Radio Interview on Wind Turbine Syndrome

Jul 26, 2008

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Radio CFCO (Ontario, Canada), 2-28-08, “Ask the Health Expert.” (Be sure your speakers are turned up.)


4 Comments »

  1. Comment by courtney on 09/28/2008 at 3:48 pm

    What is being done about the noise problem? And the other problems?

  2. Comment by admin on 09/28/2008 at 8:42 pm

    Dear Courtney (if I may),

    As far as Nina & I know, nothing’s being done about the noise problem. Or any other problems for that matter.

    I am attaching a portion of text from the Preface to the book (which we hope will be coming out sometime next month). This gives you some idea of why nothing’s being done to address health problems.

    Finally, ask yourself why a country doctor practicing in the poorest county in New York State did this study, and not the Centers for Disease Control or some other authorized government agency. It’s a fair question and a troubling one. I, myself, ask it.

    It is well known that wind developers target impoverished communities for their wind farms. This explains the “poorest county” part of my question, and likewise why wind turbines quickly became a looming issue in my life four years ago. But it leaves unanswered the part about, Why did I write this report, and not the CDC?

    To answer that would of necessity catapult this report (and me) into the treacherous territory of public policy. One would like to think science is not beholden (craven?) to public policy, but that would be naïve, would it not? Moreover, while the scientist in me would like to imagine that I can write this report and remain above the hurly burly of public policy, I know this, too, is naïve. Wind Turbine Syndrome is an industrial plague. It is man-made and easily fixed. Proper setbacks are the best cure I know of. They do the job just fine. If I could scrawl this on a prescription pad and hand it to my subjects in this report, I would do so. No brilliant scientist needs to discover a new antibiotic or vaccine or sleeping pill to treat it.

    Setbacks, however, are not considered matters of public health, but matters of public policy—what is called “politics.” And right there is the rub. Right now, in the global rush to wind energy, there is almost no voice heard for public health repercussions. Where it is heard—at town meetings, on the Internet, in Letters to the Editor, in courtrooms—it is routinely ridiculed. I speak from experience.

    Perhaps it is because wind energy is being promoted by every state and national government I know of—under intense lobbying by wind development companies generally owned or otherwise capitalized by powerful investment banks which in turn take large tax write-offs and reap large government subsidies for their wind farm projects, and then turn around and sell carbon credits (green credits). Perhaps this helps explain why no provision is made for clinical caution?

    And perhaps this goes some way toward explaining why a pediatrician in rural NYS and a general practitioner in Cornwall, England—along with a handful of physicians elsewhere in the UK and Australia and who knows where else—are the ones funding this research and writing these reports.

    Then so be it.

    Calvin Luther Martin, PhD
    Editor

  3. Comment by Eric Davis on 12/09/2008 at 8:36 am

    i want to address the poorest community situation. It makes sense wind projects to “target” impoverished rural communities for at least a few reasons.

    The land is going to be cheaper.
    start is already very capital intensive

    Less development to obstruct the wind.
    makes for a better source of wind

    Many poorer towns welcome the extra income
    This extra income can stimulate the local
    economy

    Editor’s note: Property values plummet when wind turbines move into the neighborhood. This is not theory; this is a fact from a half dozen towns immediately to the east of where I live. I talk to realtors; I talk to homeowners who can’t sell their homes, or can sell them albeit at a major loss. (The property value studies the wind developers use are a hoax, incidentally. Study the ones done out of Texas, for instance. Or study any of them in detail. A joke.)

    Stimulate the local economy? Huh? Again, hasn’t happened in Clinton or Franklin County, NYS. It’s “feel good” rhetoric mouthed by all wind salesmen, but the on-the-ground fact where I live is, it’s baloney.

    Fact is, the poor are easily duped by fast-talkind salesmen, who are often very high pressure. Agian, this is local evidence, amply confirmed by many communities around the world. Whereas more affluent communities, with more than a high school education, tell these guys to beat it. Witness Long Island, NY, which has the best wind in the state–but no turbines on-shore. Won’t ever happen, either.

  4. Comment by Bill Chaffee on 10/18/2009 at 6:22 am

    On the web or on u-tube I have heard people claim that there is no noise right under a wind turbine. My guess is that the noise is going over their heads and that is why they don’t hear them. If there is a row of turbines then you would have be some distance away to hear the full effect. Also atmosperic physics are different at night. I don’t live near wind turbines, however it bothers me when people play loud low frequency “music” in their cars. The low frequency can be felt as well as heard and walls don’t stop it. At least it is only tempory unlike what poeple living near wind turbine have to put up with.

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