Are wind farm turbines making people sick? Some say yes

The Kansas City Star ^ | Sat, Apr. 12, 2008 10:15 PM | KAREN DILLON

[newgeezer]

…

Last year, 400-foot-tall wind turbines were erected near King City, some less than 2,000 feet from Charlie Porter’s house on his small acreage.

Soon the sounds from the blades swooshing through the air and other noise were driving Porter and his family crazy, he said.

“The sound gets in your head like a saw and you can’t get rid of it,” Porter said. “Some people compare it to a train that never arrived.”

… Just how healthy is the noise from wind turbines?

…

One researcher calls it “wind turbine syndrome,” a collection of symptoms that include headaches, anxiety attacks and high blood pressure. Doctors in some other countries have done research on people who live near turbines and say the sounds they emit make them sick.

…

One thing is certain. For a lot of King City residents and nearby farmers, the Bluegrass Ridge wind farm meant dollars for the schools and the town. The turbines have even brought tourists just to gawk at them.

…

Once the blades started turning, he had another set of complaints. Porter said his family ... has suffered from headaches and sleeplessness.

“It’s like somebody swinging a rope over your head,” he said. “Some days, it’s worse than other days. The only way you can get away from it is to drive into town.”

In addition, powerful strobe lights come on at dawn and dusk, lighting up the inside of his home.

…

“If you are focused that the wind turbines are going to be a problem in your life, then they are going to be a problem in your life,” he said.

…

The farmers are paid at least $3,000 per turbine annually.

The turbines can be noisy, Waltemath acknowledged.

“But when you are indoors, you don’t really hear them,”

…

[newgeezer]

I have to wonder if any of his problems would disappear if he was getting some of that $3,000 per turbine.

[newgeezer]

Pinging a fellow “gawk[er].”

[clamper1797]

I knew they would try to spin this story ...

[mtbopfuyn]

$3,000 will buy a lot of asprin.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Can't put them anywhere near Hyannis Port or Chesapeake Bay, but flyover country?

Who cares?

[goldstategop]

Liberals hate wind farms: because 1) they kill birds 2) they obstruct the view and 3) they make people really sick.

So much for renewable energy sources.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[familyop]

They most often make certain busybody, post-menopausal, coveting neighbors sick, allegedly.

[familyop]

The posted piece is hilarious, BTW. ...conjures up images of schizophrenics and witch doctors.

[JoanneSD]

Never heard of these problems from oil wells, especially if they are on your property...the pumping is quite pleasant sounding..

[AFPhys]

I suspect that this is a case of “once you notice it, you can’t help but notice it.” As far as “can’t really hear it inside the house”, I bet that is not true, either... probably it ends up throbbing subconsciously and continuously long distances away.

As for me, I’ll not ever support that industry willingly.

[okie01]

My sis, the social worker, is deeply concerned that a.) gasoline costs too much, b.) the landfills are filling up with disposable diapers and c.) we're using too much energy.

She is firmly against nuclear power generation. And strongly opposed to using fossil fuels -- especially coal -- to generate power.

According to her, rather than drill for oil, we should reduce our energy use -- conserving the environment -- and generate what power we need via renewable resources. E.g., wind.

However, when a wind farm was proposed near her hometown in Kansas last year, guess who was a leading opponent.

Why? Too noisy, too ugly, too dangerous(???).

She is totally unaware that there might be any dissonance in her views.

I have seen the liberal mind at work. And it's scarey...

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

In all seriousness, I could see the blades creating pressure waves of some kind and irritating folks in the vicinity. Could be an inner-ear type deal for some. (I’m serious!)

[newgeezer]

Never heard of these problems from oil wells, especially if they are on your property...the pumping is quite pleasant sounding.

Good point. I can just imagine for some, it's good when it's the sound of money; it's annoying when it's the sound of the neighbor's or landlord's money.

[the invisib1e hand]

they make me sick, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.

[MarineBrat]

A couple of years ago I had an 8 day stay in the hospital. My room was next to the elevators. People who visited me didn’t really notice any noise, but after 8 days of “tuning in” to those 3 story steel cable guitar strings strumming inside the wall, I was ready to scream. I can understand how wind turbines could do that to someone.

[Clock King]

The liberal mind wants to live in a magical fantasy world that it read about as a 8-year old. They never grew up and had to face responsibility: that’s the problem.

[Boundless]

> She is totally unaware that there might be
> any dissonance in her views.

It makes more sense when you realize that liberals only
want symbolic solutions to metaphorical problems, and
not real solutions to real problems (esp. real problems
that they created, like the “energy crisis”).

That said, I wonder what the infrasonic output of wind
generators is. It will penetrate walls, and can irritate
internal organs. Presumbly, this has been considered.

[DungeonMaster]

Pinging a fellow “gawk[er].”

I love the sound, I go out of my way to hear it.

[Deaf Smith]

"the pumping is quite pleasant sounding.."

My buddy just had a 2900' hole completed on his place. The sucker rods are in and they moved a pumpjack in this past week. When we checked out Saturday; the motor is a single cylinder NG unit fed off the wellhead...a Jumping Johnny.

Pop...pop...pop...pop..................BANG...pop...pop...

[wbill]

It makes more sense when you realize that liberals only want symbolic solutions to metaphorical problems, and not real solutions to real problems (esp. real problems that they created, like the “energy crisis”).

Right in one.

Take "Global Warming" for instance...Regardless of what you think about it, whether it exists or not, or whether it's man made or not....let's just take the current liberal viewpoint that it IS man-made and we CAN do something to fix it...

If I was to look at my total energy consumption, I would be astonished if 5% of my total energy bill went into lighting my house. I'd be equally astonished if 75% of my energy bill DIDN'T go into heating and cooling....remember that heating and cooling is not just AC and Central Heat, it's cooking, Hot Water, the fridge, and so on....

BUT...Rather than talk about replacing Aunt Minnie's extremely inefficient 40-year-old wheezy Oil Furnace and updating all of her appliances ...we get "Let's replace our light bulbs!". Although in the grand scheme of things, replacing just a handful of old, inefficient high-energy-use appliances saves more energy than an entire WalMart full of CFL's.

I guess my point is that libs don't want to talk about real solutions. It's easier to sit on the Titanic and b*tch about the arrangement of the deck chairs.