Psychiatrist rebukes Health Board for rejecting wind turbine-induced sleep deprivation (Falmouth, MA)
Sep 19, 2013
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Let’s hope the Town of Falmouth comes to its senses and stops the abuse [of Wind Turbine Syndrome victims]”
—William Hallstein, MD
Psychiatrist (Falmouth, MA)
.
Jed Goldstone, Chairman
Falmouth Board of Health
September 13, 2013
Subject: Falmouth wind turbines and sleep deprivation
.
Dear Mr. Goldstone:
In way of introduction, I have been a Falmouth resident since 1970. I am a psychiatrist, my career working its way through its 44th year. Consultation/liaison psychiatry has been my primary setting. In this role one treats patients with combined physical and psychiatric illnesses in the general medical center population, be it medical, surgical or emergency units, in addition to the most severely psychiatrically ill patients admitted to locked psychiatric units and correctional institutions.
I am thoroughly acquainted with the turbine issues and neighbors who are affected. I have made it my business to spend significant amounts of time experiencing the turbine effects. I know exactly what they are describing and have experienced it (emphasis added).
Turning now to the topic of sleep interruption and deprivation. Sleep disturbance is not a trivial matter. Children with inadequate sleep perform poorly academically, emotionally and physically. Errors in judgement and accident rates increase with inadequate sleep and fatigue for everyone: athletes, truck drivers, ship operators , aircraft pilots and physicians. No one is exempt.
In the world of medicine, illnesses of all varieties are destabilized by fatigue secondary to inadequate sleep. Diabetic blood sugars become labile, cardiac rhythms become irregular, migraines erupt and increase in intensity, tissue healing is retarded, and so forth, across the entire field of physical medicine. Psychiatric problems intensify and people decompensate. Mood disorders become more extreme and psychotic disorders more severe.
People with no previously identified psychiatric illness are destabilized by sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation experiments have repeatedly been terminated because test subjects become psychotic; they begin to hallucinate auditory and visual phenomena. They develop paranoid delusions. This all happens in the “normal” brain. Sleep deprivation has been used as an effective means of torture and a technique for extracting confessions.
I could work my way through the presentation of 43 years of sleep deprivation observations, but that is more than the scope of this letter. I am writing because I have witnessed Town of Falmouth officials and members of other boards trivialize symptom reports from people living close to the wind turbines. I have witnessed attempts to discredit people who are being hurt by the turbines.
Sleep deprivation breaks down individual defenses and mimics a broad range of physical and mental illnesses. Let’s hope the Town of Falmouth comes to its senses and stops the abuse.
Sincerely,
William Hallstein, MD
Falmouth, MA
Comment by Melodie Burkett on 09/19/2013 at 8:14 pm
It strengthens the soul to finally have such an astute professional write such a heartrending plea to the powers that be. We thank you Dr Hallstein!
If this does not hit home, we are doomed to suffer at the hands of greed. God help us!
Melodie Burkett
Clearview
Ontario, Canada
Comment by Cary Shineldecker on 09/19/2013 at 9:34 pm
Thank you for attempting to defend those souls in your community that you hold dear. It seems that those of us who are left to endure this 24/7 are somehow, at least in the minds of some, a worthwhile human sacrafice in the name of some self-created crusade against the evils that mankind has inflicted on the earth.
Those of us suffering from continued sleep deprivation are probably not the most insane. I would say those in our society consumed with greed and a twisted sense of reality about “green” energy are those who are in a psychotic state.
My heart goes out to all the people throughout the world who share in our experience at the hands of the greedy who act without compassion for those they so ruthlessly impact.
Comment by Sarah Laurie, CEO Waubra Foundation on 09/20/2013 at 2:13 am
Thank you Dr Hallstein.
What is occurring is indeed profoundly abusive, and has been for years. The suffering is real. People who are affected are not liars, and in my experience they do not exaggerate the damaging impact on their lives.
Sleep deprivation has been used as a method of torture, and it is not uncommon to hear wind turbine affected residents describe their existence living with the turbines as torture.
Anyone in public office who continues to ignore the existing evidence of serious harm to the health of people, or refuses to do their own due diligence runs the risk of incurring liability for their lack of appropriate and TIMELY action to prevent and limit the harm. Health and planning authorities have been warned and put on legal notice the world over.
The discovery of the Kelley research from the 1980’s makes it abundantly clear that the direct cause of the symptoms was known a generation ago to the wind industry, to governments, and to wind turbine manufacturers.
Serious questions now need to be asked about just who decided that infrasound and low frequency noise were not going to be included in the respective noise pollution guidelines around the world, and what their reasons were.
Who wrote ETSU 97 in the UK?
