Editor’s note:  You’ve heard of the Harvard Medical School, correct? And I’ll bet you’re aware it’s one of the finest medical schools in the world, right?   Harvard Medical School has a number of world-class institutes and centers.  One being the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI).

Put it this way. Let’s say you are a Saudi Arabian prince, or a head of state (president, prime minister) of a foreign country. Or Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. You’re someone in this stratum of society, in other words, and your doctor says you have an inner ear disorder, something affecting your utricle or saccule or semicircular canals, or your cochlea.  Because you don’t want to mess around with medical mediocrity, you have your physician make an appointment for you at Massachusetts Eye & Ear.

You fly to Boston and meet with a specialist at MEEI.  The specialist is likely to be a physician doing a fellowship in neuro-otology.  (He’s called a “Fellow in Neuro-otology.”)  Or perhaps it’s one of the senior, attending physicians — that is, one of the full-time faculty.

The doc does a bunch of tests, but he’s still mystified about what’s going on. He needs to consult with some colleagues.  If he’s really stumped (or “she,” if the doc’s a woman), he asks the director of the Clinical Balance & Vestibular Center for a consult. (Think of going to the Vatican and being seen by one of the archbishops or cardinals about a spiritual problem. If the cardinal can’t help you — and if you’re really lucky — the cardinal may ask the pope for a consultation.)

When the Medical Director of Mass. Eye & Ear’s Clinical Balance & Vestibular Center comes on board, you can safely assume you are seeing the ultimate authority on balance and vestibular disorders — in the world. The pope.  Or at least, you’re seeing one of the half-dozen best qualified and knowledgeable and trained and recognized specialists in the world.

Follow me so far?

When Dr. Stephen Rauch says the following, it’s worth paying attention to.   (Incidentally, Dr. Rauch has read Dr. Pierpont’s  book, “Wind Turbine Syndrome.” Dr. Rauch met with Dr. Pierpont in Cambridge, Mass., several years ago.)

Dr. Steven Rauch, an otologist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and a professor at Harvard Medical School, believes WTS is real. Patients who have come to him to discuss WTS suffer from a “very consistent” collection of symptoms, he says. Rauch compares WTS to migraines, adding that people who suffer from migraines are among the most susceptible to turbines. There’s no existing test for either condition but “Nobody questions whether or not migraine is real.”

“The patients deserve the benefit of the doubt,” Rauch says. “It’s clear from the documents that come out of the industry that they’re trying very hard to suppress the notion of WTS and they’ve done it in a way that [involves] a lot of blaming the victim.”

When the Medical Director of Harvard’s Clinical Balance & Vestibular Center says the above, and says this, the question becomes: “Why are we still discussing the veracity of Wind Turbine Syndrome in these pages, and in the media, and with wind developers, and with wind turbine manufacturers, and with politicians — with anyone, for that matter?”

Why are we even considering ludicrous theories like the “nocebo effect” advanced by Australian sociologist Simon Chapman, whose scholarly speciality is “tobacco industry advertising”?  (I’m serious.)  Why are we listening to British physicist Geoff Leventhall (whose physics Dr. Pierpont has had to correct on at least one occasion), who for years has been a paid consultant to wind energy companies and has absolutely no clinical credentials, who for years maintained that wind turbines produce negligible infrasound, and for years argued that “if you can’t hear something audibly, it can’t affect you negatively” — why are we still paying attention to this irrelevant man?

Who gives a goddam whether Geoff Leventhall or Simon Chapman think Wind Turbine Syndrome is real or not?  (Am I missing something in this discussion?)

In addition to Dr. Rauch, there is Dr. Alec Salt, worldclass neuro-physiologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, where he is head of the Cochlear Fluids Research Laboratory.  Dr. Salt specializes in inner ear disorders. He’s been doing this for decades, publishing in major clinical journals.  Dr. Salt is the one who demolished Leventhall’s silly thesis that “if you can’t hear it, it can’t hurt you.” (Leventhall was not the originator of that stupid idea; he’s just parroted it for decades and, like a wind-up toy, refuses to stop.)

Between Harvard’s Dr. Rauch and  Washington University’s Dr. Salt, and Dr. Pierpont’s meticulous, peer-reviewed research (M.D. from the Johns Hopkins Univ. School of Medicine, Ph.D. from Princeton in Population Biology), there really need be no further discussion about the legitimacy of WTS.  Yes, the neuropathology of WTS needs further elucidation, but there is absolutely no question whether the illness is real. Anyone who denies it is simply playing games — and the moon (don’t you know?) is made of Swiss cheese and the Easter Bunny, folks, is honest-to-god real.

