THE federal government will press ahead with "an independent program" to study the supposed impact on health of wind farms as it emerged a report on the issue has been handed to government, but withheld from public release.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
Activists say people living near wind farms suffer sleep disturbance and other health effects from low-frequency noise and infrasound.
Various international and Australian studies have cast doubt on the claims and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) began its review of evidence about the effects of wind farms for the government in September 2012.
Its findings have been sent to the ministers of health, industry and environment and will be released publicly "in coming months", a council spokeswoman said.
However, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said this month research should be refreshed "from time to time" to consider whether there were "new facts that impact on old judgments".
"It is some years since the NHMRC last looked at this issue," he said.
"Why not do it again?"
A "rapid review" of the evidence by the council in 2010 found "renewable energy generation was associated with few adverse health effects compared with the well-documented health burdens of polluting forms of electricity generation".
About three-quarters of eastern Australia's power comes from coal.
Simon Chapman, a professor of public health at Sydney University, said Mr Abbott appeared to have been swayed by a tiny group of anti-wind farm campaigners, such as the Waubra Foundation, in calling for another study even before the survey of scientific literature is released.
"We all need to be concerned about whether he's being influenced by little more than a cult," Professor Chapman said, adding that research to date has failed to link wind farms under current noise guidelines with ill-health.
