Once dismissed as something merely imagined by people close to industrial wind turbines, health disorders caused by infrasound are emerging as being very real.
Austrian site www.ots.at here has a press release by the Vienna Chamber of Physicians warning of health hazards from large-scale wind turbines, citing “comprehensive studies”. It calls for a minimum setback distance from built-up areas.
The OTS writes that noise from wind turbines is increasingly coming under the focus of scientific studies. Low frequency infrasound (< 20 Hz) was dismissed by wind energy proponents, but rapidly mounting evidence show the problem is more serious than first thought.
As part of the “International Noise Awareness Day” the Austrian Chamber of Physicians warns that today’s large size wind turbines have a blade diameter as large as a football pitch and a blade tip speed near 300 km/hr. They therefore create noise in the infrasound frequency range, which is known to cause health problems. Physician Piero Lercher of the Chamber of physicians: say:
Our target must be to prevent sleep disorder, psychological affects and irreversible damage to hearing from the noise such as that produced by wind turbines.”
The press release reports of increasing complaints stemming from low frequency infrasound and says studying the health impacts “is essential”.
Lercher adds that another component may be at play:
Perception disorders of persons living nearby are thought to be perhaps triggered by a ‘nocebo’ effect .”
Anti-wind energy group windwahn.de here thanks the physicians from Vienna for looking at the concerns of residents seriously, as many are ill and others are confronted by the threat of years of “acoustic torture” from proposed wind projects. Windwhn cites studies from all around the world and that it is time for Germany to wake up to this reality. The site writes:
We can no longer ignore the one third of residents in wind power regions who are sound injured and have serious health consequences!”
For more information contact:
Chamber of Physicians for Vienne – Press Center
Dr. Hans-Peter Petutschnig
Tel.: (++43-1) 51501/1223
hpp@aekwien.at
And again, here is a case in South Australia where the complainants should be in favour of wind turbines if infrasound was the non-issue as painted by the industry.
Read the statements from Mr & Mrs Gare in this South Australian government hearing
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=COMMITTEES;id=committees%2Fcommsen%2F34382052-8907-4b85-a0af-1a3fb4be884c%2F0008;query=Id%3A%22committees%2Fcommsen%2F34382052-8907-4b85-a0af-1a3fb4be884c%2F0000%22
The couple receive A$200,000 each year for the 19 turbines on their farm but wish they never had them installed and would gladly forgo this income due to the infrasound.
The closest turbine to his house is “800 metres away with three towers within approximately one to 1.5 kilometres away”
David Appells previously posted the criticism “Sounds like he should have done better research before signing a contract, and insisting on better testing and better terms.”
If he had bothered to read the transcript posting his comment he would have found that the Gares were taken out under a windmill to “demonstrate” how unobtrusive they were which is just plain deception.
Now, if someone could link wind turbines with declining bird populations and write a book about it then we might get something done.
I’ve got a possible title for such a book, “The not so silent spring”. Any takers?
This wind farm plan off Scotland may not go ahead due to protests by the UK RSPB re. potential bird deaths
“A £2bn offshore wind farm project on the verge of construction could be scuppered because of an unresolved legal challenge over fears it will kill too many birds.
The 450-megawatt Neart na Gaoithe wind farm would see up to 64 turbines, each up to 646 feet tall, built nine miles off the coast of Fife.
It was one of only two offshore wind projects to win a crucial subsidy contract from the Government last year.
But that deal could soon be revoked unless a judicial review brought by the RSPB against planning consent for the project is resolved.
The charity argues the wind farm, together with three other proposed projects in the Firths of Forth and Tay, would be among “the most deadly for birds anywhere in the world”.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/12149242/2bn-wind-farm-faces-the-axe-amid-fears-over-bird-deaths.html
Sustained very low frequency outdoor acoustic generators stimulate powerful resonant modes in rooms some distance away. An observant domestic sound system expert will have had the experience while positioning sub-woofers using single LF tones, of being unable to hear them in one area and experiencing eyeball rattling power a few steps away.
I suspect this makes computer modelled outdoor pressure gradient maps nearly useless for predicting indoor aggravation levels.
Then of course, there is the whole unseen subterranean environment…..
https://profile.usgs.gov/myscience/upload_folder/ci2012Dec1411215633446Wind%20energy%20and%20wildlife%20Lovich%20and%20Ennen.pdf
Note that the press release of the Austrian Ärztekammer was from 30.4.2014.
http://www2.aekwien.at/1964.py?Page=1&id_news=8403
The Deutsche Ärztetag has made a similar Decision 1 year later (search for: 118. Deutscher Ärztetag, Frankfurt, 12.05. – 15.05.2015,TOP VI, Tätigkeitsbericht der Bundesärztekammer)
“Turkish Court Shuts Down 50 Turbines: Yaylaköy Residents Delighted at 1st Chance to Sleep in Years”
http://stopthesethings.com/2015/05/26/turkish-court-shuts-down-50-turbines-yaylakoy-residents-delighted-at-1st-chance-to-sleep-in-years/
That post has links to other related material. And there’s more here.
http://www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/HealthEffects.htm