★What might cause people who live near wind turbines to get sick?
In Canada, the U.S. and Great Britain, people have reported similar symptoms including headaches, ringing ears, trouble sleeping, loss of focus, etc. after wind-turbines were built close to their homes.
Some have blamed audible sound, inaudible sound, 'dirty electricity' and psychosomatic distress.
What scientific evidence best explains this phenomena?
Some have blamed audible sound, inaudible sound, 'dirty electricity' and psychosomatic distress.
What scientific evidence best explains this phenomena?
3 Answers
Note: up-to-date information this subject is maintained here: Wind farms don't make people sick, so why the complaints?
Summary: The best scientific evidence indicates that anti-wind lobbyists raise health fears which increase massively the number of people living near wind turbine farms who get stress-related illnesses due to noise-related annoyance.
1. Major independent health studies find no causative correlation between wind turbines and negative health impacts
A major independent study [1] was commissioned and performed by Public Health Officers of Ontario. The study reviewed all available literature on wind health effects and associated disciplines including epidemiology and noise safety. The study concluded that some people living near wind turbines experienced heightened stress levels which caused related stress issues and that these issues had no physical basis.
The Ontario government went further and had additional assessments and reviews [8] done recently:
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection just released a study by independent experts that reached identical conclusions:
And this:
And finally this:
These findings exactly mirror the results of a study [2] commissioned by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA). This study was performed by an independent panel of experts including Doctors, Ph.Ds and scientists who were experts in the fields associated with ailments associated with wind turbines. The study reviewed all available literature on wind turbines, noise health impacts, infrasound and reported health impacts of wind turbines. This study concluded that some people living near wind turbines found their presence stressful, and identified stress-related ailments unrelated to any physical cause.
2. 'Wind turbine syndrome' is a psychogenic illness without organic causes
In epidemiology and public health, there are concepts of psychogenic and sociogenic illnesses:
Public health expert Dr. Simon Chapman, Ph.D. [10] and his team have done and are continuing to perform research that shows that wind turbine-related ailments are almost certainly psychogenic in nature. This excellent presentation [11] defines and presents examples of other psychogenic and sociogenic illnesses historical and current, assesses the 17 health studies world-wide [19] that found no causative correlation between wind turbines and health impacts and lists the over 200 ailments and negative impacts currently attributed to wind turbines worldwide by anti-wind campaigners and complainants.
The 200+ unique ailments blamed on wind farms would be entertaining reading -- vibrating lips at 10 km for example --, if it weren't so disturbing that so many people were willing to ascribe so many completed unrelated complaints to wind turbines. [18]
3. Health studies supporting 'wind turbine syndrome' are deeply flawed
As most wind farm opponents tend to rapidly find material by authors such as Dr. Nina Pierpoint on "wind turbine syndrome" [4] , they inject statements about negative health impacts in local peoples' minds. These tend to amplify stress related to changes in their physical environment and concerns over real estate values. Note that Dr. Pierpoint's sample size was 23 direct phone interviews from people self-identified as suffering negative health impacts due to wind and assertions by those on the health impacts on an addition 15 people. From this skewed sample of 38, Dr. Pierpoint generated 60+ pages of charts and graphs on over a dozen symptoms associated with wind turbines. In other words, bogus statistics from what was at best anecdotal information from a self-selected sample. Similar studies have been performed with equally suspect methodologies that specifically queried individuals with a list of purported symptoms of "wind turbine syndrome" in egregious breaches of study design.[16]
4. People are more annoyed by noise if they can see the wind turbine and aren't getting any money from it
It is very worth noting the findings [5], [6] of Drs. Frits van den Berg and Eja Pederson, Dutch wind energy impacts researchers. In one analysis, they had several hundred people answer a survey on noise annoyance due to wind, and included several other questions. They correlated the results and found that annoyance due to wind noise was very highly correlated to two factors: whether the person could see the wind turbine and whether the person was receiving any economic benefit from the wind turbine. In other words, people tended to find turbines that they could see noisier and more annoying than turbines that they couldn't see, and were annoyed if their neighbours were making money from them and they weren't. In a related study, they assessed the impacts of annoyance due to wind on people and found that it increased stress leading in some cases to loss of sleep and that in addition to the factors above, the unique characteristics of wind turbine noise made it more annoying to some people. This strongly supports the stress related hypothesis for health impacts and is worth understanding for wind turbine regulatory policy and wind turbine community engagement.
