Health Canada's Wind Turbine Noise and Health Study Expert Committee Members

The Wind Turbine Noise and Health Study Expert Committee was established to support the development of the study methodology and (where applicable) analysis of results. The mandate of this committee has now concluded.

• David Michaud, Ph.D. (Principal Investigator/Project Manager)
  Research Scientist, Health Effects and Assessment Division
  Health Canada
• Katya Feder, Ph.D. (Project Co-ordinator)
  Research Scientist, Health Effects and Assessment Division
  Health Canada

Others (in alphabetical order)

• Tara Bower, M.Sc.
  Director, Office of Science Policy Liaison and Co-ordination (OSPLC)
  Health Canada
• James Brooks, M.D., FRCPC
  Chief, National Lab HIV Genetics
  Public Health Agency of Canada
• Allison Denning, M.E.S.
  Regional Environmental Assessment Co-ordinator
  Health Canada - Atlantic Region
• Paul Dockrill, M.Sc.
  Acting Program Manager, Wind Energy Technology Group
  Natural Resources Canada
• Christopher Duddek, M.Sc.
  Senior Methodologist
  Statistics Canada
• Stephen Keith, Ph.D.
  Research Scientist, Consumer & Industrial Products Division
  Health Canada
• Antoine Lacroix, Eng., M.Sc.
  Wind Energy Engineer, Renewable Energy Technologies
  Natural Resources Canada
• Eric Lavigne, Ph.D.
  Epidemiologist, Environmental Issues Division
  Public Health Agency of Canada
• Serge Legault, B.Sc
  Survey Manager, Special Surveys
  Statistics Canada
• Tony Leroux, Ph.D.
  Professor of Audiology
  Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal
• Leonora Marro, M.Sc
  Statistician, Population Studies Division, Biostatistics Section
  Health Canada
• Brian James Murray, MD FRCP(C) D, ABSM
  Director of Integrated Medical Education, University of Toronto Department of Medicine
  Associate Professor, Neurology and Sleep Medicine
  Vice Chair, Research Ethics Board
  Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center
• Denis Poulin, M.A.
  Chief, Special Surveys
  Statistics Canada
• Werner Richarz, Ph.D., P.Eng., FASA
  Chief Acoustical Engineer
  Echologics
  Mississauga, Ontario
• Jason Tsang, P.Eng.
  Senior Acoustics and Vibrations Engineer
  Canadian Transportation Agency
• Paul Villeneuve, Ph.D.
  Associate Professor
  Institute of Health: Science, Technology and Policy
  Carleton University
• Shelly Weiss, M.D., FRCPC
  Neurologist, Director of Faculty Development
  Associate Professor, University of Toronto
  President-elect, Canadian Sleep Society
  Department of Pediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children
• Chantal Whelan, M.D., F.R.C.P.(C)
  Team Psychiatrist, Carlington Community and Health Services
  Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa

International Advisors

• Roel H. Bakker, Ph.D.
  Senior Researcher, Applied Health Research
  University Medical Center Groningen
  Groningen Area
  Netherlands
• Norm Broner, Ph.D.
  Practice Leader - Acoustics, Noise and Vibration
  Sinclair Knight Merz
  Melbourne, Australia
• Sabine A. Janssen, Ph.D.
  Senior Research Scientist
  Urban Environment and Safety
  TNO Department of Environment and Health
  TNO - Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research)
• Hideki Tachibana, Ph.D.
  Professor
  Chiba Institute of Technology
  Professor Emeritus
  The University of Tokyo, Japan
• Frits van den Berg, PhD
  Senior Advisor
  Amsterdam Public Health

Experts Committee - Member Biographies

Dr. David Michaud is the principal investigator for Health Canada's Community Noise and Health Study and a research scientist in the Health Effects and Assessment Division. He has been working with Health Canada since 2002 in the area of environmental noise and health. Since this time he has also been an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa. His research publications include both animal models (biological plausibility) and human studies. He is currently an individual expert of the accredited standards committee ANSI S12 (noise) and has participated as an external expert in multiple WHO projects, including the Night Noise Guidelines for Europe and the Burden of Disease from Environmental Noise.

Dr. Katya Feder is a research scientist and project co-ordinator for Health Canada's Community Noise and Health Study; she is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa, School of Rehabilitation. During her 3 year Visiting Fellowship (2008-2010) in the Health Effects and Assessment Division of Health Canada, she was the lead investigator (MP3 player user listening habits in children and adolescents) and co-investigator in several studies including an examination of audiometric thresholds and sound pressure levels in 10 to 17 year olds. Dr. Feder previously held CIHR doctoral and postdoctoral awards for health research (visual and perceptual processing, handwriting performance in children born preterm); and has published and contributed to numerous peer-reviewed papers and presented at national and international scientific conferences.

