[ RadSafe ] Wind Turbine Syndrome: Living Near Wind Farms May Be Hazardous to Your Health | Reuters

[Cary Renquist]

Nuke plants are not the only ones to have to deal with NIMBY scare
tactics.  
No mention of LOBAs...

Cary

Home - Wind Turbine Syndrome - Nina Pierpont's Research
<http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/>


http://www.reuters.com/article/earth2Tech/idUS181162838120090803

Wind Turbine Syndrome: Living Near Wind Farms May Be Hazardous to Your
Health

Mon Aug 3, 2009 11:32am EDT
content by Earth2Tech
By Katie Fehrenbacher - Earth2Tech

Here's some more fodder for the Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) crowd: A
doctor says she's conducted research that suggests that people living
close to wind turbines are susceptible to what she calls Wind Turbine
Syndrome (WTS), an illness with symptoms including sleep disorders,
heart disease, panic attacks and headaches, the Independent reports this
weekend. So literally, a wind turbine in your backyard could be
hazardous to your health.

Nina Pierpont, a pediatrician based in New York, studied 10 families who
lived close to wind farms, and says eight out of the 10 ended up moving
away from their homes because of WTS-related illnesses. That's a small
survey sample, but it's a continuation of research done by other
scientists in the field. Pierpont recommends that wind turbines should
be built at least 2 kilometers (a little over a mile) away from people's
homes, and she tells the Independent that: "It is irresponsible of the
wind turbine companies - and governments - to continue building wind
turbines so close to where people live until there has been a proper
epidemiological investigation of the full impact on human health."

The problem, according to Pierpont, is that the wind farms emit a
constant low-frequency vibration and noise, which human beings are
sensitive to (not unlike fish's sensitivity to noise in the water) and
the wind farm vibrations can disrupt the inner ear's vestibular system
(responsible for balance and spatial orientation). Over a sustained
period of time, people living too close to the wind farms can develop a
disorder related to the inner ear disruption, WTS, which can cause
nervousness, heart disorders, nightmares, problems and even cognitive
development issues in small children.

Other researchers, from Salford University and UK government agencies,
have previously said that noise and vibrations from wind turbines do not
cause health problems, says the Independent, so it will be interesting
to see how the scientific community responds to Pierpont's latest
research. While Pierpont's research sounds plausible, her reactionary
comparisons, do her a disservice:

    The wind industry will try to discredit me and disparage me, but I
can cope with that. This is not unlike the tobacco industry dismissing
health issues from smoking.

The tobacco industry covering up cancer from smoking, one of the biggest
causes of preventable death in the world, is a slightly larger problem
(yes, that's sarcastic) than an industry just learning about the
possibility of panic attacks caused by wind turbines. But if the
research is reproduced and backed up by further studies, it could
actually have a big effect on the siting and zoning of wind farms - a
2-kilometer buffer between wind farms and buildings is substantial. It's
not like we needed more reasons to slow down the installation of clean
power, but if there's merit to the findings, they should be taken
seriously.