5. People who dislike wind and have negative personality traits report many more symptoms than more positive people
A UK study on people with negatively oriented personalities and their perception of wind noise and reporting of negative health impacts has been published.[17] A related study is under peer-review in ANZ.
The studies build upon work already done around perception of noise and negatively oriented personality traits. The studies take into account the work done by Peders0n et al around wind farm noise annoyance and anecdotal reports of wind-related symptoms reported by Pierpont.
The UK study modelled actual noise in dwellings using industry standard approaches. The study surveyed residents within three ranges of actual noise near the wind turbines. The study included questions from standard and proven questionnaires on negatively oriented personality traits.
The study found:
1. No correlation between actual noise and reported symptoms.
2. Perception of noise was strongly related to negative attitudes to wind turbines, much more so than actual noise from wind turbines.
3. A strong correlation between perception of noise and reported symptoms.
4. A strong correlation between negatively oriented personality traits and reported symptoms.
5. No relationship between attitude to wind turbines and actual noise; those who really could hear them more weren't disposed to dislike them more.
These two graphs from the published, peer-reviewed UK study show the very strong correlation between negatively oriented personality traits and both perception of noise and reporting of symptoms. The simple way to read these is that the solid black line are people with negative traits, and the dotted line are people without those negative traits. The vertical axis is reported symptoms. The horizontal axis is perception of noise from the wind turbines (not actual noise).
When the ANZ study is published, I will include its findings.
6. Noise experienced by rural dwellers near wind turbines is much quieter than every urban dweller experiences all the time
It is worth noting that the World Health Organization has published community guidelines on noise [7] intended to reduce health impacts. These guidelines call for 35 dba in bedrooms at night for best sleeping and have numerous other categories for schools etc. Anti-wind advocates point out that most wind turbine guidelines and regulations such as Ontario's Regulation 359/09 call for 40 dba in inhabited homes near wind turbines (translating into a 1500 m setback for more than one large wind turbine in the majority of cases) and use this as an argument against wind farm placement. Of course, wind turbine noise annoyance impacts a very small percentage of any populace mostly determined by psychological traits as shown above, and what is more interesting about the WHO guidelines is that no one living in a town of larger than 10,000 people has living conditions that adhere to them due to traffic noise, industrial noise, air traffic and the necessary machinery of cities. In summary, rural dwellers exposed to wind turbine noise are exposed to a much lower level of all forms of noise than city dwellers, yet the vast majority of city dwellers do not suffer significant adverse health effects or find it stressful. Those who do mitigate the impact with the use of sound proofing and white noise generators, and find other ways to subsume the stress.
7. If wind turbine noise truly was causing loss of sleep, there are simple, cheap interventions
If those concerned with wind turbine noise were truly focussed on health impacts, they would be promoting low-cost, effective noise annoyance reduction measures.
All of these techniques are in use today in households around the world to deal with traffic noise, sirens, airplane noise, noisy neighbours, nearby industrial works, streetcars, bird cannons and dawn tractor startups. Urban and rural dwellers depend on them to ensure a comfortable and uninterrupted sleep.
By comparison, increasing setbacks of wind turbines by hundreds of meters is an extraordinary and societally expensive measure.
That those concerned with health impacts only suggested interventions are greater setbacks for or complete elimination of wind turbines betrays their agenda. Their solution is vastly out of proportion to the problem.