Read on. The author of the following article, Alex Halperin, requested an interview with Dr. Pierpont before writing the article. She declined. (At this point, she prefers that specialists like Dr. Rauch speak to the issue.)

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“Big Wind Is Better Than Big Oil, But Just as Bad at P.R.” 

— Alex Halperin, The New Republic (6/15/14)

Nancy Shea didn’t learn about the wind farm until after she moved to northwest Massachusetts to enjoy a quiet country life. The news didn’t bother her. Shea, who describes herself as “green” and “crunchy,” favors clean and renewable energy. But just days after the 19-turbine project went online Shea sensed something wrong. She “felt kind of queasy,” one day in the kitchen. Later she woke up feeling like she had bed spins.

Editor’s note:  Simon Chapman.  Simon is a Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney, Australia’s flagship university. Simon is quoted in media all over the world, dismissing Wind Turbine Syndrome as baloney.  (He goes a step further.  He ridicules WTS victims.)

It’s important to understand that Simon has zero clinical credentials.  (It’s difficult to define what his PhD is in.  As best I can tell, it seems to be in sociology with some health-related whistles and bells. Simon came to fame by investigating the tobacco industry for deceptive advertising.)

Hence, when Simon trashes WTS, he does so not as a scientist or clinician.

Let me put it this way.  I, too, was a university professor.  My PhD degree is in history with a minor in anthropology.  My BA degree is in biology and I was briefly enrolled in a PhD program in molecular biology and, after that, in immunology.

Nevertheless, I don’t call myself a biologist.  Simon Chapman’s pronouncements on Wind Turbine Syndrome are no more credible than mine.

Surprised?  My credentials lie in the humanities, period.  Simon’s are in the social sciences, period, even if his academic appointment is in a school of public health.  Neither of us is in a position to speak with anywhere near the authority of a clinician like Dr. Nina Pierpont, or a scientist like Dr. Alec Salt, each of whom has the requisite scholarly credentials and at least one of whom has done clinical interviews of victims (Dr. Pierpont). Neither Simon nor I has done anything remotely resembling Dr. Salt’s laboratory research on inner ear neuropathology triggered by infrasound.  (Dr. Salt is considered a world leader in neurophysiology.)  Nor has either one of us done anything remotely like Dr. Pierpont’s research into the health effects reported globally by people living in proximity to wind turbines.

Forgive me for laboring the issue, yet it’s time that Simon’s credentials be clarified.

The obvious conclusion is that when Simon Chapman dismisses WTS as moonshine, it should be instantly apparent that the man doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about. The question becomes, “Does Simon realize he’s making a fool of himself?”

On the other hand, maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe he’s not making a fool of himself.  Maybe Simon Chapman is really saying, “I’m neither a scientist nor a clinician. I’m a social scientist with some health-related whistles and bells.  That said, in my opinion as a scholar I think the evidence for WTS is weak.”

There would be nothing foolish in his saying this.  In this case, Simon Chapman is not a fool; the people who take him seriously and credit his opinion are fools.  It’s sort of like people believing Barack “Barry” Obama if Barry toured the country announcing WTS is horseshit.  Barry’s a lawyer. He’s a prominent man — he was even a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago — but his statements on WTS would fall within what’s called “personal opinion.”

Same goes for Simon Chapman.

In any case, Simon has gotten under the skin of Senator John Madigan in the Australian Federal Senate. Evidently Madigan appeared on a radio “talk” show recently and expressed doubt about Simon’s academic credentials to speak authoritatively on WTS. He questioned, as well, Simon’s  financial relationship with wind energy companies.

Simon responded with a threat of lawsuit for libel.  Sen. Madigan’s response is printed, below.

Personally, I think the senator should be dancing in the streets.  I think he should welcome the opportunity to deconstruct Simon before a court of law.  (Incidentally, I know nothing about Simon Chapman’s connections with wind energy companies.) What I know is what I said above: the man speaks with no more authority on the subject than you or I.

Senator John Madigan

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Editor’s note: We were contacted this spring by a group in Slovenia that is desperately trying to prevent the installation of scores of industrial wind turbines. They asked for our help. There is already one very large turbine up and running in the community, with dozens more on the way — unless these people manage to stop them.

Dr. Pierpont wrote them a letter, at their request, explaining the clinical evidence and science of Wind Turbine Syndrome. We published that letter, here.

The group in Slovenia responded with the following (extravagant) note of appreciation, along with a narrative of their travail, so far, with wind energy. (It’s interesting to see how the script followed by Big Wind never varies. Regardless of the country, it’s always the same bullying and deceit.)

