Gone With The Wind--Why wind power may be bad for your health

Frontpagemagazine ^ | 7-30-09 | Tait Trussell

[SJackson]

Gone With The Wind By: Tait Trussell
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, July 30, 2009

 

The statuesque and towering windmill represents one of Barack Obama’s grandiose hopes for renewable energy in our future. But windmills also have a troubling feature: They can be bad for your health.

Dr. Nina Pierpont has conducted substantial research on what she calls “wind turbine syndrome,” the clinical name she has given to the “constellation of symptoms experienced by many (though not all) who live near industrial wind turbines.” These include sleep problems like insomnia; headaches; dizziness; unsteadiness and nausea; exhaustion; anxiety; anger and irritability; depression; memory loss; eye problems; problems with concentration and learning; and tinnitus (ringing in the ears).

Dr. Pierpont is no agenda-driven fright merchant. She received her PhD in behavioral ecology from Princeton and her M.D. from John’s Hopkins School of Medicine. But she does believe that the enthusiasm for wind power, espoused by the Obama administration, is seriously misguided. “As industrial windplants proliferate close to people’s homes and anywhere else people regularly congregate (schools, nursing homes, places of business, etc.) Wind Turbine Syndrome likely will become an industrial plague,” Dr. Pierpont warns.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, has been actively touting the benefits of wind power. President Obama marked Earth Day (April 22) by talking up wind power as he made a pitch for his energy plans, calling for “a new era of energy exploration in America. He said “the bulk of our efforts” must be focused on transitioning the county to more renewable energy.

In making his case, he picked a hard-hit town in Iowa, a state that ranks second only to Texas in installed wind capacity. Obama optimistically said that wind could generate as much as 20 percent of the U.S. electricity demand by 2030, and the Obama budget for 2010 has about $20 billion in tax incentives for green energy projects, including wind power. Supposedly, this investment will create as many as 250,000 jobs. 

The available evidence suggests otherwise. Nations that have sought renewable energy through wind turbines have not experiences impressive job creation. In Spain, where wind turbines have provided 11 percent of that nation’s power demand, two jobs were lost for every one job created, according to a study by Professor Gabriel Calzada at King Juan Carlos University in Madrid. Professor Calzada said premiums paid in his country for solar, biomass, wave and wind power translated into a cost of $774,000 for each Spanish green job created since 2000.

There are other downsides to wind power. Research on wind turbines conducted in Portugal by the Center for Human Performance, an organization dedicated to research in what’s called “vibro-acoustic disease,” or VAD, echoes some of the health concerns raised by Dr. Nina Pierpont. The Center coordinates teams working in areas of cardiology, pulmonary, neurophysiology, and genetics research. The results of the research “irrefutably demonstrate that wind turbines in the proximity of residential areas produce acoustical environments that can lead to the development of VAD in near-by home dwellers,” in the words of Professor Mariana Alves-Pereira, School of Health Sciences, Lusofona University, Portugal.

Noise from windmills has been compared with the low thuds of base notes from music, or the sound of a helicopter in the distance. Low-frequency noise tends to be felt through vibrations, which can resonate with the human body. Some people find these vibrations quite disturbing. The low-frequency noise travels farther than the audible noise, up to several miles. 

Further studies were reported in a January 2007 scientific paper by Barbara Frey and Peter Hadden that reviewed evidence and research by experts on the impact of industrial scale wind turbines suffered by those living nearby. The paper includes comments by families affected by wind turbines as well as coverage by news media. Commenting on wind turbine construction in her area, Darlene Ross of Milton, Vermont, notes that “Anyone susceptible to the negative health effects caused by wind turbines will not be able to move away without abandoning their homes,” she says. Ross’s view of wind power is summed up in three words: “No, No, No.”

It is not an isolated case. This spring, several people came forward with health complaints in Canada. On April 22, Dr. Robert McMurtry, an Ontario physician and a former assistant deputy minister of the Population and Public Health Branch of Health Canada, told a news conference in Toronto that while wind energy may offer a clean way to generate electricity, people who live near the giant windmills are suffering with serious health problems.

Volunteers distributed questionnaires in areas near wind farms, asking residents to describe whether they had any effects from the turbines. Of 76 people who responded to the surveys, 53 reported health complaints. They included headaches, heart palpitations, hearing problems, stress, anxiety, and depression. One woman responding to the survey, Barbara Ashbee, lives near 11 of the 45 big wind turbines. She recounted that the day the turbines started running, she and her husband, Dennis, stopped sleeping. “You can hear them in the bedroom. There is also a hum and vibration that permeates the house. I thought they were wonderful. But they’re not,” she said. “My memory now is horrible.”

In one of the reports in the U.S., a Dr. Robert Larivee of Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, said the noise can “contribute to indigestion, ulcers, and heartburn.” 

Despite such health risks, wind energy retains its advocates. In 2008, according to environmental reporter Keith Schneider, the U.S. “added 7,500 megawatts of generating capacity from wind—equivalent to 8 large coal-fired power plants.” Schneider notes that “Texas alone this year spent $3 billion on wind generating equipment. Wind is the leading edge of a clean energy industrial sector.” And wind energy finds its most powerful supporter in the White House, who aspires to make wind a prime source of the country’s energy.

That goal remains very far from reality. The Energy Information Administration, for instance, estimates that by 2030 wind power will generate only 2.5 percent of the country’s energy demand. And even that meager output may come as cold comfort to those Americans who will reap the possible health consequences that come with living too close to the wind turbines that some see as the sign of the future.

[SJackson]

I haven't a clue if this is true, but the Obama solution will be to tell them to quit whining and take one for the team. Take a couple asprin too.

[Doogle]

PETA won't allow it anyway...knocks the ell out of innocent burds flying way too close, it puts field mice in a tizzy, and squirrels get too tired climbing the base.

[Sacajaweau]

One would think they would go back historically and see if Hollanders are all whacked out.

[Texas resident]

In Kalifornistan, they call them condor cuisanarts.

[Doogle]

:)

[bert]

There is also the positron emission problem.

The rotational energy produced by wind turbines in instances where there is alignment along the magnetic field line induces positronic displacement into the grid. This displacement remains in the current flow until utilized.

It is dissipated into your home, especially by resistance appliances like stove eyes, toasters and hair dryers.

[jiggyboy]

But that’s what gonkulators are for. I have one attached to every window.

[east1234]

Wind power, to good to be true.

[Political Junkie Too]

One would think they would go back historically and see if Hollanders are all whacked out.

You mean the country with the "red light" district on Canal Street, and the "coffee shops" that smell funny?

-PJ

[Willie Green]

The low-frequency noise travels farther than the audible noise, up to several miles. 

Although this is true, the effects also diminish rapidly following the inverse square law, and can be driven to a minimum by lowering the decibel level at the source.

IMHO, a major part of the problem is that scientific equipment has become sufficiently sensitive to measure previously undetectable levels of "noise". This provides egghead "researchers" with the "data" to imply negative health consequences when there are none. The only real "beneficiaries" are the parasitic lawyers who clog our court system with lawsuits base on this crap.

[bert]

Saul Alinsky rules

RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2304339/posts

[blf1776]

See this link for how wind farms mess up weather radar.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2287639/posts

[Maceman]

"Noise from windmills has been compared with the low thuds of base notes from music,"

Very interesting article. But music has "bass" notes, not "base" notes. (Although as the father of ten year old who makes me listen to her favorite radio station in the car, there is a lot of "base" music out there these days.)

Hate to be a pill, but I strongly believe that these types of copy errors in a published article detract from the otherwise worthwhile points that are being made.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

For every 100 MW of wind generation, 85 MW of backup fossil power is required. In Texas, the figure is > 90 percent backup.

[The Great RJ]

Other reasons aside windmills aren’t reliable sources of energy or cost efficient. I have driven by the vast forest of windmills in southwestern Minnesota along Highway 23 on days when not one of the hundreds of windmills that stretch to the horizon were turning and on other days when only a handful were in operation. I have also seen very windy days when the windmills are idled because wind velocities beyond a certain point stress the massive rotors to the breaking point and they need to be shut down. The demand for electricity continues whether the winds blow or not.

[CharlesWayneCT]

The designs for smaller, individual turbines are better in this regard. Big propellers going through the air is not something I would want near my house.

[tiki]

They have to self-medicate.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***...alignment along the magnetic field line induces positronic displacement into the grid.***

Anything like the Positronic rays used to by Jane Fonda in BARBARELLA?

[sockmonkey]

For every 100 MW of wind generation, 85 MW of backup fossil power is required. In Texas, the figure is > 90 percent backup.

Someone I know who delivers parts to some of the wind farms in TX told me he sees a lot of broken turbines when he goes out to deliver. I am guessing they are more prone to breakage with less return, than say the electric plants at Calavera Lake or Braunig Lake near San Antonio. Anybody know?

[leilani]

The demand for electricity continues whether the winds blow or not.

Yep. Texas is, by design, completely off of the US's grid - I guess so that if Obama is successful in instituting HorrorbamaCare & nationalizing those last remaining parts of the American private economy he hasn't already stolen we can beat a hasty exit from the Union without much interruption to our daily lives,lol).

But the state has become very wind-dependent over the last few years for power & has narrowly averted rolling blackout events a couple of times when the winds died down suddenly at windfarms in West TX. So now we're having to build all these $$$ newfangled backup generating plants powered by natural gas (fossil fuel!) to be able to kick in when winds collapse (usually, but as we saw in 2008, not always at night).

Heaven knows I'm no energy expert, but, as a lowly consumer, it surely seems to me that wind power is turning out to be neither as cheap nor as green as all the shills for the self-enriching racketeers in the Big Green Lobby told us it would be. By the time we get all the kinks worked out (if ever), all those ridiculously delicate $$$ turbines we were told would save us so much in the long term will have had to have been replaced many times over. God only knows what the ever-escalating eventual $/KW tab will average by the time all is said & done.

(I sure wish Envirwackolifornia would have been the state to serve as the guinea pigs on Wind Power - but as usual, the sanctimonious dolts at the Statehouse in Sacramento never put their money where their green mouths are, at least not where it counts.)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

All that mass spinning a generator 100’s of feet in the air. Not exactly easy to keep tuned, let alone work on.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Low frequency sound waves can demolish buildings.

They are also bad for people.

On the other hand, being near an elephant when he starts a low frequency rumble is a lot of fun.