References:
[1] The Potential Health Impact of Wind Turbines, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, May 20, 2010, http://health.gov.on.ca/e
[2] http://www.canwea.ca/pdf/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/w
[4] Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Report on a Natural Experiment, Nina Pierpont, K Selected Books, 2009, Amazon.com: Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Report on a Natural Experiment (9780984182701): Nina Pierpont: Books
[5] http://umcg.wewi.eldoc.ub
[6] Noise annoyance from wind turbines - a review, Eja Pedersen, Högskolan i Halmstad, Report 5308, August 2003, http://www.naturvardsverk
[7] http://www.euro.who.int/e
[8] http://news.ontario.ca/en
[9] Wind Turbine Health Impact Study: Report of the Independent Expert Panel, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Updated April 2012, http://www.mass.gov/dep/e
[10] http://www.amazon.com/Sim
[11] http://tobacco.health.usy
[12] http://simplynoise.com/
[13] http://www.earplugstore.c
[14] http://www.helpguide.org/
[15] http://www.blindschalet.c
[16] "Wind turbine syndrome" is more wind than syndrome
[17] The influence of negative oriented personality traits on the effects of wind turbine noise, Jennifer Taylora, Carol Eastwicka, Robin Wilsonb, Claire Lawrencec, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 54, Issue 3, February 2013, Pages 338–343, http://www.sciencedirect.
[18] http://tobacco.health.usy
[19] Full list of all Wind Health Reviews maintained by Professor Simon Chapman, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, http://tobacco.health.usy
[20] Wind Turbines, Noise and Health, February 2007, Dr Amanda Harry http://M.B.Ch.B. P.G.Dip.E.N.T., http://www.flat-group.co.
[21] Effects of industrial wind turbine noise on sleep and health, Michael A Nissenbaum, Jeffery J Aramini, Christopher D Hanning, Noise and Health, 2012
Additional Summaries and References:
Summary: The best scientific evidence indicates that anti-wind lobbyists raise health fears which increase massively the number of people living near wind turbine farms who get stress-related illnesses due to noise-related annoyance.
- 17 major independent health studies all clear wind turbines of negative health impacts
- Ailments are likely psychogenic in nature, not organic.
- Studies finding negative health impacts are flawed and performed by biased researchers.
- People are more annoyed by wind noise if they can see a wind turbine and aren't getting any money from its operation.
- People with negative atttitudes to wind and negative personalities in general report many more symptoms than people with positive attitudes and personalities.
- If there is a noise problem, interventions such as white-noise generators and ear plugs are extremely cheap and practical, yet negative studies suggest radical changes to policy and wind-turbine siting instead.
1. Major independent health studies find no causative correlation between wind turbines and negative health impacts
A major independent study [1] was commissioned and performed by Public Health Officers of Ontario. The study reviewed all available literature on wind health effects and associated disciplines including epidemiology and noise safety. The study concluded that some people living near wind turbines experienced heightened stress levels which caused related stress issues and that these issues had no physical basis.
The review concludes that while some people living near wind turbines report symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, and sleep disturbance, the scientific evidence available to date does not demonstrate a direct causal link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects. The sound level from wind turbines at common residential setbacks is not sufficient to cause hearing impairment or other direct health effects, although some people may find it annoying.
The Ontario government went further and had additional assessments and reviews [8] done recently:
An expert report has concluded there is no direct health risk from wind turbine sound at Ontario's regulated setback distance.
The study analyzed the latest findings on low frequency noise and infrasound from wind turbines. In addition, three experts in the field of noise, vibration and acoustics reviewed and validated the report.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection just released a study by independent experts that reached identical conclusions:
There is no evidence for a set of health effects, from exposure to wind turbines that could be characterized as a "Wind Turbine Syndrome.