Something else that likewise never varies are the symptoms of Wind Turbine Syndrome, as revealed in the heartbreaking piece by one of the Slovene campaigners, Barbara Marinsek, who unfortunately lives near the single turbine that’s been erected.

Keep in mind as you read this that English is not the primary language for these people.

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“Greetings from Slovenia to America, with deepest gratitude and respect to Calvin Luther Martin and his wife, Dr. Nina Pierpont, for their unselfish, generous and efficient support in our fight against wind factories.”

Civilna iniciativa za zaščito Senožeških Brd (Trans. as the “Civil Initiative for the Protection of Senožeška Brda”  (Senozeska Brda)

There is only one wind-turbine in our region – fortunately in our whole country SLOVENIA, but those living nearby report many health issues: WIND-TURBINE-SYNDROME. Moreover our government with the money and support from Brussels has recently been planning to build two wind-factories with 40 or even more 130 metre-high wind turbines. We are fighting against wind farms in our region and are grateful that Nina and Calvin are helping us in this difficult fight.

Dearest Nina and Calvin,

We are writing on behalf of our Initiative for the Protection of Senozeska Brda, SLOVENIA. We do not think there are words in any world language that could express our deepest gratitude and respect towards you both. In the time of despair and need when everything seemed to be lost, you offered us your generous support by even not knowing us AND IMMEDIATELY.

Thank you, Calvin, for your intervention to EPAW — without you we would not have succeeded.

Nina, thank you for having given us your scientific opinion on health issues and making an exhaustive report on the issues we are facing right now. They are of much help to us.  Much more than you think.  We hope that one day we can return your favour. We knocked on your door, and you opened it generously and widely.  We hope you will continue to be a voice against wind farms for good in our region and elsewhere around the world, where honest citizens fight their fights against wind farms.

God bless you for the wonderful work you have been doing for so long. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts.

With deepest respect and gratitude,

Diego Loredan (Chairman)
Barbara Marinsek (Member and Victim)
Katarina Dea Zetko (Supporter)

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Firstly, LET US SHOW YOU OUR ANTI-WIND GROUP IN ACTION

NO WIND TURBINES: Our fight is tough, but we are determined to keep fighting to the end because we are right

And now a few words about how our fairytale turns into the nightmare of wind-turbines (another symptom).

It happens all of a sudden. At least this is what we want or wanted to believe.There is a lady from the capital city of Slovenia, Ljubljana, who decides to buy a home in a genuine, unspoilt countryside. So she buys a house in our beatiful region to enjoy the peace of nature and breathe fresh air, to hear birds singing, to make long walks into wilderness of our forest, to enjoy herself far from the madding crowd.

Soon the fairytale is over and a nightmare begins, although nobody was aware at that time that wind- turbines are so annoying and cause so many ill-health effects. The investor keeps repeating that wind farms are environmental-friendly, and what is more, the Slovenian representative of Greenpeace agrees with the investor.   “And there are so many happy people in Germany where so far there has not been a single complaint from the German folks in 20 years or even more,” the Slovenian Greenpeace says. Germany, a promised land for us Europeans.

 So, why not? There is a plan to set up one wind-turbine only 800 metres away from this lady and some other residents. She, as a successful woman, says to herself, “Why not?  It’S green energy and I must support this.”  They even seem to be so romantic and beautiful, we all think. This is the way of thinking of other neighbors, too, until this turbine Went up  — and  the nightmare begins. Headaches, sleep disturbance, vertigo, dizziness, depression, tiredness. These people have now become the loudest voice against wind-turbines, and yet almost nobody believes them.

And now, after the  “romantic” turbine has been set up, the message on the house of our member, Ms. Barbara Marinsek, living next to the turbine pleads: PLEASE, NO WIND TURBINES (see wind-turbine in the background):

Take a look at our Karst countryside of the village DOLENJA VAS without turbines, when life was so wonderful, magical:

. . . and with the planned wind turbines, if we do not win our fight (more than 40 gigantic wind turbines are planned in this region).

But gradually more and more people become aware that this is probably not the best solution, and form a group against wind farms  Unfortunately, there are at least three influential, greedy people in our region, supposedly having been offered a bribe. However, after the government realizes that there are so many people against wind farms, it cancels its plan immediately. We are relieved and our hearts are filled with happiness and we soon forget about everything.

But not for long. Out of the blue, these avaricious people make an action and try to convince people in the community how much money they will get and what a bright future our tourism will have with these “magical” wind turbines. They go from house to house, from person to person, bringing gifts and speaking sweet, promising words, their words of wisdom; they are so generous with their  “genuine” wish to help us and to make our countryside even more appealing. Foreign tourists from all over the world will be coming to enjoy the wonderful veduta (view) of our wind-parks.

