Wind Turbines are not a Health Risk

A small group of people have complained and argued that wind turbines can cause health problems. A new study confirms that those people are wrong and in fact wind turbines are not a health risk at all.

The study acknowledges that a minority of people find the intermittent swooshing noise emitted by the turbines’ giant blades to be annoying, but it also concluded: “Annoyance is not a pathological entity.”

The study says there’s “nothing unique” about the noise or vibrations emitted by wind turbines and no evidence that the audible or sub-audible sounds have any direct adverse effect on health.

It suggests that those who are bothered by turbines simply have a lower tolerance for annoying sounds of all sorts.

“A major cause of concern about wind turbine sound is its fluctuating nature. Some may find this sound annoying, a reaction that depends primarily on personal characteristics as opposed to the intensity of the sound level.”

Keep reading at the CBC.

2 thoughts on “Wind Turbines are not a Health Risk

  1. I found the aspect of the study about “anticipatory fear” particularly interesting. It is a result I had not previously considered but in retrospect makes some sense. The media’s ability to cause anxiety and effect peoples perceptions is truly a powerful tool, and not unlike the overblown H!N! ordeal it’s not surprising that this could at the very least play a small role in what many people say they were experiencing.

    Enviralment

  2. So for things to be good, we need to blame the victims? If they weren’t expecting problems, they wouldn’t have them? It can also be noted that the AWEA-funded study simply divides noise-health issues in two–either the problems arise from very loud sounds that directly harm the eardrum, or else they are mere “annoyance.” I think anyone who has suffered the effects–on health, sleep, digestion, and heart rates–of living nextdoor, for example, to someone playing a boombox at all hours can see the falsity in the AWEA study’s dichotomy. We should also note that the study you mention is funded by this windturbine builders’/promoters’ group (the AWEA, CWEA, etc.) and thus is as likely to be unbiased as, e.g., a pharmaceuitical firm’s “research study” of its new drug. Good news is great, but only when true.

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