And this:
None of the limited epidemiological evidence reviewed suggests an association between noise from wind turbines and pain and stiffness, diabetes, high blood pressure, tinnitus, hearing impairment, cardiovascular disease, and headache/migraine
And finally this:
Whether annoyance from wind turbines leads to sleep issues or stress has not been sufficiently quantified
These findings exactly mirror the results of a study [2] commissioned by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA). This study was performed by an independent panel of experts including Doctors, Ph.Ds and scientists who were experts in the fields associated with ailments associated with wind turbines. The study reviewed all available literature on wind turbines, noise health impacts, infrasound and reported health impacts of wind turbines. This study concluded that some people living near wind turbines found their presence stressful, and identified stress-related ailments unrelated to any physical cause.
Following review, analysis, and discussion, the panel reached agreement on three key points:
• There is nothing unique about the sounds and vibrations emitted by wind turbines.
• The body of accumulated knowledge about sound and health is substantial.
• The body of accumulated knowledge provides no evidence that the audible or subaudible sounds emitted by wind turbines have any direct adverse physiological effects.
2. 'Wind turbine syndrome' is a psychogenic illness without organic causes
In epidemiology and public health, there are concepts of psychogenic and sociogenic illnesses:
- Psychogenic illness: A constellation of symptoms suggestive of organic illness, but without an identifiable cause, that occurs between two or more people who share beliefs about those symptoms
- Sociogenic illness: a medical condition that occurs to multiple individuals within a social group, but does not seem to have a common organic cause.
Public health expert Dr. Simon Chapman, Ph.D. [10] and his team have done and are continuing to perform research that shows that wind turbine-related ailments are almost certainly psychogenic in nature. This excellent presentation [11] defines and presents examples of other psychogenic and sociogenic illnesses historical and current, assesses the 17 health studies world-wide [19] that found no causative correlation between wind turbines and health impacts and lists the over 200 ailments and negative impacts currently attributed to wind turbines worldwide by anti-wind campaigners and complainants.
Why is 'wind turbine syndrome' most likely to be psychogenic?
17 Reviews of Evidence (2002‐2012) – all negative
- MANY symptoms & diseases attributed
- Reports confined to webpages of opponents
- Zero entries in PubMed for “wind turbine syndrome”
The 200+ unique ailments blamed on wind farms would be entertaining reading -- vibrating lips at 10 km for example --, if it weren't so disturbing that so many people were willing to ascribe so many completed unrelated complaints to wind turbines. [18]
3. Health studies supporting 'wind turbine syndrome' are deeply flawed
As most wind farm opponents tend to rapidly find material by authors such as Dr. Nina Pierpoint on "wind turbine syndrome" [4] , they inject statements about negative health impacts in local peoples' minds. These tend to amplify stress related to changes in their physical environment and concerns over real estate values. Note that Dr. Pierpoint's sample size was 23 direct phone interviews from people self-identified as suffering negative health impacts due to wind and assertions by those on the health impacts on an addition 15 people. From this skewed sample of 38, Dr. Pierpoint generated 60+ pages of charts and graphs on over a dozen symptoms associated with wind turbines. In other words, bogus statistics from what was at best anecdotal information from a self-selected sample. Similar studies have been performed with equally suspect methodologies that specifically queried individuals with a list of purported symptoms of "wind turbine syndrome" in egregious breaches of study design.[16]
4. People are more annoyed by noise if they can see the wind turbine and aren't getting any money from it
It is very worth noting the findings [5], [6] of Drs. Frits van den Berg and Eja Pederson, Dutch wind energy impacts researchers. In one analysis, they had several hundred people answer a survey on noise annoyance due to wind, and included several other questions. They correlated the results and found that annoyance due to wind noise was very highly correlated to two factors: whether the person could see the wind turbine and whether the person was receiving any economic benefit from the wind turbine. In other words, people tended to find turbines that they could see noisier and more annoying than turbines that they couldn't see, and were annoyed if their neighbours were making money from them and they weren't. In a related study, they assessed the impacts of annoyance due to wind on people and found that it increased stress leading in some cases to loss of sleep and that in addition to the factors above, the unique characteristics of wind turbine noise made it more annoying to some people. This strongly supports the stress related hypothesis for health impacts and is worth understanding for wind turbine regulatory policy and wind turbine community engagement.