Some people immediately fall victim to their promises. However, they do not know that their promises are made in hell.

Faustus sold his soul to the devil, Mephistopheles, in exchange for earthly power and money.

Together they establish a Civile Initiative for wind farms, and collect signatures from some naive people, write a petition for wind turbines and take it directly to the Ministry for Infrastructure and the Environment. The government now establishes a new plan as a high priority, even more ambitious than ever for wind turbines in our region. The government is now determined to set up 40 wind turbines or even more in our region, only from 400 to 800 metres away from us.

The rainbow in Dolenja vas a wonderful veduta (view) from the home of our member and  turbine victim, Ms. Barbara Marinsek

There is a non-binding consultative referendum in our region, where the majority of our people say NO to wind turbines. Happiness and a rainbow come again into our lives of frightened hearts. The mayor of our Municipality says that he will respect the democratically-expressed will of his community. However, not for long, as it turns out.

The nearby village Laze (where our Chairman Diego Loredan lives) in wintertime, with no wind turbines -HOW LONG?:

And a wonderful VEDUTA (view) from his house. HOW LONG??? HOW LONG???:

The panoramic view of the village of Laže without wind- turbines, so far.  HOPEFULLY FOR GOOD, NO, NO, UNDOUBTEDLY FOR GOOD:

You can see some white clouds in the skies of Laze. But these clouds get darker and darker, blacker and blacker. The thunderstorm approaches. The lightning gets louder and louder, but not the lightning from heaven.  No, it is much worse. It is the lightning coming from wind farms; it is the lightning of our hopelessness.  This time the government and the investor insist on their plan of two wind farms in our region, and they won’t give up. The mayor of our municipality is told that he and his community will do not count in any way. The government ministry is above all. The ministry is — God.

NOT A CHANCE!!!

And finally, this is the way our region will look like if we do not win:

So, here we go again on our own, down the road we have never known. But, we are fighters and we shall never surrender. We do the best we can.

And Lord has sent us the generous support of Nina and Calvin. They have shown us that the saying, “a friend in need is a friend indeed,” is really true. They have given us both moral and actual support, and so we will keep fighting to the end.

Barbara Marinsek

Let us finish the story about our nightmare, with the testimony of one of the victims of Wind Turbine Syndrome, who lives only 800 metres away from the gigantic wind turbine:  Ms. Barbara Marinsek.

I am so grateful for having the honour to expess my experience as a person and victim living next door, unfortunately, not to Alice but to our first “magical” wind turbine in our wonderful Slovenia. I’m delighted that you are ready to hear my voice on the effects of this turbine, which has become a permanent companion in the life of my family and has changed our lives forever. To be as clear as possible, we have to turn back the clock 10 years.

The then local “magnates” who were, at the same time, members of our agrarian community, which also owns a part of one commons (field), where this turbine has been set up, came up with the idea about the wind turbine.  Do not ask me how and why, because I don´t know. The turbine was presented to us in the best possible way with its possible good effects.  There were, of course, no negative effects whatsoever.

Above all, they focused on the money the people will get, especially those who own some land in our agrarian community.  (By the way, these earnings were fom 18 to 50 Euros.)  They used their best efforts to the extent that we were invited to Austria to see Mr. Klaus, who is the developer of the first wind turbine.

What we saw was a much smaller wind turbine and, really, at that time, we were not against it for the wind turbine in Austria was neither noisy nor disturbing — maybe only during our visit. I suppose that it must have been arranged in that way deliberately for us during our visit.  [Almost surely it was not generating power at the time, but “freewheeling.”   Freewheeling means it was spinning by drawing power from the grid, and the blades were turned so they were not catching the wind, with minimal turbulence with the tower — Editor.]  Nevertheless, in the end we got a much bigger one than that shown to us in Austria.

Well, as soon as the setting up of this turbine has begun, there were some problems with the bureaucracy, for the planned turbine was supposed to be much smaller, supported by 4 iron columns in a form of long-distance transmission, but they started to build a gigantic concrete pillar. With sadness in my heart, I was forced to watch from my balcony and from my yard (at that time I was the only one who was against it because I would have preferred watching animals and cows eating grass to the iron that spins and spins, rotates and rotates) how they were destoying our countryside and nature and, what is more, how there were too many, too big and too wide trucks driving across our land.

And then the time came when it started operating. Our first reaction was, of course, to the noise it was producing, which made us feel as if we were at the airport listening to the planes taking off: wuf, wuf, wuf.  I must emphasize that wind conditions are not always as favourable as they claim. Our strong northeast wind (called BURJA –  Huge Squall Level Wind) can blow at the speed of 120 kilometres per hour with huge squalls. And the winters here are tough and cold.

When the operating conditions are favourable, we can say goodbye to our peace, sleep and normal way of life, for the turbine noise can last as long as 3 days or more — night and day, 24 hours a day – NON-STOP.

Can you imagine how we feel? After sleepless nights, doing our hard work feeling so tired, without ability to concentrate and think. And this applies to our children as well: they can’t concentrate at school, for they are tired, exhausted and have no will to learn.

If we manage to fall asleep, we are likely to be awakened by the terrible noise in the midlle of the night, and we can say goodbye to our sleep, because this constant, permanent noise makes you feel completely nervous — a feeling of going nuts.

Our youngest daughter, 18, has always been healthy, completely without any medical issues. However, her medical problems started 8 months ago. She complains constantly of terrible headaches.  She went to see a doctor, and an eye doctor as well, who found nothing. There are other appointments with different specialists (CT- scans of her head, etc.) to find out what’s wrong.

I ask myself WHY? WHY at this age?  And at the very time when the turbine began operating?  My husband, as well, has been complaining of terrible headaches since then. And I have been feeling nervous, irritated, depressed, tired, exhausted, without any energy for living.

The neighbours of this so-called magical turbine have made several complaints to the people who are in charge of this matter. They have actually responded, but unfortunately they HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING, although now at least they seem to believe that there is a real, not imaginary noise in our neighbourhood. Mr. Klaus from Austria has seen us several times, however he keeps stating that he can’t be of any help. And we suggested that the wind turbine be shut down at night, his response was that it’s impossible.

After all, the worst part of this nightmare is the fact that we, as nonprofessionals in this field (laymen), were forced to organize ourselves in a group and to learn all about the wind turbines. Nobody knew anything about the low frequency noise and infrasound, which is not heard, yet THEY DO have SIGNIFICANT NEGATIVE IMPACTS ON PEOPLE’S HEALTH.

We are lucky to have started as a small group which fights against the wind factories, and with our endless pleas and information via all possible media we have gained the support of numerous people — people who are ready to listen to us and, thank God, have said NO to WIND TURBINES in a referendum.

We are fully aware that it is all about MONEY and NOTHING ELSE in our project, therefore WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER AND WILL KEEP FIGHTING FOR OUR RIGHTS, HEATH, WELL-BEING AND PEACE OF MIND TILL THE END.

We appreciate any kind of support and express deep respect for your having listened to us. Thanks to all of you.

With best wishes from Slovenia,

Barbara Marinsek and family

“Wind Turbines Causing Mothers to Eat Their Own Babies, Says Mink Farmer”

The owner of a Danish mink farm at the centre of a controversy over nearby wind turbines has reported more casualties among his animals.

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— Nick Hallett, Breitbart.com (6/13/14)

Breitbart London reported on Tuesday that the turbines have been linked to a series of miscarriages and deformities among the mink, as well as increasingly aggressive behaviour, but the farmer now says that things have got worse, with healthy pups having to be put down.

The farmer reports having to separate the mothers from their young after they became aggressive and started attacking them. This happened at the same time that the wind changed to the south, bringing the noise from the turbines directly over the farm.

He says: “The wind turned south yesterday, and the noise from the turbines came just over the farm, the females began to bite their puppies, just as I had expected.”

Below is a video of the injuries suffered by one of the mink pups:

The farmer reports that 21 mink puppies have now had to be put down because of their wounds. Another 40 are under observation, but many are so young that they cannot survive without their mothers.

Tthe farm has already suffered thanks to the wind turbines installed 350 yards away. The turbines have been linked to a massive 1,600 miscarriages on the farm, with many mink born with serious deformities.

The farmer has also lost millions of Danish kroner due to damaged pelts after the animals became aggressive and started attacking one another.

This latest incident adds to the mounting evidence that the noise and vibrations from wind turbines can adversely affect humans and wildlife.

Kay Armstrong, who lives near a wind farm in Ontario, Canada, has reported that her home is now “virtually uninhabitable” due to the infrasound from the turbines disturbing her sleep and making her feel dizzy. She also says that local deer are agitated and awake all night, that birds are flying around all day rather than going to roost, and that seals in the area are suffering miscarriages.

In another instance in Canada, an emu farm had to close after its animals started becoming aggressive and losing weight when wind turbines were installed nearby. Something similar happened in Taiwan in 2009, when about 400 goats died from exhaustion due to being unable to sleep thanks to noise from a nearby wind farm.

An academic study from Portugal also blamed wind turbines for deformities in foals born nearby, while an Australian vet said working dogs living near a wind farm were exhibiting unusual behaviour, often refusing to work or even get out of their kennels.

Despite the numerous incidents, no authority has yet taken the issue of “wind turbine syndrome” seriously.

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Editor’s note: we got the following email from a lady in Denmark, elaborating on this horror. (Bear in mind, as you read, that English is not her first language.)

Dear friends,

I am so sad and upset about this.  Watch this very awful video and tell the whole world what is happening here in Vestas’ own country. Kaj wrote to me this afternoon. I had just contacted him to ask him about his neighbor, who has lost all his wild animals in his forest. They just disappeared. He promised me to ask him in a couple of days, when he will meet him.

But after this short answer, he told me what is going on on his farm and sent me this awful video. I am so sad, in spite of the fact that he has these animals to turn them to mink coats. I suppose they are not really conscious at that moment.

His mail in English: “We are going to take the females/mothers away from the puppies.  The wind turned into south yesterday, and [when] the noise from the turbines came over the farm, the females began to bite their puppies, just as I had expected. This is how it looks now [i.e., see the video].”

I called him at once and he told me: Yesterday at 3 o’ clock in the afternoon the wind changed into south. They had to put 21 puppies down today because of their wounds. There are 40 which are under observation. Lots of the puppies are so young that they can’t survive without their mothers, but with their mothers they will soon be dead from the bites.

Help him and us and the rest of the world to stop this madness!

Best wishes to you!

Greta

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To:  Diego Loredan, Chairman, Civil Initiative for the Protection of Senožeška Brda
From:  Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD
Regarding:  Wind Turbine Syndrome
Date:  June 8, 2014

Click here for PDF

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I write to you at the request of Katarina Dea Zetko, who tells me the community of Senožeče is about to be surrounded by scores of industrial wind turbines. Evidently, 40 to 80 of them, as close as 800 m to people’s homes.

In 2009 I published what was then the definitive study of health effects caused by wind turbine  infrasound on people living within 2 km of industrial turbines. The book, titled “Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Report on a Natural Experiment” (K-Selected Books), included 60 pages of raw data in the form of case histories (using case cross-over studies), demonstrating that living in proximity to wind turbines dys-regulates the inner ear vestibular organs controlling balance, position and spatial awareness. Effectively, sufferers experience the symptoms of seasickness, along with several related pathologies.

It turns out all this has been well known since the 1980s, when the US Department of Energy commissioned a report on wind turbine health effects — the report subsequently published by  physicist Dr. N D Kelley and his colleagues at the Solar Research Institute in Golden, Colorado, under the title, “A Methodology for Assessment of Wind Turbine Noise Generation,”  Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, v. 104  (May 1982), pp. 112-120.

In this paper we have presented evidence to support the hypothesis that one of the major causal agents responsible for the annoyance of nearby residents by wind turbine noise is the excitation of highly resonant structural and air volume modes by the coherent, low-frequency sound radiated by large wind turbines. Further, there is evidence that the strong resonances found in the acoustic pressure field within rooms [in people’s homes] . . . indicates a coupling of sub-audible energy to human body resonances at 5, 12, and 17-25 Hz, resulting in a sensation of whole-body vibration” (p. 120).

I discovered the same thing in my research. What Kelly et al. refer to as a “sensation of whole-body vibration,” I refer to as Visceral Vibratory Vestibular Disturbance (VVVD):  “The internal quivering, vibration, or pulsation and the associated complex of agitation, anxiety, alarm, irritability, tachycardia, nausea, and sleep disturbance together make up what I refer to as Visceral Vibratory Vestibular Disturbance (VVVD)” (“Wind Turbine Syndrome,” p. 59).

Five years later, Dr. Kelley read a follow-up paper at the Windpower ’87 Conference & Exposition in San Francisco, titled “A Proposed Metric for Assessing the Potential of Community Annoyance from Wind Turbine Low-Frequency Noise Emissions.”  “Emissions” means “noise & vibration.”  And the “low frequency” includes infrasound.  And the sterile phrase “community annoyance” is code for Wind Turbine Syndrome — except the name had not been coined in1987.  (I coined it decades later.)   Kelley’s research had been once again funded by the US Department of Energy, Contract No. DE-AC02-83CH10093.

We electronically simulated three interior environments resulting from low-frequency acoustical loads  radiated from both individual turbines and groups of upwind and downwind turbines.…

Experience with wind turbines has shown that it is possible . . . for low-frequency acoustic noise radiated from the turbine rotor to interact with residential structures of nearby communities and annoy the occupants.…

The modern wind turbine radiates its peak sound power (energy) in the very low frequency range, typically between 1 and 10 Hz [i.e., infrasound]….

Our experience with the low-frequency noise emissions from a single, 2 MW MOD-1  wind turbine demonstrated that . . . it was possible to cause annoyance within homes in the surrounding community with relatively low levels of LF-range [low frequency range]  acoustic noise. An extensive investigation of the MOD-1 situation revealed that this annoyance was the result of a coupling of the turbine’s impulsive low-frequency acoustic energy into the structures of some of the surrounding homes. This often created an annoyance environment that was frequently confined to within the home itself  (p. 1, emphasis in original).

I am attaching a copy of Kelley’s 1987 paper.

Besides my research, which pretty much duplicates Kelley’s, there is the work of Dr. Alec Salt, Professor of Otolaryngology in the School of Medicine at Washington University (St. Louis, Missouri), where he is director of the Cochlear Fluids Research Laboratory.  Professor Salt is a highly respected neuro-physiologist, specializing in inner ear disorders and in particular the mysteries of the cochlea.

Prof. Salt’s research dovetails with mine and with Dr. Kelley’s.  For many years, acousticians and noise engineers have vigorously maintained that “if you can’t hear it, it can’t hurt you.” In other words, in the case of wind turbines, “If you can’t hear the low-frequency noise in the infrasound range, it can’t hurt you.” (Infrasound, by definition, is noise below the hearing threshold, typically pegged at 20 Hz and lower. People feel infrasound in various parts of the body, though typically they cannot hear it.) In any case, Professor Salt and his colleagues have demonstrated conclusively, definitively, that infrasound does in fact disturb the very fine hair cells of the cochlea.

With this discovery, one of the main arguments advanced by the wind energy industry  — namely, that wind turbine infrasound was too low to be harmful to people, since they could not hear it – was completely shattered. Prof. Salt has proven that, “If you can’t hear it, it can still  harm you.”

This past winter, Professor Salt and his colleague, Professor Lichtenhan, published “How Does Wind Turbine Noise Affect People?” Acoustics Today, v. 10 (Winter 2014), pp. 20-28.  The following is a lengthy excerpt:

The essence of the current debate is that on one hand you have the well-funded wind industry (1) advocating that infrasound be ignored because the measured levels are below the threshold of human hearing, allowing noise levels to be adequately documented through A-weighted sound measurements; (2) dismissing the possibility that any variants of wind turbine syndrome exist (Pierpont 2009) even when physicians (e.g., Steven D. Rauch, M.D. at Harvard Medical School) cannot otherwise explain some patients’ symptoms; and (3) arguing that it is unnecessary to separate wind turbines and homes based on prevailing sound levels.

On the other hand, you have many people who claim to be so distressed by the effects of wind turbine noise that they cannot tolerate living in their homes. Some move away, either at financial loss or bought-out by the turbine operators. Others live with the discomfort, often requiring medical therapies to deal with their symptoms. Some, even members of the same family, may be unaffected. Below is a description of the disturbance experienced by a woman in Europe we received a few weeks ago as part of an unsolicited e-mail.

From the moment that the turbines began working I experienced vertigo-like symptoms on an ongoing basis. In many respects, what I am experiencing now is actually worse than the ‘dizziness’ I have previously experienced, as the associated nausea is much more intense. For me the pulsating, humming, noise that the turbines emit is the predominant sound that I hear and that really seems to affect me.

While the Chief Scientist [the person who came to take sound measurements in her house] undertaking the measurement informed me that he was aware of the low frequency hum the turbines produced (he lives close to a wind farm himself and had recorded the humming noise levels indoors in his own home) he advised that I could tune this noise out and that any adverse symptoms I was experiencing were simply psychosomatic. . . .

Given the knowledge that the ear responds to low frequency sounds and infrasound, we knew that comparisons with benign sources were invalid and the logic to A-weight sound measurements was deeply flawed scientifically. . . .

From this understanding we conclude that very low frequency sounds and infrasound, at levels well below those that are heard, readily stimulate the cochlea. Low frequency sounds and infrasound from wind turbines can therefore stimulate the ear at levels well below those that are heard. . . .

No one has ever evaluated whether tympanostomy tubes alleviate the symptoms of those living near wind turbines. From the patient’s perspective, this may be preferable to moving out of their homes or using medical treatments for vertigo, nausea, and/or sleep disturbance. The results of such treatment, whether positive, negative, would likely have considerable scientific influence on the wind turbine noise debate. . . .