Tara Bower is the Director of the Office of Science Policy, Liaison and Coordination within the Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety (HECS) Branch of Health Canada. Ms. Bower has over 20 years of experience in Health Canada and has been responsible for the development and implementation of numerous policy initiatives and instruments in areas including bioethics and environmental and radiation health sciences policy and research. Ms. Bower has previously served as both chair and external peer reviewer for the evaluation panel of Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)- Health Canada Science Policy Fellowship Program and currently provides policy advice to Health Canada's Wind Turbine Noise and Health Study.

Dr. James Brooks is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and Chief of the National Laboratory for HIV Genetics at the Public Health Agency of Canada. He has been practising medicine for 17 years and continues to see patients. Dr. Brooks has published extensively and is a current reviewer for 5 scientific journals. He is a member of the College and Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and is Certified as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada as both an Internist and an Infectious Diseases Specialist.

Allison Denning is the Regional Environmental Assessment Coordinator for Health Canada, Atlantic Region. She has eight years of experience working in environmental assessment and has reviewed and provided comments on approximately 40 proposed windfarm projects in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Ontario. Prior to this, she was involved in ecological risk assessment work for Environment Canada and has published articles related to ecological risk assessment. Education: Masters of Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Paul Dockrill is the Manager (Acting) of the Wind Energy Technology Group at Canmet ENERGY, Natural Resources Canada. He has 7 years of experience working in the field of wind energy technologies. Education: Masters of Science in Control Systems

Christopher Duddek is a statistician at Statistics Canada. He has 23 years of experience working in the field of survey methodology and has published three peer-reviewed papers in this area. Education: Masters of Science, University of British Columbia.

Dr. Stephen Keith is a research scientist at Health Canada. He has 31 years of experience working in the field of acoustics and has published 16 peer-reviewed papers in this area and is a primary contributor to Canadian and International measurement standards. Professional Affiliations include being a member of: Acoustical Society of America, Institute of Noise Control Engineering, International Institute of Sound and Vibration, Canadian Acoustical Association.

Antoine Lacroix is a wind energy engineer at Natural Resources Canada. He has 14 years of experience working in the field of wind energy technologies and has published 5 peer-reviewed papers in this area and was a primary contributor to 2 wind turbine projects. Professional Affiliations: Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec

Dr. Eric Lavigne is an epidemiologist with the Environmental Issues Division at the Public Health Agency of Canada. He has six years of experience working in the field of public health, epidemiology and biostatistics. Dr. Lavigne has published numerous articles in various scientific journals in the field of environmental epidemiology. Education: PhD in epidemiology, University Laval, Quebec City, Quebec.

Serge Legault is a project manager at Statistics Canada. He has 10 years of experience working in the field of social surveys and was a primary contributor to several surveys on the environment, energy and tobacco use.

Dr. Tony Leroux is an Associate Professor and Director of Audiology at the University of Montreal and Director of Research at the Raymond-Dewar Institute. He has 23 years of experience working in the field of audiology, more specifically studying the effect of noise on hearing and health and has published 16 peer-reviewed papers and 31 technical papers in this area. Education: Masters in Audiology, University of Montreal, Ph.D. in Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario.

Leonora Marro is a Senior Statistician at Health Canada. She has 14 years of experience working in the field of Statistics and has published 39 peer-reviewed papers in various areas including Health and Environmental Sciences and is a major contributor to a number of epidemiological health-related projects. Education: Masters of Science, Specialization in Statistics, University of Windsor, Ontario.

Dr. Brian Murray is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and is a clinician in neurology and sleep medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He has over 12 years of experience working in the field of sleep medicine and has contributed to dozens of peer-reviewed publications. He is the Vice Chair of the Sunnybrook Research Ethics Board.

Denis Poulin is a manager with 15 years of experience working at Statistics Canada on both business and household surveys. His contribution has centered mostly on primary health care and education surveys.

Dr. Werner Richarz is Chief Acoustical Engineer at Echologics Engineering Limited. He has 40 years of experience working in the field of acoustics and aero-acoustics and has published 24 peer-reviewed papers in this area. Dr. Richarz is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and sits on the Board of Directors of the Green Aviation Research and Development Network (GARDN). Professional Affiliations: Professional Engineer, Ontario.