5. People who dislike wind and have negative personality traits report many more symptoms than more positive people
A UK study on people with negatively oriented personalities and their perception of wind noise and reporting of negative health impacts has been published.[17] A related study is under peer-review in ANZ.
The studies build upon work already done around perception of noise and negatively oriented personality traits. The studies take into account the work done by Peders0n et al around wind farm noise annoyance and anecdotal reports of wind-related symptoms reported by Pierpont.
The UK study modelled actual noise in dwellings using industry standard approaches. The study surveyed residents within three ranges of actual noise near the wind turbines. The study included questions from standard and proven questionnaires on negatively oriented personality traits.
The study found:
1. No correlation between actual noise and reported symptoms.
2. Perception of noise was strongly related to negative attitudes to wind turbines, much more so than actual noise from wind turbines.
3. A strong correlation between perception of noise and reported symptoms.
4. A strong correlation between negatively oriented personality traits and reported symptoms.
5. No relationship between attitude to wind turbines and actual noise; those who really could hear them more weren't disposed to dislike them more.
These two graphs from the published, peer-reviewed UK study show the very strong correlation between negatively oriented personality traits and both perception of noise and reporting of symptoms. The simple way to read these is that the solid black line are people with negative traits, and the dotted line are people without those negative traits. The vertical axis is reported symptoms. The horizontal axis is perception of noise from the wind turbines (not actual noise).
When the ANZ study is published, I will include its findings.
6. Noise experienced by rural dwellers near wind turbines is much quieter than every urban dweller experiences all the time
It is worth noting that the World Health Organization has published community guidelines on noise [7] intended to reduce health impacts. These guidelines call for 35 dba in bedrooms at night for best sleeping and have numerous other categories for schools etc. Anti-wind advocates point out that most wind turbine guidelines and regulations such as Ontario's Regulation 359/09 call for 40 dba in inhabited homes near wind turbines (translating into a 1500 m setback for more than one large wind turbine in the majority of cases) and use this as an argument against wind farm placement. Of course, wind turbine noise annoyance impacts a very small percentage of any populace mostly determined by psychological traits as shown above, and what is more interesting about the WHO guidelines is that no one living in a town of larger than 10,000 people has living conditions that adhere to them due to traffic noise, industrial noise, air traffic and the necessary machinery of cities. In summary, rural dwellers exposed to wind turbine noise are exposed to a much lower level of all forms of noise than city dwellers, yet the vast majority of city dwellers do not suffer significant adverse health effects or find it stressful. Those who do mitigate the impact with the use of sound proofing and white noise generators, and find other ways to subsume the stress.
7. If wind turbine noise truly was causing loss of sleep, there are simple, cheap interventions
If those concerned with wind turbine noise were truly focussed on health impacts, they would be promoting low-cost, effective noise annoyance reduction measures.
- For example, a white noise generator can be purchased for less than $30 USD. This provides masking noise which would eliminate any impact from nearby wind turbines. In fact, there's a free app for that. [12]
- Similarly, comfortable foam earplugs would also be reasonable interventions. These can be purchased in bulk for cents per ear plug. [13]
- There are many stress reduction and annoyance distraction techniques available with the click of a button on the internet. Most of these can be studied and practiced free of charge by anyone interested in dealing with ultimately trivial annoyances that they are over-focussing upon. [14]
- Finally, closing windows and installing quilted blinds would not only significantly decrease noise, but would also decrease light, improving sleep as well. [15]
All of these techniques are in use today in households around the world to deal with traffic noise, sirens, airplane noise, noisy neighbours, nearby industrial works, streetcars, bird cannons and dawn tractor startups. Urban and rural dwellers depend on them to ensure a comfortable and uninterrupted sleep.
By comparison, increasing setbacks of wind turbines by hundreds of meters is an extraordinary and societally expensive measure.
That those concerned with health impacts only suggested interventions are greater setbacks for or complete elimination of wind turbines betrays their agenda. Their solution is vastly out of proportion to the problem.
References:
[1] The Potential Health Impact of Wind Turbines, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, May 20, 2010, http://health.gov.on.ca/e
[2] http://www.canwea.ca/pdf/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/w
[4] Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Report on a Natural Experiment, Nina Pierpont, K Selected Books, 2009, Amazon.com: Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Report on a Natural Experiment (9780984182701): Nina Pierpont: Books
[5] http://umcg.wewi.eldoc.ub
[6] Noise annoyance from wind turbines - a review, Eja Pedersen, Högskolan i Halmstad, Report 5308, August 2003, http://www.naturvardsverk
[7] http://www.euro.who.int/e
[8] http://news.ontario.ca/en
[9] Wind Turbine Health Impact Study: Report of the Independent Expert Panel, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Updated April 2012, http://www.mass.gov/dep/e
[10] http://www.amazon.com/Sim
[11] http://tobacco.health.usy
[12] http://simplynoise.com/
[13] http://www.earplugstore.c
[14] http://www.helpguide.org/
[15] http://www.blindschalet.c
[16] "Wind turbine syndrome" is more wind than syndrome
[17] The influence of negative oriented personality traits on the effects of wind turbine noise, Jennifer Taylora, Carol Eastwicka, Robin Wilsonb, Claire Lawrencec, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 54, Issue 3, February 2013, Pages 338–343, http://www.sciencedirect.
[18] http://tobacco.health.usy
[19] Full list of all Wind Health Reviews maintained by Professor Simon Chapman, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, http://tobacco.health.usy
[20] Wind Turbines, Noise and Health, February 2007, Dr Amanda Harry http://M.B.Ch.B. P.G.Dip.E.N.T., http://www.flat-group.co.
[21] Effects of industrial wind turbine noise on sleep and health, Michael A Nissenbaum, Jeffery J Aramini, Christopher D Hanning, Noise and Health, 2012
Additional Summaries and References:
David Clubb, 8 years experience in differen... (more) 8 years experience in different renewable energy sectors, including installation, project management and lecturing at MSc level.5 upvotes by Quora User, Quora User, Dirk Davidson, (more)Loading...
This is a controversial subject, and the question is somewhat leading - it presupposes that there is a genuine phenomenon which increases 'sickness' near wind turbines.
Perhaps this question is best tackled by an independent expert with experience in the sector, but to the best of my knowledge, there are three main points:
As I say, this question would probably benefit from the attention of an independent sound expert.
Perhaps this question is best tackled by an independent expert with experience in the sector, but to the best of my knowledge, there are three main points:
- Wind turbines have a minimum recommended distance from residential properties which should minimise noise-related issues: these are 350m (England), 500m (Wales) and 2km (Scotland) - http://www.parliament.uk/
briefin... - Existing research cannot point to any scientific basis for symptoms which have been attributed to proximity to wind turbines
- These symptoms could potentially be psychosomatic; I believe (reference needed) that they are reported far less where the residents have a financial stake in the development
As I say, this question would probably benefit from the attention of an independent sound expert.
Best evidence is auto-suggestion by fringe dwellers who are paid to peddle such propaganda. Scientifically, claimed problem is "infra sound", which is less than 20cycles per second. Based on sound travelling at 300metres per sec, checking for 10 cycles/sec, wavelength is 30metres. Nature of sound is a pressure wall, bouncing back and forth. Actual pressure is ridiculously small. So, help yourself by trying to imagine what part of your body is susceptible to so little pressure bouncing back and forth 30 metres. There isn't any evidence.
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