Health effects of wind power

Outside of limited noise-related annoyance and loss of sleep, no peer-reviewed literature has found any link between wind turbines and health effects. A small number of physicians have speculated that there may be links among some informally-observed symptoms in people who live near industrial wind turbines (200-400 feet or more in height); this theory was first advanced by British physician Amanda Harry, who attempted to justify it by sending a small number of surveys to self-selected individuals chosen by their existing belief that they were suffering from wind-turbine related effects. It was subsequently given the name Wind Turbine Syndrome (WTS) and a pathophysiological explanation by New York behavioral pediatrician and population biologist Nina Pierpont.
Pierpont speculated that the symptoms are caused chiefly by low-frequency noise and vibration, as well as shadow flicker, from the wind turbines affecting the body's various balance organs, including the utricle and saccule (vestibular organs) of the inner ear; Pierpoint also believed that people at greater risk for WTS are those with migraine disorder or a history of balance and motion sensitivity (such as car-sickness and sea-sickness). Pierpont also found that people with anxiety or other mental health problems were not more susceptible than others.
Both Harry and Pierpont based their research on informal surveys, and both have called for large-scale government-sponsored epidemiological studies to definitively establish WTS as a full-blown disease state. Until that happens, WTS remains, clinically, merely a theoretical syndrome.
Scientific and clinical acceptance
Although Pierpont's book includes reviews and notices from several practitioners in related fields, there are as yet no reports in the peer-reviewed clinical literature linking wind turbines to these or any other symptoms.
Residents of the U.K. presented their experience of ill health living near an wind energy facility at the juried Second International Wind Turbine Noise Conference in Lyon, France, September 20-21, 2007, organized by the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE)/Europe. Researchers in Portugal reported at the same conference
A report by the Minnesota Department of Health found that wind turbines can cause the annoyance and sleeplessness, but found no evidence for more advanced health concerns, noting:
: "Sleeplessness and headache are the most common health complaints and are highly correlated (but not perfectly correlated) with annoyance complaints. Complaints are more likely when turbines are visible or when shadow flicker occurs. Most available evidence suggests that reported health effects are related to audible low frequency noise. Complaints appear to rise with increasing outside noise levels above 35 dB(A). It has been hypothesized that direct activation of the vestibular and autonomic nervous system may be responsible for less common complaints, but evidence is scant."
Similarly, a 2008 report by the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit found that "Although opposition to wind farms on aesthetic grounds is a legitimate point of view, opposition to wind farms on the basis of potential adverse health consequences is not justified by the evidence."
Policy Implications
Peer-reviewed studies have found no causal link between wind power and health issues. A survey of Dutch wind turbine neighbors found few ill health effects, but one critic noted that most of the turbines were smaller than 1 megawatt (new turbines are typically 2-2.5 megawatts) and the outside noise level for most of the respondents was estimated to be less than 45 dB(A), which would be only 30-35 db(A) inside. Nonetheless, the Dutch survey concluded: "Annoyance from wind turbine sound was related to difficulties with falling asleep and to higher stress scores. From this study it cannot be concluded whether these health effects are caused by annoyance or vice versa or whether both are related to another factor." they recommend that large wind turbines be sited at least 2 kilometers from homes. Similarly, the U.K. Noise Association and the French Academy of Medicine recommend a distance of 1 mile or 1.5 kilometers, respectively.
In Ontario, Canada, to ensure the Ministry of Environment's noise guidelines limiting the level 30 meters outside a dwelling or campsite to 40 db(A), proposed regulations set a minimum distance of 550 meters (1,804 feet) for a group of 1 to 5 relatively quiet (102 dB(A)) turbines within a 3-kilometer (1.86-mile) radius, rising to 1,500 meters (4,921 feet) for a group of 11 to 25 noisier (106-107 db(A)) turbines. Larger facilities and noisier turbines would require a noise study.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu