"Wind companies steadfastly maintain that there is no problem with ice throw. A 2003 study concluded that New York has the iciest conditions in the entire country. But developers in New York State routinely ignore evidence that ice can be thrown over 1600 feet by placing turbines less than 500 feet from roadways." __ from Remarks Delivered To The Assembly Committee On Energy And The Subcommittee On Renewable Energy, Examining Policy And Implementation Plans For The RPS Program March 7, 2006 by an Ad Hoc Coalition Of Local Community Groups In Upstate New York. Click here for the full transcript.
HEALTH CONCERNS
Clinical Study of "Wind Turbine Noise Syndrome"
Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD
Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD, Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a former clinical professor of pediatrics at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York, has begun a clinical study of "wind turbine noise syndrome."
Dr. Pierpont is asking anyone living near wind turbines and suffering ill health effects which he/she suspects are a result of the wind turbines to contact her at either (518) 483-6481 (Malone, New York, USA) or pierpont@westelcom.com (www.ninapierpont.com). She will do a telephone interview (takes about 30 minutes), where your identity will be held strictly confidential. What she is after is evidence and data (as with any medical research project, your identity would remain confidential, always and forever).
Dr. Pierpont's study will be published in a leading clinical medical journal sometime within the next 12 months, she expects. One of the purposes of the study is to influence public policy, around the world, to ensure the proper, medically-responsible siting of wind turbines.
A summary of Dr. Pierpont's credentials is here.
Industrial Wind Turbines, Infrasound and Vibro-Acoustic Disease (VAD): May 31, 2007...Documented in a press release dated May 31, 2007 from the Vibro-Acoustic Disease (VAD) research group in Portugal, people living in the shadow of industrial wind turbines have moved a step closer to understanding the nature of the Wind Turbine Syndrome many of them experience and complain about.
Professor Mariana Alves-Pereira, Dept. of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, New University of Lisbon, Caparica, Portugal, has for many years been part of a team of physicians and scientists studying the pathophysiology of low-frequency noise and infrasound on humans. She is Assistant Coordinator of the Vibroacoustic Disease Project. Alves-Pereira and colleagues have been doing epidemiologic studies of airline pilots and technicians and other people who are chronically exposed to low-frequency noise and infrasound. The effects are grim: cardiovascular, respiratory, neurologic, and renal pathology and symptoms, which they call vibroacoustic disease (VAD).
*VAD is well established in the clinical literature. It has been amply documented and is readily detected by a variety of diagnostic tests.
Alves-Pereira (an acoustical engineer) and Dr. Nuno Castelo Branco (a surgical pathologist) recently took numerous noise/vibration measurements within a Portuguese home surrounded by four (4) industrial wind turbines. The closest turbine is nearly 1000 feet (300 meters), from the affected home. The turbines have been operating since November 2006. The report concludes:
"These results irrefutably demonstrate that windmills in the proximity of residential areas produce acoustical environments that can lead to the development of VAD in the nearby home-dwellers. In order to protect Public Health, ILFN-producing devices must not be placed in locations that will contaminate residential areas with this agent of disease."
The scientific report on this research will be formally presented at Internoise 2007, to be held on 28-31 August in Istanbul, Turkey.
Noise radiation from wind turbines installed near homes: Effects on health, with an annotated review of the research and related issues": Dr. Amanda Harry M.B.Ch.B.P.G.Dip.E.N.T. Barbara J. Frey and Peter J. Hadden, February 2007... Likely the best single source to date within the emerging body of documentation on health issues effected by industrial wind turbines. The review concludes that a safe buffer zone of at least 2km should exist between family dwellings and industrial wind turbines of up to 2MW installed capacity, with greater separation for a wind turbine greater than 2MW installed capacity. Also included is a lengthy annecdotal compilation regarding property devaluations that occur when wind turbines are sited too close to dwellings and residential lands.
Report abstract:
"Wind turbines are large industrial structures that create obtrusive environmental noise pollution when built too close to dwellings. This annotated review of evidence and research by experts considers the impact of industrial-scale wind turbines suffered by those living nearby. First, the paper includes the comments by some of the families affected by wind turbines, as well as coverage in news media internationally. The experiences described put a human face to the science of acoustics.
Second, the paper reviews research articles within the field of acoustics concerning the acoustic properties of wind turbines and noise. The acoustic characteristics of wind turbines are complex and in combination produce acoustic radiation. Next, the paper reviews the health effects that may result from the acoustic radiation caused by wind turbines, as well as the health effects from noise, because the symptoms parallel one another. Primarily, the consequent health response includes sleep deprivation and the problems that ensue as a result. In addition, this paper reviews articles that report research about the body's response not only to the audible noise, but also to the inaudible components of noise that can adversely affect the body's physiology. Research points to a causal link between unwanted sound and sleep deprivation and stress, i.e., whole body physiologic responses.
These injuries are considered in the context of Human Rights, where it is contended that the environmental noise pollution destroys a person's effective enjoyment of right to respect for home and private life, a violation of Article 8 of the European Court of Human Rights Act. Furthermore, the paper considers the consequent devaluation of a dwelling as a measure of part of the damage that arises when wind turbines are sited too close to a dwelling, causing acoustic radiation and consequent adverse health responses..."
Le retentissement du fonctionnement des éoliennes sur la santé de l'homme
("Repercussions of wind turbine operations on human health")
March 25, 2006
Ventdubocage has posted a report from the National Academy of Medicine in France, warning of wind turbine noise. Click here for the 192 kb .pdf file in French.
Following is a translation of a notice of the report by Dr. Chantal Gueniot in "Panorama du Médecin", 20 March 2006:
Wind turbines: The Academy Cautious
"The harmful effects of sound related to wind turbines are insufficiently assessed, warns the Academy.
Wind turbines, which are multiplying throughout the French countryside, will have to be considered as industrial installations and to comply, by that fact, to specific regulations that take account of the harmful effects of sound as particularly produced by these structures, determined a working group assembled by the National Academy of Medicine and presided over by professor Claude-Henri Chouard (Paris).
People living near the towers, the heights of which vary from 10 to 100 meters, sometimes complain of functional disturbances similar to those observed in syndromes of chronic sound trauma. Studies conducted in the neighborhoods of airports have clearly demonstrated that chronic invasive sound involves neurobiological reactions associated with an increased frequency of hypertension and cardiovascular illness. Unfortunately, no such study has been done near wind turbines. But, the sounds emitted by the blades being low frequency, which therefore travel easily and vary according to the wind, they constitute a permanent risk for the people exposed to them.
Since 2 July 2003, the law has required a construction permit for wind turbines over 12 meters, including an impact study if their [combined] power is over 2.5 megawatts. An investigation conducted by the Ddass [Direction Départementale des Affaires Sanitaires et Sociales] in Saint-Crépin (Charent-Maritime) revealed that sound levels 1 km from an installation occasionally exceeded allowable limits. While waiting for precise studies of the risks connected with these installations, the Academy recommend halting wind turbine construction closer than 1.5 km from residences."
This is a picture of the d'Entremont home in Pubnico, Nova Scotia, where their ancestors have lived since the 1870s. Daniel and Carolyn d'Entremont, with their 6 children, had to abandon it on Feb. 21, 2006, because of "wind turbine syndrome," the cluster of symptoms being found around the world where people live near giant wind turbines.
Dr. Nina Pierpont, of Malone, N.Y., has interviewed them as part of her research into this problem. She testified before the New York State Legislature Energy Committee on March 7. Click here to read her testimony and see the symptoms and risk factors.
Three broadcasts about the d'Entremont family's story have been aired by CBC Radio. You can listen to them in Real Media Stream format (.ram file) here:
March 22: "Running from the wind: A Pubnico man who says a near-by wind farm has driven him from his home. Reporter Lisa Roberts looks into the situation, and
speaks with one doctor who says, the family made the right choice." (runs 9:06)
February 28: "Trying to tame the wind:The man in charge of Natural Resources Canada's wind program says he's trying to assess, and relieve, the problems in Pubnico Point." (runs 6:42)
February 27: "Trying to escape the wind: A family in Pubnico Point says the noise and vibration of a nearby wind farm has driven them from their home." (runs 8:12)
(If the links get moved, you can try them here:
here,
here and here.)
Flicker Induced Health Risks: Chatauqua County Citizens For Responsible Wind..."There are two distinct types 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... The second type of flicker that can arise from wind turbines is strobing. Strobing occurs when turbine blades catch 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."
Turbines a Health Risk, Warns Foster Doctor: The Star, March 1, 2005..."Respected South Gippsland doctor, David Iser, has issued a warning about the adverse affects of wind farms on the health of neighboring residents. And he has called for further health studies to be carried out by the authorities... 'We are talking about 8 people having health problems as a result of the small Toora Wind Farm. There you have 12 turbines, but it is proposed that there be 48 turbines at Dollar so you could have more than three times the number of health problems... "
Health, hazard, and quality of life near wind power
installations - How close is too close?: Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD
March 1, 2005..."Dizziness (specifically, vertigo) and anxiety are neurologically linked phenomena. Hence the anxiety and depression seen in association with other symptoms near wind installations are not a neurotic response to symptoms, but rather a neurologically linked response to the balance disturbances people experience from shadow flicker or low-frequency noise... Based on these health effects and hazards, turbines should not be placed within 1700 feet of any road or dwelling. Those living within 1/2 mile (2640 ft) should be apprised that they are likely to experience very bothersome levels of noise and flicker, which continue (though to a lesser degree) to a mile or more from the turbines."
Western Morning News and This Is Devon: 10-14-04...Dr Amanda Harry, who has produced ground-breaking research on the effects of noise from turbines on people living near the Bears Down site explains why she is taking her investigation further.
"I have heard from people all over this country; Cornwall, Wales and Cumbria; from France, Germany, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand and the USA who are experiencing noise problems from nearby wind turbines. So this is not an isolated problem and from the information I have been able to gather, it is not a new problem either... Indeed prolonged exposure to low frequency noise and vibration is known to increase a person's sensitivity to the noise. Much research has been published showing the correlation of health problems and disturbance from noise.
Yet there has been no such research for wind turbines. An initial survey by me indicates that a problem exists and I feel this warrants further in-depth, independent research and investigation. However, the wind industry has taken it upon themselves to state that there isn't a problem without looking into the issues further. It is because of this that I have been working with a physicist and acoustic scientist, Dr David Manley, to try to confirm our
observations."
HEALTH EFFECTS MUST BE EXPLORED: Western Morning News, February 2004..."Mounting concerns over the noise effects of wind turbines on the people who live close-by have led to calls for an independent inquiry, as Neil Young reports.
The head of a powerful European committee on the environment has called for an independent inquiry into the health effects of wind turbines. And she is urging Westcountry MPs to put pressure on the Health Secretary, John
Reid, and Energy Secretary Stephen Timms, to commission research into the possible impact of turbines on people living close-by.
South West Conservative MEP Dr Caroline Jackson, who is chairman of the
European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and
Consumer Policy, says she will also be calling for EU research funding.
And she will be writing to the UK's research councils to ask if they would be
interested in investigating the reported health effects of headaches, nausea
and sleeplessness on people living close to turbines."
Wind Farms 'Make people Sick Who Live Up To A Mile Away': Catherine Milner, News Telegraph, 25/01/2004... "Onshore wind farms are a health hazard to people living near them because of the low- frequency noise that they emit, according to new medical studies.... Dr Amanda Harry, a local GP who did the research, said: 'People demonstrated a range of symptoms from headaches, migraines, nausea, dizziness, palpitations and tinnitus to sleep disturbance, stress, anxiety and depression. These symptoms had a knock-on effect in their daily lives, causing poor concentration, irritability and an inability to cope'...Similar problems have been found by Dr Bridget Osborne, a doctor in Moel Maelogan, a village in North Wales, where three turbines were erected in 2002. She has presented a paper to the Royal College of General Practitioners detailing a "marked" increase in depression among local people."Note: Dr. Osborne's paper was originally, and erroneously, reported as having been "presented to the Royal College of General Practitioners". In May 2004, Dr Osborne confirmed that it was written "for the Royal College of General Practitioners North Wales Faculty Newsletter on the Physiological effects of Wind Turbines".
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Safety Issues
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Warning: don't hug a wind turbine: May 2006, The Sunday Times, Scotland..."IT HAS been dubbed '21st- century tree-hugging' While Swampy got up close and personal with a Dutch elm, modern eco-enthusiasts are being urged to 'touch a turbine.' ...The trend is backed by the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), which is calling on the public to visit and touch wind turbines ...But while the trend appears to be growing, the government has warned the public that it could be in for a shock.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) claims that the turbines carry the risk of electrocution and injury from loose machinery. ...The DTI’s engineering inspectorate has issued guidelines discouraging people from touching the turbines following a series of accidents.
Anti-wind farm campaigners have catalogued hundreds of safety breaches, including turbines collapsing and lumps of ice thrown at high speed. Yesterday it was reported that ScottishPower had ordered a walker to leave the area around a wind farm in Argyll after chunks of ice began falling from the blades."
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Doctor Terry Matilsky On Ice Throw: Dr. Terry Matilsky, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers University, addresses the kinetics of ice throw..."The bottom line is that ice, debris or anything breaking off the wind turbines blades (including the blades themselves) can impact a point almost 1700 feet away from the base of the turbine…"
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RISK ANALYSIS OF ICE THROW FROM WIND TURBINES:
Paper presented at BOREAS 6, 9 to 11 April 2003, Pyhä, Finland, Henry Seifert, Annette Westerhellweg, Jürgen Kröning, et al..."Wind turbines are normally erected far away from houses, industry, etc., as the wind conditions are not favourable in the vicinity of large obstacles... However, the turbines are erected close to roads or agricultural infrastructure in order to avoid long and expensive access roads for erection and maintenance. This induces a risk for persons passing by the wind turbines, cars passing the streets if ice fragments fall down from a turbine. Especially in the mountainous sites or in the northern areas icing may occur frequently and any exposed structure - also wind turbines - will be covered by ice under special meteorological conditions. This is also true if today’s Multi Megawatt turbines with heights from ground to the top rotor blade tip of more than 150 m can easily reach lower clouds with supercooled rain in the cold season, causing icing if it hits the leading edge."...
"...(page 2) If a wind turbine operates in icing conditions which are described in [1], two types of risks may occur if the rotor blades collect ice. The fragments from the rotor are thrown off from the operating turbine due to aerodynamic and centrifugal forces or they fall down from the turbine when it is shut down or idling without power production..."...
"...(page 5) In principle, a shut down wind turbine does not differ from other structures like towers, antenna masts, masts of power lines, etc. concerning ice accretion. Depending on the rotor position of the braked or idling rotor different fall widths along the prevailing wind will result at the end of the icing event and increasing temperatures. For automatically detecting ice on the rotor blades, several methods can be recommended. However, at present all these methods or instruments have to be improved and further validated... Observation showed that ice fragments which fall from a stopped rotor break into smaller parts on the way down to the ground. In the worst case - large ice fragments reach longer distances from the still standing rotor - two meter long fragments have been investigated."...
"...Conclusion: The experience and the results of many calculations show that during operation small fragments are hitting the ground in a larger distance than those with a big area whereas from stopped turbines the larger pieces can be transported wider than small ones. However, provided that the turbine is operating the area of risk is larger than at standstill. In both cases the wind direction is an important parameter for the assessment of possible risk and an important parameter for the control systems concerning its behaviour during icing events. Ice sensors and also ice detection by using power curve plausibilisation or two anemometers - oneheated, one unheated - is not reliable enough at the moment and needs to be improved. There is still a lot of information required from operators after icing events in their wind farms. Observation of the turbines and especially the blades by web cameras proved to be a suited, but time consuming method in the Tauernwind project. The calculation methods as well as the assumptions made for the ice fragments have to be improved and validated against observation, if available."...
