Are wind farms a health risk? US scientist identifies ‘wind turbine syndrome’

Noise and vibration coming from large turbines are behind an increase in heart disease, migraine, panic attacks and other health problems, according to research by an American doctor

By Margareta Pagano

출처 : 인디펜던트 Sunday, 2 August 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/are-wind-farms-a-health-risk-us-scientist-identifies-wind-turbine-syndrome-1766254.html

Living too close to wind turbines can cause heart disease, tinnitus, vertigo, panic attacks, migraines and sleep deprivation, according to groundbreaking research to be published later this year by an American doctor.

Dr Nina Pierpont, a leading New York paediatrician, has been studying the symptoms displayed by people living near wind turbines in the US, the UK, Italy, Ireland and Canada for more than five years. Her findings have led her to confirm what she has identified as a new health risk, wind turbine syndrome (WTS). This is the disruption or abnormal stimulation of the inner ear’s vestibular system by turbine infrasound and low-frequency noise, the most distinctive feature of which is a group of symptoms which she calls visceral vibratory vestibular disturbance, or VVVD. They cause problems ranging from internal pulsation, quivering, nervousness, fear, a compulsion to flee, chest tightness and tachycardia – increased heart rate. Turbine noise can also trigger nightmares and other disorders in children as well as harm cognitive development in the young, she claims. However, Dr Pierpont also makes it clear that not all people living close to turbines are susceptible.

Until now, the Government and the wind companies have denied any health risks associated with the powerful noises and vibrations emitted by wind turbines. Acoustic engineers working for the wind energy companies and the Government say that aerodynamic noise produced by turbines pose no risk to health, a view endorsed recently by acousticians at Salford University. They have argued that earlier claims by Dr Pierpont are “imaginary” and are likely to argue that her latest findings are based on a sample too small to be authoritative.

At the heart of Dr Pierpont’s findings is that humans are affected by low-frequency noise and vibrations from wind turbines through their ear bones, rather like fish and other amphibians. That humans have the same sensitivity as fish is based on new discoveries made by scientists at Manchester University and New South Wales last year. This, she claims, overturns the medical orthodoxy of the past 70 years on which acousticians working for wind farms are using to base their noise measurements. “It has been gospel among acousticians for years that if a person can’t hear a sound, it’s too weak for it to be detected or registered by any other part of the body,” she said. “But this is no longer true. Humans can hear through the bones. This is amazing. It would be heretical if it hadn’t been shown in a well-conducted experiment.”

In the UK, Dr Christopher Hanning, founder of the British Sleep Society, who has also backed her research, said: “Dr Pierpont’s detailed recording of the harm caused by wind turbine noise will lay firm foundations for future research. It should be required reading for all planners considering wind farms. Like so many earlier medical pioneers exposing the weaknesses of current orthodoxy, Dr Pierpont has been subject to much denigration and criticism and … it is tribute to her strength of character and conviction that this important book is going to reach publication.”

Dr Pierpont’s thesis, which is to be published in October by K-Selected Books, has been peer reviewed and includes an endorsement from Professor Lord May, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government. Lord May describes her research as “impressive, interesting and important”.

Her new material about the impact of turbine noise on health will be of concern to the Government given its plans for about 4,000 new wind turbines across the country. Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, has made wind power a central part of his new green policy to encourage renewable energy sources. Another 3,000 are planned off-shore.

Drawing on the early work of Dr Amanda Harry, a British GP in Portsmouth who had been alerted by her patients to the potential health risk, Dr Pierpont gathered together 10 further families from around the world who were living near large wind turbines, giving her a cluster of 38 people, from infants to age 75, to explore the pathophysiology of WTS for the case series. Eight of the 10 families she analysed for the study have now moved away from their homes.

In a rare interview, Dr Pierpont, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told The Independent on Sunday: “There is no doubt that my clinical research shows that the infrasonic to ultrasonic noise and vibrations emitted by wind turbines cause the symptoms which I am calling wind turbine syndrome. There are about 12 different health problems associated with WTS and these range from tachycardia, sleep disturbance, headaches, tinnitus, nausea, visual blurring, panic attacks with sensations of internal quivering to more general irritability.

“The wind industry will try to discredit me and disparage me, but I can cope with that. This is not unlike the tobacco industry dismissing health issues from smoking. The wind industry, however, is not composed of clinicians, nor is it made up of people suffering from wind turbines.” The IoS has a copy of the confidential manuscript which is exhaustive in its research protocol and detailed case series, drawing on the work of leading otolaryngologists and neurotologists – ear, nose and throat clinical specialists.

Some of the earliest research into the impact of low-frequency noise and vibrations was undertaken by Portuguese doctors studying the effects on military and civil personnel flying at high altitudes and at supersonic speed. They found that this exposure may also cause the rare illness, vibroacoustic disorder or VAD, which causes changes to the structure of certain organs such as the heart and lungs and may well be caused by vibrations from turbines. Another powerful side effect of turbines is the impact which the light thrown off the blades – known as flicker – has on people who suffer from migraines and epilepsy.

Campaigners have consistently argued that much research hitherto has been based on written complaints to environmental health officers and manufacturers, not on science-based research. But in Denmark, Germany and France, governments are moving towards building new wind farms off-shore because of concern over the potential health and environmental risks. In the UK there are no such controls, and a growing number of lobbyists, noise experts and government officials are also beginning to query the statutory noise levels being given to councils when deciding on planning applications from wind farm manufacturers. Lobbyists claim a new method of measuring is needed.

Dr Pierpont, who has funded all the research herself and is independent of any organisation, recommends at least a 2km set-back distance between potential wind turbines and people’s homes, said: “It is irresponsible of the wind turbine companies – and governments – to continue building wind turbines so close to where people live until there has been a proper epidemiological investigation of the full impact on human health.

“What I have shown in my research is that many people – not all – who have been living close to a wind turbine running near their homes display a range of health illnesses and that when they move away, many of these problems also go away.”

A breakthrough into understanding more of the impact of vibrations came last year, she said, when scientists at Manchester University and Prince of Wales Clinical School and Medical Research Institute in Sydney showed that the normal human vestibular system has a fish or frog-like sensitivity to low-frequency vibration. This was a turning point in understanding the nature of the problem, Dr Pierpont added, because it overturns the orthodoxy of the current way of measuring noise. “It is clear from the new evidence that the methods being used by acousticians goes back to research first carried out in the 1930s and is now outdated.”

Dr Pierpont added that the wind turbine companies constantly argue that the health problems are “imaginary, psychosomatic or malingering”. But she said their claims are “rubbish” and that medical evidence supports that the reported symptoms are real.

Case study: ‘My husband had pneumonia, my father-in-law had a heart attack. Nobody was ill before’

Jane Davis, 53, a retired NHS manager, and her husband, Julian, 44, a farmer, lived in Spalding, Lincolnshire, until the noise of a wind farm 930m away forced them to leave

“People describe the noise as like an aeroplane that never arrives. My husband developed pneumonia very quickly after the turbines went up, having never had chest problems before. We suffer constant headaches and ear nuisance. My mother-in-law developed pneumonia and my husband developed atrial fibrillation – a rapid heartbeat. He had no pre-existing heart disease. Our blood pressure has gone up. My father-in-law has suffered a heart attack, tinnitus and marked hearing loss.

” I understand this can be regarded as a coincidence, but nobody was ill before 2006.”

The defence: ‘Wind turbines are quiet and safe’

The British Wind Energy Association, UK’s biggest renewable energy trade association, said last night: “One of the first things first-time visitors to wind farms usually say is that they are surprised how quiet the turbines are.

“To put things in context: the London Borough of Westminster registered around 300,000 noise complaints from residents in 2008, none from wind turbines. The total number of noise complaints to local councils across the country runs into millions.

“In contrast, an independent study on wind farms and noise in 2007 found only four complaints from about 2,000 turbines in the country, three of which were resolved by the time the report was published.

“Wind turbines are quiet, safe and sustainable. It is not surprising that, according to a DTI report, 94 per cent of people who live near wind turbines are in favour of them. There is no scientific research to suggest that wind turbines are in any way harmful, and even many of the detractors of wind energy are honest enough to admit this.

“Noise from wind farms is a non-problem, and we need to move away from this unproductive and unscientific debate, and focus on our targets on reducing carbon emissions.”

50여기의 풍차가 설치되어 풍력발전소를 운영하고 있는 일본의 에히메(愛媛) 현의 이카타(伊方) 마을 주민들이 두통과 이명(耳鳴), 어지럼증을 호소하고 있다는 소식(아래 뉴스 참조)을 듣고 풍력발전소가 인간과 동물의 건강에 끼치는 영향에 대해서 자료를 찾아보았습니다.

허전압(Stray Voltage)에 의한 인간과 동물의 건강상 위해에 대해서는 많은 연구가 이루어지지 않은 상황이라고 하는데요… 풍력발전을 위한 풍차 터빈이 설치된 젖소 농장에서 암이 발생하고, 우유 생산량이 줄어들고, 수면장애, 두통, 설사, 빈뇨, 배란 장애, 코피 등의 증상이 나타났다는 보고가 있습니다.

친환경 녹색성장이라는 홍보문구에 가려진 풍력발전의 어두운 면에 대해 좀 더 많은 연구와 관심을 기울여야 할 것 같습니다.

