SURVEY FINDS HIGH RATE OF WIND TURBINE SYNDROME FROM NEWER TURBINE MODELS

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 By Miriam Raftery

March 10, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – With two new wind farms proposed for our region and another already in operation, evaluating potential health impacts is important. 
 
A survey was conducted on wind farm noise as part of a Master’s dissertation by Zhenhua Wang, a graduate student in Geography, Environment and Population at the University of Adelaide, Australia. The results show that 70% of respondents living up to 5 kilometers away report being negatively affected by wind turbine noise, with more than 50% of them "very or moderately negatively affected". This is considerably higher than what was found in previous studies conducted in Europe. 

The survey was made in the vicinity of the Waterloo wind farm, South Australia, which is composed of 37 Vestas V90 3 MW turbines stretching over 18 km (1). These mega turbines are reported to be emitting more low frequency noise (LFN) than smaller models, and this causes more people to be affected, and over greater distances, by the usual symptoms of the Wind Turbine Syndrome (WTS): insomnia, headaches, nausea, stress, poor ability to concentrate, irritability, etc, leading to poorer health and a reduced immunity to illness.

 
The wind industry has consistently downplayed concerns over health issues, disputing findings such as those made by Dr. Nina Pierpont in her book and peer-reviewed report, Wind Turbine Syndrome.  Dr. Pierpont received her medical degree from John Hopkins University and holds a PhD from Princeton University.
 
However some jurisdictions are enacting regulations to protect residents as evidence mounts to suggest negative health impacts are a dark side of going green through wind energy.
 
The Danish government recognized recently that LFN is an aggravating component in the noise that affects wind farm neighbors. This prompted their issuing regulations that limit low-frequency noise levels inside homes to 20 dB(A). Unfortunately, as denounced by Professor Henrik Moller, they manipulated the calculation parameters so as to allow LFN inside homes to actually reach 30 dB(A) in 30% of cases. “Hardly anyone would accept 30 dB(A) in their homes at night”, wrote the Professor last month (2).  
 
A summary of the Australian survey has been published (3), but the full Masters dissertation has not been made available to the public. In the interest of public health, the European Platform against Windfarms (EPAW) and the North-American Platform against Windpower (NA-PAW), have asked the University of Adelaide to release this important document.
 
A neighbor of the Waterloo wind farm, Mr Andreas Marciniak, wrote to a local newspaper last week: "Do you think it's funny that at my age I had to move to Adelaide into my Mother’s shed and my brother had to move to Hamilton into a caravan with no water or electricity?" Both Mr Marciniak and his brother have been advised by their treating doctors, including a cardiologist, to leave their homes and not return when the wind turbines are turning. 
 
How many people will be forced to abandon their homes before governments pay attention, wonder the thousands of wind farm victims represented by EPAW and NAPAW. "It'll take time to gather enough money for a big lawsuit", says Sherri Lange, of NAPAW. "But time is on our side: victim numbers are increasing steadily."
 
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Comments

Wind turbines don't make people sick

17 major studies world-wide, and thousands of smaller studies, peer reviewed and conducted according to best practices, have cleared wind turbines of any connection to health issues.

They all found that a small subset of people near wind turbines find the noise annoying, a subset of those find it stressful, and a subset of those were having trouble sleeping. However, those people would probably have been kept awake by bird cannons, traffic noise, dogs barking or tractors at dawn.

As the issue is only minor environmental noise, the solution is obvious. People affected should do what millions of people around the world do: buy white noise generators (less than $30), iPhone white-noise apps ($0.99), earplugs (cents), close their windows (free) or install noise muffling blinds.

There are about 165,000 wind turbines generating clean, safe, carbon-free electricity world-wide today. They are offsetting massive amounts of generation that would have had to come from expensive, polluting and carbon-rich fossil fuels. This is improving the health of people world-wide.

http://www.quora.com/Wind-Power/What-might-cause-people-who-live-near-wi...

Absolute bologna. Wind turbines have sickened many people.