"...As a general recommendation it can be stated that wind farm developers should be very careful at ice endangered sites in the planning phase and take ice throw into account as a safety issue. Each incident or accident caused by ice throw is an unnecessary event and will decrease the public acceptance of wind energy."
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Man Dies In Wind Tower Fire: Associated Press, Nov 11, 2005..."A South Dakota man died and two people were injured Friday in a wind tower fire in southwestern Minnesota. Benjamin James Thovson, 26, of Sioux Falls, S.D., died at the scene. He fell about 210 feet, Deputy Randy Donahue said. The other two were able to climb down and escape, but were taken to a local hospital.
When help arrived, Donahue said, 'the wind generator was engulfed in flames.'"
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WHITE PAPER: WIND FARMS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON PUBLIC SAFETY RADIO SYSTEMS: SUMMARY:... "In many parts of the country, wind farms are being installed to alleviate the need to build more electrical generating plants. These wind farms can have a profound effect on your public safety, utility, and governmental microwave systems by chopping and reflecting the microwave beam.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO: Notify your city and county zoning authority that any application for a wind farm can profoundly affect your emergency communications system and a design review focused on the wind farm’s effects on critical communication systems."
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Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Says She Is Stunned At Windfarm-radar Controversy : May 12, 2006, Radio Plus, INC...The Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor is weighing in on news that state wind energy projects are on hold because of Homeland Security radar concerns. Renew Wisconsin says an open ended stop work order is in place for more than a dozen wind projects...including the Horicon Marsh windfarm. The projects are on hold until a turbine blade-radar impact study is complete and published in the Congressional Report. Lieutenant Governor, Barbara Lawton, tells AM 1170 WFDL's Between the Liens program she is absolutely stunned to hear the news. Lawton says you would think the potential radar concern would have been addressed years ago.
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Why do wind turbines confuse military radar?: March 4, 2004, David Adam, The Guardian..."The rotating turbine blades fool techniques used to filter out tall buildings, trees and other stationary objects. And because different blades can be picked out during different radar sweeps, banks of turbines appear as a confusing, twinkling mass on screens that can make genuine targets difficult to pick out... There are even concerns that turbines cast a radar shadow behind them, within which enemy planes would be invisible, though recent measurements indicate that it would last for only a few hundred metres and would hide only very small objects."
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Windfarm plan hits turbulence: May 2002, The Scotsman..."Plans to build Europe’s largest windfarm on a moor south of Glasgow threatens the lives of thousands of airline passengers flying in to the city’s airport, according to its owner... A senior air traffic controller at Glasgow Airport said: 'If this windfarm goes ahead we will have a disaster waiting to happen. It is every air traffic controller’s nightmare when a snowstorm of blips shows up on the radar screen.'
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Ministry of Defence and Radar Interference: Humble Hill, Kielder... "In the Spring 2000 edition of OpenView we featured an article about the need to take account of military and civil radar interference from windfarms. Two projects (07-02Graigenlee Fell in Galloway and 08-07Humble Hill, Kielder Forest, Northumberland ) were mentioned and both have since been rejected or withdrawn after MOD objections."
"..the Ministry of Defence objected to the original proposal on the grounds that the wind turbines would interfere with primary and secondary radar therefore impairing the effectiveness of the nearby Spadeadam Electronic Tactics Range (EWTR). In an effort to overcome the MOD's objection the Company reduced the number of wind turbines and reconfigured their location on the site. To this effect the Company submitted a variation to the application.........the MOD maintained their original objection, that is, a windfarm operating in the vicinity of the ETWR would be unacceptable as the training facilities of the EWTR are unique and imperative for the front-line training of RAF crews. MOD believe that the proposed windfarm would interfere both with radar and also with low flying, creating an acute safety hazard to both to members of the public and RAF crews.The MOD indicated that current studies have not conclusively proved that the rotating action of wind turbine blades has no effect on ground and airborne radar. Therefore they rely on their own research which concludes that wind turbines cause interference to primary surveillance radar and also that detection and tracking of aircraft flying over a windfarm is extremely difficult since the responses between the aircraft and the turbine cannot be distinguished.
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