Jason Tsang is a Senior Acoustics and Vibration Engineer at the Canadian Transportation Agency. He has over 11 years of experience working in the field of architectural acoustics and vibration, environmental noise and vibration, and transportation. He has significant experience developing and implementing long-term environmental noise and vibration monitoring programs. Mr. Tsang has published 2 peer-reviewed papers in these areas. Professional Affiliations: Member Canadian Acoustical Association and licensed as a Professional Engineer in Ontario.

Dr. Paul Villeneuve is an Associate Professor with the Institute of Health: Science and Technology at Carleton University. He also holds appointments within the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and the Ontario Occupational Cancer Research Centre. He has more than 25 years of experience working in the field of epidemiology and biostatistics with a focus on environmental issues including air pollution, radon, and electromagnetic fields. He has published approximately 75 peer-reviewed papers.

Dr. Shelly K. Weiss is a Pediatric Neurologist at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She has been working in the field of sleep medicine for 22 years, and is currently the President of the Canadian Sleep Society. She has published many peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in the area of sleep medicine, and has been a Visiting Professor presenting her research and clinical expertise in sleep medicine nationally and internationally.

Dr. Chantal Whelan is a psychiatrist with 22 years of experience, working predominantly in the community. Her areas of concentration are treatment and rehabilitation for those suffering from persistent and serious mental illnesses and consultation psychiatry to community health centers and agencies. She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

International Members/Advisors

Dr. Roel H. Bakker is senior researcher in Applied Research in the true Health Care branch at the University Medical Centre of Groningen (UMCG) in the Netherlands. He has more than 15 years of experience as a researcher in health care and has published approximately 10 peer-reviewed papers in this area. He has worked on numerous health research projects and surveys during his 15 year career at UMCG.

Dr. Norm Broner is a Practice Leader in Noise, Acoustics and Vibration at Sinclair Knight Merz, a company based in Australia. He has over 35 years of experience working in the field of acoustics, noise and vibration and has published 20 peer-reviewed papers in the area of infrasound and low frequency noise, its effects and assessment. Dr. Broner wrote the Chapter on "Effects of Infrasound, Low Frequency Noise and Ultrasound on People" in the "Handbook of Noise and Vibration Control" published in 2007. He was the Guest Editor for a special edition of Acoustics Australia dealing with wind farm noise. Dr. Broner has been a major contributor to numerous noise impact assessments involving power stations and wind turbine farms. Education: PhD (Psychoacoustics), University of London. Professional Affiliations/Appointments include Australian National Health Medical Research Council Wind Farm & Human Health Reference Group; Fellow, Institution of Engineers Australia; Member of Institute of Acoustics London; Member of Institution of Noise Control Engineers USA; Vice President of Australian Acoustical Society; Member of Acoustical Society of America; Member of Audio Engineering Society

Dr. Sabine Janssen is senior research associate at TNO (Netherlands Organization of Applied Scientific Research) and has 18 years of experience working in the field of health sciences, with 9 years dedicated to noise-induced health effects (7 published peer-reviewed papers). She is an expert on relationships between environmental noise exposure and health effects (including annoyance, sleep disturbance and cognition) advising national and international policy. Dr. Janssen was a primary contributor to the TNO field study 'Traffic noise and sleep' and has derived exposure-response relationships for annoyance by wind turbine noise based on existing data serving as the project leader on numerous projects examining health effects and noise. She has contributed significantly to numerous EU projects on health effects of noise and vibration including a recent co-authorship of a WHO report: "Burden of disease from environmental noise: quantification of healthy life years lost in Europe"(2011). Education: Ph.D, Medical Psychology, Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

Dr. Hideki Tachibana is a professor at the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan. He is the principal investigator of a large-scale epidemiological study being conducted in Japan on wind turbine noise. His contribution to this study is one of sharing experience and providing feedback on measurement and survey instrument procedures.

Dr. Frits (G.P.) van den Berg is a senior advisor in Environmental Health at the GGD Amsterdam (Amsterdam Public Health Service). Since 2002 he has been involved in wind turbine noise issues. His pioneering work on the influence of atmospheric stability on wind turbine noise levels and noise modulation was assigned a Ph.D. in 2006 and also led to the WINDFARM perception project. He has written a large number of reports, conference papers and peer-reviewed articles, most of them about military noise, quiet areas, low frequency noise and wind turbine noise. Education: PhD, Science, Applied Physics, University of Twente, the Netherlands.