We'll have a story soon.  There are cases around the world of people so sick they have been forced to move away from their homes, in some cases into sheds or relatives' homes.  There are several causes but the issues are far more than "annoying."  Besides audible noise, the greater danger may lie in infrasound-low frequency sounds and also there are health hazards posed by dirty energy off lines as well as ground currents.  These things have been known to cause sleeplessness, headaches, ear pain and other body pain, heart palpitations, just in the short term and more.  Long term impacts from some of these issues can include leukemia in children. Livestock have shown higher rates of miscarriage and deaths near turbines in some areas.  And much more. There are peer-reviewed studies on infrasound and these other issues, for anyone who bothers to google this and go to sites not funded by the wind industry.  I have personally had emails from people around the world living near turbines and their stories are heart breaking.  It is wrong to impose these things on people and not even require the wind industry to take responsibility for the damage being done to health, lives and property values.  Here in our local area I am aware of some neighbors of a wind farm suffering some health effects. It's happening around the world - in Canada, Europe, Australia, and towns across America.  Setbacks should be a couple of miles if they are built at all, and if health impacts occur and infrasound or dirty energy or ground currents can be detected in those homes, the turbines should be shut down and wind companies held responsible. We don't even know the long term impacts of living near these things for a lifetime, as the industry isn't old enough.

Impacts From Infrasound Are Real

One of the pioneers in infrasonic research was French scientist Vladimir Gavreau, born in Russia as Vladimir Gavronsky. His interest in infrasonic waves first came about in his lab during the 1960s where he and his lab assistants experienced pain in the ear drums and shaking lab equipment, but no audible sound was picked up on his microphones. He concluded it was infrasound and soon got to work preparing tests in the labs. One of his experiments was an infrasonic whistle that some say has led to a line of research that has military applications.
Depending on the pitch, infrasound can cause physical pressure, fear, disorientation, negative physical and mental symptoms, explode matter, incapacitate, and kill. For example, in World War II, Nazi propaganda engineers used infrasound to stir up anger in the large crowds that had gathered to hear Hitler. The result was a nation filled with anger and hatred.

Studies show the different ways in which infrasound affects the human body. As infrasound pitches, or cycles per second, decrease, deadly effects on the body increase. Infrasound disrupts the normal functioning of the middle and inner ear, leading to nausea, imbalance, impaired equilibrium, immobilization, and disorientation. Exposure to even mild doses of infrasound can lead to illness. Increased intensities of infrasound can result in death.

I would also like to add that after reading two of the comments, I think infrasound may also cause chronic stupidity.

Infrasound propoganda

Wiegand are you trying to suggest some kind of link between this information and wind turbines? Are you trying to say that wind turbines are a Nazi propoganda war machine? What exactly is it you are trying to say? Like I said in my first comment, when these claims are tracked down the supporting info usually looses credibility very quickly. You have proven my point!

Here is a link to a real study of infrasound from wind turbines:

http://www.pacifichydro.com.au/english/information-centre/wind-market/no...

The study measured infrasound levels of 66 dB(G) at just 100m from an operating wind farm and 62 dB (G) at the same location with all the wind turbines turned off. At just a few hundered feet infrasound from wind turbines can be detected but it's barely discernible above ambient infrasound. You'd probably be more likely to suffer health effects from infrasound generated by your own heartbeat than a wind turbine!

Rigged Reports are a dime a dozen

So this is a real independent study on infrasound. You will have to do a lot better. If you start digging you will see that it was sponsored by the wind/banking industry. Readers have to realize that the way that these studies are rigged, are with their methodology. These studies are designed to deceive and not really look at the problem. The industry has been doing this for 28 years. I see this fraud on a daily basis. I want to point out to readers that there is not one quote on the site from a person living with the impacts of infrasound.

If anyone is interested they can do an internet search and read the testimony given to the Australian Senate Inquiry on ‘The Social and Economic Impacts of Rural Wind Farms’. This Senate inquiry was given plenty of evidence from ordinary citizens suffering from wind turbine produced infrasound.

None of this testimony was discussed on the internet link promoting wind industry propaganda. Instead all this testimony is side stepped with a lawyer like statement saying "was no direct link between adverse health effects and wind turbines". But there was a direct link, it was given by those testifying. This web site also suggests that all these good people who took their own time and testified Australian Senate for zero compensation, were not telling the truth. In glaring contrast all those involved with a different opinion that oppose this impact, were all are making a hefty paychecks. Below is a small bit of their testimony from the Australian Senate Inquiry.

