DANGERS

Industrial Wind Turbines, Infrasound and Vibro-Acoustic Disease (VAD)
Public health and noise exposure: the importance of low frequency noise

Mariana Alves-Pereiraa and Nuno A. A. Castelo Brancob

ERISA-Universidade Lusófona, Lisbon, Portugal Center for Human Performance, Alverca, Portugal

Noise exposure is known to cause hearing loss and a variety of disturbances, such as annoyance, hypertension and loss of sleep. It is generally accepted that these situations are caused by the acoustical events processed by the auditory system. However, there are acoustical events that are not necessarily processed by the auditory system, but that nevertheless cause harm. Infrasound and low frequency noise (ILFN, <500Hz) are acoustical phenomena that can impact the human body causing irreversible organic damage to the organism, but that do not cause classical hearing impairment. Acoustical environments are normally composed of all types of acoustical events: those that are processed by the auditory system, and those that are not. It is generally assumed that acoustical phenomena not captured by the human auditory system are not harmful. This is reflected by current noise assessment procedures that merely require the quantification of the acoustical phenomena that are audible to human hearing (hence the dBA unit). Thus, studies investigating the effects of noise exposure on public health that do not take into account the entire spectrum of acoustical energy are misleading and may, in fact, be scientifically unsound. Two cases of in-home ILFN are described. READ FULL PAPER: Industrial Wind Turbines, Infrasound and Vibro-Acoustic Disease (VAD)

Report on the actual problems at an Illinois wind farm, including a 26% drop in real estate sale prices
"Excerpts from the Final Report of the Township of Lincoln Wind Turbine Moratorium Committee" http://www.savewesternny.org/docs/lincolnmoratorium.html

Étude: La sécurité publique des centrales éoliennes industrielles.
"Risques intrinsèques des éoliens... Liste de 1800 accidents depuis 2004... Probabilité d'éjection de pale et risque asocié... Destruction par rafale de vent... L'effondrement... Chutes de glace... Solidité des installations... (France)" ventdubocage.net

Charest's wind power plan a bit of hot air
"To question the wisdom of wind power in Canada these days is to risk winding up impaled on a rotor blade. Environmentalists, politicians and investment bankers all seem to agree that wind energy is the next big thing. Unfortunately, few seem to have consulted Mother Nature on this...

"The 133 [Le Nordais] wind turbines, installed in 1999, have produced 40 per cent less power than they were supposed to, resulting in the payment of stiff penalties to Hydro-Quebec. Axor's $56-million equity investment in the project has been wiped out. 'The resource - the wind - was overestimated by all the experts,' Mr. Dupont now laments...

"Wind power's win-win image as an environmentally friendly investment opportunity seems overblown. Besides, it's not like it doesn't have an impact on the environment. Toronto-based SkyPower Corp., whose proposed 171 MW project in Rivière-du-Loup has struggled out of the gate, has discovered that not many people want a hundred or more 25-storey wind turbines blocking their mountain vistas..." by Konrad Yakabuski, The Globe and Mail, Toronto
www.wind-watch.org/news/2006/11/02/charests-wind-power-plan-a-bit-of-hot-air

Ice throw from wind turbines...

"The danger from ice being release from rotor blades overhead is real... When there is heavy rim ice build up on the blades and the machines are running you instinctually want to stay away. They roar loudly and sound scarey... "
listsaver-egroups-awea-windnet@egroups.com

FAITS SAILLANTS - CARLETON, 73 EOLIENNES G.E. de 1,5 MW (pdf 652KB)

"...Béton nécessaire... Vitesse de rotation des pales... Balises lumineuses... Matières résiduelles... Perte d'argent pour la région... Enfouissement des lignes électriques... "
Eole-Prudence Baie-des-Chaleurs

PROJET AXOR - Lyse Girardin et Raoul Jomphe (pdf 88KB)

"Nous vivons présentement dans le parc éolien Le Nordais. Depuis notre résidence, nous avons une vue sur 48 des 58 éoliennes présentes dans ce parc et ce dans un angle de plus de 200 degrés. Les 3 éoliennes les plus rapprochées sont à 600 mètres de notre maison... Nous proposons qu'en acceptant de construire des parcs éoliens industriels, on accepte également de dédommager ceux qui en subissent les conséquences... Nous recommandons donc au gouvernement qu'il décrète un moratoire sur tous les projets de parcs éoliens au Québec..." "

In Fenner wind farm developers made and broke many promises...

"The grinding noise goes on 24 hours a day (when they are operating)... these machines constantly grind and have a negative effect on one's nerves... We also have lost our television reception... there are lights on top of the towers, which now flash directly into our bedroom... "
Pastor Kathleen Danley, Naples Record

The dark sides of wind power...

"It sounds like an airport...my peace is gone forever... The noise was incredible. It surprised me... Physical reactions are pronounced... Sometimes you could not hear the sound standing right under one, but you heard it 3,000 yards down the hill, where the wind carried the sound... Constantly flashing lights on turbine hubs can be seen for miles. One observer of the Waymart facility describes the multitude of red blinking aircraft warning lights that now trace across the ridge top at night... "
Eleanor Tillinghast, North Adams Transcript

Wind farms do not deliver what they promise...

"Little Falls, NY March 8th, 2007 - A recent analysis of transaction data filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission...shows that the large Maple Ridge wind facility in Lewis County produces electricity in a very erratic manner, and generally at levels far below promised output. ... Maple Ridge has a nameplate capacity of 240 MW, but for 40% of the third quarter of 2006, the wind farm produced a paltry 30 MW or less, or no more than 12.5% of nameplate capacity ... They produce little power during the period of greatest need, yet blight the landscape with their 40-story-tall structures. With wind unable to perform when demand is highest, power companies have to fall back on traditional sources of electric power, fossil-fuel and hydro power... "
www.wind-watch.org/alerts/category/new-york/

WHITE PAPER: Wind Turbine Noise Issues... (PDF download)

"... Concerns about noise depend on 1) the level of intensity, frequency, frequency distribution and patterns of the noise source; 2) background noise levels; 3) the terrain between the emitter and receptor; and 4) the nature of the noise receptor. The effects of noise on people can be classified into three general categories (National Wind Coordinating Committee, 1998):

1) Subjective effects including annoyance, nuisance, dissatisfaction
2) Interference with activities such as speech, sleep, and learning
3) Physiological effects such as anxiety, tinnitus, or hearing loss.

... Whether a noise is objectionable will depend on the type of noise (tonal, broadband, low frequency, or impulsive) and the circumstances and sensitivity of the person (or receptor) who hears it. Because of the wide variation in the levels of individual tolerance for noise, there is no completely satisfactory way to measure the subjective effects of noise or of the corresponding reactions of annoyance and dissatisfaction. ... "
www.npp.ca/images/WindTurbineNoiseIssues.pdf