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Health Effects of Wind Power Generation

출처 : http://wind.netwny.com/issues/health_risks_of_wind_power.html

There are a variety of potential health risks to community members when large scale wind projects are installed. These risks are inherent and many of them simply can’t be mitigated.

Health Risks Due to Stray Voltage

The effects of stray voltage on humans and other living animals has not been well studied but anecdotal evidence indicates and common sense indicate that being around intense electro-magnetic fields for long periods of time could not be good for ones health or the health of livestock and other animals. According to a post installation survey of industrial wind turbines in Lincoln Township WI, at least four farms are fighting herd decline due to diseases that weren’t present prior to the installation of the wind power facility. One farmer – Scott Srnka, who was initially in favour of the wind project in Lincoln Township said to the Town Board:

“Thirteen turbines were proposed for my land, but we decided to wait. Thank goodness we did or we’d be out of farming.” (Source: Excerpts from the Final Report of the Township of Lincoln – WIND TURBINE MORATORIUM COMMITTEE)

And from the same report:

“Within a few months in the first year after the turbines were erected, 8 cows died of cancer. No previous cases of cancer were detected ever before in the Srnka herd, which is a closed herd, according to Mr. Srnka.” (Mr. Srnka’s dairy herd was previously an award winning herd)

“Mr. Srnka has traced the decline of milk production and increase of cancer and deformities in his formerly award-winning herd to an increase of electrical pollution on his farm after turbine construction. He also has seen the same chronic symptoms that are in his herd in his family.”

These symptoms include

• sleep loss
  
• diarrhea
  
• headaches
  
• frequent urination
  
• menstrual problems
  
• bloody noses: Mr. Srnka had cows bleed to death from uncontrollable bleeding from the nostrils
  
• inability to conceive

The risk of stray voltage from the wind turbines in Lincoln Township is causing people to rethink their plans to have children. This risk can be mitigated with thorough analysis of the electrical system associated with the wind turbines but to date, nothing has been done.

Flicker Induced Health Risks

There are two distinct type of flicker associated with wind turbines. Shadow flicker arises as the shadow of the moving turbine blades moves across the ground. This type of flicker is most common when the sun is at a low angle in the sky, such as mornings and evenings in the summer and just about any time in the winter. These shadows can extend great distances from the base of the turbine, particularly when the shadow is downhill from the turbines such as would be the case in Ripley and Westfield. The second typ of flicker that can arise from wind turbins is strobing. Strobing occurs when turbine blades catche the sun and reflect it back towards the viewer. Since a turbine blade will be in the position where this reflection takes place up to 60 times per minute (20RPM X 3 blades) the effect is like a strobe light. Strobing can occur at any time of day and can happen anywhere the turbines can be seen – especially from the south, east and west.

The most severe, though by no means the only health risk associated with shadow flicker and strobing is seizure. It is a known fact that flickering or strobing light can cause seizure in susceptible individuals. Other risks due to flicker and strobing include headache, loss of balance, nausea and disorientation. Having a seizure is a severe medical issue but if that seizure, or for that matter disorientation, were to take place while a person was driving a car or operating farm equipment, it could be devastating to that individual and family.

Mommy won’t be coming home because those things on the hill
caused a seizure and she crashed her car.

Industrial wind turbine flicker is also a general distraction. From the section of the Lincoln Township report inviting comments about shadows from the blades: “They catch my eye and I look at them instead of the road. They are dangerous.”

Noise Induced Health Risks

Potential health effects from constant exposure to noise run a wide gamut. At high levels, hearing loss can occur but constant exposure to noise at levels expected from industrial wind turbines would more likely result in anxiety, nervousness and a general lack of a sense of well being, – especially in those who are sensitive. Noise from wind turbines can also affect both the ability to sleep (e.g. not being able to fall asleep or waking during sleep) and sleep patterns (e.g. quality of sleep). A person whose sleep patterns are disrupted may sleep through the night yet not feel rested in the morning. This can pose dangers in the operation of cars and equipment.

Low Frequency Noise Induced Health Risks

Low frequency noise was used as an instrument of torture by the Germans during World War II. This type of noise is inaudible yet its presence can cause emotional problems even stronger than audible noise. Symptoms of exposure to low frequency noise include severe anxiety, nervousness, migraines, dizziness and sleep problems.. The problem here is that there is nothing that can be readily identified as the source of the anxiety without specialized test equipment. The article Wind farms ‘make people sick who live up to a mile away’ from the Daily Telegraph describes the impact of low frequency noise on residents near an industrial wind power installation. According to Dr. Amanda Harry, the researcher who looked into this effect, of 14 people that lived near the industrial wind power facility, only 1 was unaffected.

Industrial Wind Power is a danger to the health and well being of this community.

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