Air ambulance service endangered by industrial wind turbines?

Air ambulance services in Ontario are a hot topic in recent months, what with the questions about the dealings with and oversight of ORNGE, and problems such as when a Barry’s Bay woman died after waiting eight hours for the trip to Ottawa. (A local doctor commented that the ONtario government has reduced so many services at rural hospitals, that they had no choice but to transport the woman out, with disastrous results.)

Now, comes the news from a group of municipal politicians and community leaders, that Ontario’s burgeoning wind power generation business may be endangering emergency services too. Despite the bucolic image of wind turbines spinning lazily in the breeze, the fact is they produce turbulence (as well as environmental noise and sound pressure/infrasound). That means, helicopters have to give them a wide berth. A recommended 5 km in fact.

In some areas of Ontario, that means that air rescue will be delayed, or not possible at all, says the Multi-Municipal Wind Turbine Working Group, which is chaired by Mark Davis, Deputy Mayor of Arran-Elderslie. Once again, this affects rural residents: you can have an injury or illness occur in a field or other location where air ambulance is necessary to get the patient to hospital, quickly.

This could be an issue for the RNAO, since they seem to be trying to be on the side of patients in Ontario (an announcement today boasts that people could get same-day attention from a nurse, if nurses were given more powers).

Concerned about your air ambulance service?

You can write to your MPP, your medical officer of health, your municipal councillor, your physician and hey, why not ask your professional association to do something, too. Email the RNAO at http://rnao.ca/contact

The Multi-Municipal Working Group letter to the Health MInister is Here.

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