The hearing started with former Waubra residents who say they've moved to Ballarat because wind turbines have made them ill.

An emotional Carl and Samantha Stepnell both broke down as they told the Senate committee that symptoms such as headaches, ear pressure, nausea and sleep deprivation started when Waubra Wind Farm began operating.

"We don't make up health problems," Samantha says.

"The hardest decision we've ever made was to walk away from our family home."

She says the turbines have been built too close to houses.

"I don't know the whole technical side of things, all I know is how it's affected me and my health. There obviously needs to be more studies done."

Wind industry studies are designed to make this type of evidence go away, just like the millions of birds and bats that are killed in the US every year. Read my next two part article and you will see how the industry wiped away more than 50,000 bird deaths with a report with rigged methodology.

Impacts From Infrasound Are Real

The impacts caused by the infrasound produced from wind turbines is real. It was well known to the California Energy Commission as far back as 1985. Since then it has been covered up just like the mass slaughter to all birds has been covered up. I have sent the author, Miriam Raftery, the proof. Corrupt Studies have always been the norm for this industry. They just go out and find a whore with a degree to construct a study for a desired outcome. Worldwide the tide is turning against the wind industry and fleeced taxpayers are telling them to go to hell. It is because from the very beginning they have had to prop up their product with lies. Their 28 year trail of fraud is finally catching up with them.

Still no evidence of 'Wind Turbine Syndrome'

Is this supposed to be some kind of proof of so called 'Wind Turbine Syndrome'? All this report says is that there is noise emitted by turbines that have received complaints. No one denies that wind turbines emit audible noise and this must be dealt with appropriately to protect residents amenity. But we are talking about normal audible noise. This article does not mention infrasound (noise at a frequency so low you cannot here it) at all, which is the supposed cause of the mysterious 'Wind Turbine Syndrome'. Wind Turbine Syndrome still sounds like hocus pocus to me.

Jim, is that study online? Please post the link here

so everyone can see.  My computer crashed and I lost every file open....If you have it handy that would be helpful.

I can say that I have received mail from around the world regarding wind farms, and much of it has been from people living near them who claim to have problems.  About 3 or 4 years ago we interviewed some residents living near a relatively small wind farm locally and some of them claimed to have health problems that we now know would be consistent with Wind Turbin Syndrome.

What's needed is a large multi-center study at the federal level. They should be interviewing everyone who lives near wind farms, and including clinical tests where possible, to determine the magnitude of the issue instead of acting like every one of the many people with complaints must all be crazy.  Science is needed here.  Do the problems get worse the closer one lives to the wind turbines. Is there a "safe" distance and if so, what is it? 

If a safe distance is determined and then a wind farm is sited closer, then people should be paid for their property losses and given the opportunity to move.  This is a potential hidden cost that has not been calculated into the cost of wind farms, just as the cost of asthma from coal emissions isn't counted when the coal industry boasts of cheap coal costs.  We need true-cost pricing that includes any reasonably anticipated health impacts and also bird kills--another thing that isn't being properly documented.  

I asked the federal government for bird kill records on a local wind farm and was told they don't have any. That's wrong. How can we determine the true cost if we don't even know how many birds are being klled?

Bird Kills and Transparency

The State and Federal Government know exactly how bad the bird kill problem is at wind farms. The truth is wind industry and all of them are working as one. That is why they do not have the records and that is the main reason that not a single wind mortality study has ever been properly conducted in America.

No such thing as Wind Turbine Syndrome

I would like to note that the Australian study mentioned in this article (and reported by wind watch) is a summary only of a minor thesis which shows no more than self-reported results from residents near a wind farm that don't like it. In other words there is no link between this study and supposed "Wind Turbine Syndrome".

When asked for a full copy of the study the University distanced itself from the work stating that "This was entirely the student’s own project and not undertaken for or on behalf of the University". Furthermore the university has stated that mention of the names of university staff on websites in relation to the project has been without consent, and that "The student has advised that any website publication of his summary report has occurred without his consent".

Unfortunately this is very typical of most anti-wind farm material. When you track down the source of information the credibility often disappears quickly.

Anti-Wind Material

I have news for you, the anti-wind material is just getting started.