness. One can assume, though it is not explicitly stated, that the ERT would give little weight to such subjectively reported symptoms. The ERT also refused to grant an adjournment because the Appellant knew of the time constraints on REA appeals when it filed its Notice of Appeal and was unable to provide any viable explanation for its inability to obtain a single medical record for any of the witnesses it proposed to call. 

Following the decision, the Appellants withdrew their appeal to the ERT.

Source:  Patrick Duffy and Sean Gibson, Canadian Energy Law, www.canadianenergylaw.com 5 March 2012

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon