Wind turbines is one of the ways to get our energy production "greenified" and they are starting to pop up everywhere.
And people started complaining. Mostly about the noise those things are making.
Wind turbines are tubular steel towers range from 200 to 300 feet (60 to 90 metres) tall. The blades, usually colored light gray to blend in with the clouds, range in length from 20 to 40 metres (65 to 130 ft) or more. The blades rotate at 10-22 revolutions per minute.
Big blades connected to really big gears hidden on the inside can produce quiet a bit of noise pollution. Especially when installed in rural areas where the local inhabitants have never heard anything louder than a transistor radio.
Here is part where Wind Turbine Syndrome comes in. It's defined as "a debilitating, complex of symptoms" including sleep disturbance, headache, dizziness, vertigo, nausea and panic episodes "associated with sensations of internal pulsation or quivering which arise while awake or asleep."
Dr. Nina Pierpont, New York physician and ecologist, is the one who coined the term.
Dr. Pierpont's hypothesis says wind turbines produce vibration, low frequency noise and their moving shadows create visual stimulation known as "flicker." According to the good doctor's hypothesis, wind turbines produce vibration, low frequency noise and their moving shadows create visual stimulation known as "flicker."
All of those things that can affect the body, especially if you're someone with a "pre-existing migraine disorder, motion sensitivity, and inner ear damage"
Dr. Owen Black, Director of Neurology Research for the Legacy Research and Technology Center in Portland, pipes in with explanation - "Judging from the studies done, particularly by the Navy on low frequency sound pressure levels and given the symptom patterns that are described here, I definitely think it needs to be investigated. What the cause is, I have no idea."
So, the bottom line is - if anyone is really affected by wind turbines, there's a good chance it's going to be us, the migraine people.
Yours truly would like to put a question to all of my gentle readers - if any of you lives close to wind turbines, does it affect your migraines in any way?
link: Wind farms: Is there a hidden health hazard?
Tuesday
Wind Turbine Syndrome - Real or Not?
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4 comments:
Very interesting. I was just commenting to hubby the other day in response to a news statement about 'totally harmless wind energy'. There is nothing that is totally harmless is there? There is always an impact, granted some less harmful than others.
A wind farm is going up a few miles from here. Not close enough to impact us with flicker or noise unless I choose to drive past it. The power lines linking it to our local power company will be going thru 1 1/2 miles of our property however. While I am pro-green energy, again, there is always an impact. What will the EM fields do to impact my family's health? What other hidden dangers are there we have yet to explore in the interest of blissful ignorance? What happens when our ocuntryside is littered with huge wind turbines, killing birds, bees and helpful bats? We moved to the country to get away from these issues, and here they are sneaking up on us anyway. Our previously unfettered view of the sunrise and sunsets is no longer. Invaded by high power lines, a huge cellphone tower and a watertower flank us on one side, and a semi-truck repair site filled with lovely trucks and trailers the other. More windfarms are coming. Where will we go then? I fear that our farewell to incandescent bulbs was just the first of many potentially harmful changes to come.
Ellen
visit my WEGO Health blog
I'm going to watch this carefully for comments. I blog about earth conservation but the impact of such a wind farm would be detrimental in so many respects that I just can't get on board with them as they're designed right now.
Thanks for this info, Raingem.
The problem with switching to "green" energy as I see it is thus - no one looks closely at the tech; people keep using the same inefficient designs over and over again. There are designs and materials that would reduce noise pollution and shield from EM fields. But that would mean investing more in R&D and no one cares about that much just to protect birds, bees and migraine people. Lets face it - we are a minority; and soon to be an oppressed one at that. And just when we got doctors to actually start diagnosing us correctly...
Have you checked: a Background Research Paper on Wind Power, produced for the County of Essex in Ontario by Jones Consulting Group in Aug 2007: "There is also information readily available from difference sources on the internet, most notably a medical doctor in New York, Dr. Nina Pierpont, who has attributed negative health impacts due to large scale wind turbines. The reality with Dr. Pierpont’s work and other similar work is that the FINDINGS HAVE NOT BEEN CLINICALLY PROVEN TO BE ACCURATE. Instead, the results posted have been based on interviews with persons who FEEL they have been impacted by a wind turbine. In our opinion, until more conclusive clinical and scientific information is available we do not consider health impacts in the form of medical problems (i.e. cardiovascular disease, heart palpitations) to have a correlation to turbine development." (my emphasis) Also, EVEN IF there might be some side effect... what about PROVEN health side-effects of living next to coal plant or nuclear station?! Give me wind & solar ANY DAY! In peace. BTW: I AM a migraine sufferer unfortunately.
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