ETSU 97 has been the basis for many subsequent noise pollution guidelines. What specific clinical and acoustical evidence of prevention of harm to human health were these guidelines based on? Why was the Kelley research ignored by these authors? Whose decision was that??
As Dr Hallstein has made absolutely clear, the disintegration of physical and mental health is the INEVITABLE consequence of cumulative sleep deprivation.
Comment by Itasca Small on 09/20/2013 at 4:26 am
A most welcome letter by Dr. Hallstein! Likewise, the commentary by Dr. Sarah Laurie!
I can also attest to the truth of these psychiatric observations: My home is far enough away from the IWTs—approximately 11.25 miles—that the sleep deprivation wasn’t the apparent main problem. However, the infrasound itself plays havoc with my weak adrenal glands and multiple symptomatologies manifest, including thought-processing, memory, and emotional disturbances such as anxiety, depression, migraine, early indicators of hallucination, etc., and low blood sugar, cardiac arrhythmia, severe bradycardia and hypotension. All of which have greatly improved or disappeared as I support my adrenals away from the IWTs, and return quickly if I go back and the wind is blowing under the right conditions. I flee like the wind to avoid being thrown all the way back into the worst condition!
To Cary, regarding your comment: “It seems that those of us who are left to endure this 24/7 are somehow, at least in the minds of some, a worthwhile human sacrafice in the name of some self-created crusade against the evils that mankind has inflicted on the earth.” Without getting into a political debate in this very much appreciated forum, the answer is in the philosophy: there are those whose philosophy teaches that human beings are a cancer in the Body of Planet Earth. From there, it is easy for them to be callous about eradicating individual cancer cells in the Name of Saving Earth from Evil Mankind.
Itasca Small
Wind Energy Refugee Fleeing Eradication Procedures in Navajo County, Arizona, USA
Comment by Marshall Rosenthal on 09/20/2013 at 7:12 am
To all who now stand up—to you Dr. Hallstein, and Dr. Laurie, and Dr. Pierpont, and Dr. Salt, and Rob Rand, and Steve Ambrose, and Carmen Krogh, and to the many more who share their enlightenment about this man-made plague that has been unleashed upon the world—my deep gratitude.
Once again, we are creating a conference in Falmouth, MA, the American epicenter of this plague. The gathering will listen to speakers like Dr. Sarah Laurie, Steve Ambrose, world traveler Lilli Green, and to the people who have been forced to become the unwilling neighbors of the monstrous utility-scale wind machines.
Second Human Rights Conference
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Starting at 10 am
Falmouth Public Library
Admission Free
Contact Dave Moriarty, Coordinator, waveydavie@aol.com
It is a joy to work with you to end this nightmare.
Comment by Andreas Marciniak on 09/20/2013 at 8:56 am
We thank you Dr Hallstein! The things you have experienced are all the same as what has been happening in Waterloo, South Australia. I’m sorry tht you had to go through all that just to find out what many people around the world have been putting up with for years. I thank you for doing it.
I hope you will NOT have any side effects from exposing yourself to this, as I found after moving away that, merely going back to my home for maintenance, it takes longer and longer to get over the ill feelings: headache, chest pains, nausea, tinnitus, etc. I find myself feeling unwell in large shopping centres, airports, and airplanes. I never had this problem before they built the 37 X 3 MW turbines in our town.
Thank you all for helping us to understand it’s NOT all in our heads—that this is real.
Comment by Itasca Small on 09/20/2013 at 4:00 pm
Andreas,
Yes, when I first escaped, I was terribly sensitive to many sounds and sights in the city, and more than my norm in buildings with poor air conditioning/heating units that produce Infrasound and other LFN. Supporting my adrenal glands has helped immensely with all of it.
But, re-exposure does still result in more rapid onset and/or exacerbation of symptomatology. It’s like when you experience heat exhaustion/stroke. It occurs with progressively more-rapid-onset each time thereafter.
As Dr. Laurie emphasizes above, this is not a mystery to any of the principals in this Assault on All Life on Earth! They are all guilty!!!
Itasca
Comment by Aaron on 10/02/2013 at 10:12 am
Thank you Dr. Hallstein — and again to the many other compassionate people like Dr. Pierpont — for bringing attention to and trying to understand these horrific tragedies.
I’m troubled by Dr. Hallstein’s assertion that he knows “exactly what [wind energy victims] are describing.” Whenever we report the types of symptoms we experience, we are asked to describe them, to try and be objective about what happened in our bodies. And then we are harassed about our credibility, intelligence, sanity, intent. Inconveniently Dr. Hallstein’s report omits his description of what he senses.
I caution that until one has lived the life of a wind energy victim, 24/7/365, year after year after year, deprived of the comforts, amenities, and securities of home and health, that one does not know “exactly” what we are describing. Just another comment about who exactly are the “experts” here.
With respect,
Aaron