Another concern that must be dealt with is the development of wind turbine noise measurements that have clinical relevance. The use of A-weighting must be reassessed as it is based on insensitive, Inner Hair Cell (IHC)-mediated hearing and grossly misrepresents inner ear stimulation generated by the noise. In the scientific domain, A-weighting sound measurements would be unacceptable when many elements of the ear exhibit a higher sensitivity than hearing. The wind industry should be held to the same high standards. Full-spectrum monitoring, which has been adopted in some reports, is essential. . . .

Given the present evidence, it seems risky at best to continue the current gamble that infrasound stimulation of the ear stays confined to the ear and has no other effects on the body. For this to be true, all the mechanisms we have outlined (low- frequency-induced amplitude modulation, low frequency sound-induced endolymph volume changes, infrasound stimulation of type II afferent nerves, infrasound exacerbation of noise-induced damage and direct infrasound stimulation of vestibular organs) would have to be insignificant. We know this is highly unlikely and we anticipate novel findings in the coming years that will influence the debate.

I think you are beginning to get a clear picture of the problem — and why I am writing to you.

The typical symptoms of what is now known worldwide as Wind Turbine Syndrome are the following: sleep disturbance, headache, tinnitus (ringing or buzzing in the ears), ear pressure, dizziness (a general term that includes vertigo, light-headedness, sensation of almost fainting, etc.), nausea, visual blurring, tachycardia (rapid heart rate), irritability, problems with concentration and memory,  and panic episodes associated with sensations of internal pulsation or quivering which arise when awake or asleep.

Does everybody living near wind turbines experience Wind Turbine Syndrome? By no means! What I found is that people with (a) motion sensitivity, (b) migraine disorder, (c) the elderly (50 years and older), (d) inner ear damage, and (e) autistic children and adults —  all these are at statistically significant high risk.

The solution is simple: industrial wind turbines must be set back, well away from people’s homes, schools, places of work, and anywhere else people regularly congregate. In my 2009 report, I came up with a setback of 2 km, minimum, in level terrain. Studies done around the world since then have convinced me that 2 km is not sufficient, especially in hilly or mountainous terrain. In this case, setbacks should be more on the order of 5 km or greater.

Hence, my alarm when notified by Katarina Dea Zetko that your community is considering 800 m setbacks. This is wholly inadequate. I can guarantee that, unless the setbacks are increased dramatically, there will be numerous victims of Wind Turbine Syndrome.

A final word.  The clinical literature, including publications by the World Health Organization on health effects from infrasound exposure, typically use the word that Dr. Kelley used in his reports to the US Department of Energy — “annoyance.” It’s really not an appropriate word. It vastly understates the sickness caused by infrasound exposure. (A mosquito bite is an annoyance. Wind turbine infrasound, on the other hand, triggers a debilitating constellation of illnesses whose features I have enumerated, above.)

In medicine, clinicians are morally bound to exercise what’s called the “precautionary principle.” Basically, if we don’t know for certain that a procedure is harmless, we are obliged to exercise extreme caution in performing the procedure, in this instance, building industrial wind turbines — which are well-known to produce impulsive (i.e., amplitude-modulated) infrasound — in the vicinity of people’s homes.  This is, after all, common sense.

For decades, the wind industry denied that their turbines produced any infrasound. It took herculean efforts by people like me to debunk this fallacy. Wind industry proponents likewise argued that only downwind turbines created noise, that is, low-frequency noise. Dr. Kelley and his research team effectively debunked that fallacy, in the articles referred to above. Finally, the wind industry clung to the fiction that, “If you can’t hear it, it can’t hurt you.” Professor Salt deflated that one.

It’s time to recognize that the global wind industry has hidden behind a series of (what turned out to be) untruths. Their untruths have been exposed and corrected in the published clinical and scientific literature, as shown above.

There is now no excuse for building wind turbines in proximity to people’s homes.

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Editor’s note:  We reported on this story the other day.  It’s going viral — as it should!  Writes Mark Duchamp on behalf of the World Council for Nature, which broke the story on worldwide media:

This scandal is likely to mark a turning point in the struggle against wind turbines. Because it is no longer a question of “noise,”  “nuisance,” or “quality of life.”  There is now evidence of birth defects, miscarriages, and stillbirths.  Indeed, what happens to minks can happen to humans – the human fetus.  And the more powerful the turbines, the more infrasound they emit. The problem will only snowball. This news could ultimately bring down the whole wind energy scam. The immediate problem, however, is that the media are censoring anything that would hurt the wind industry. We need to smash the media blockade. We must write to newspapers, call radio stations, challenge our MP’s, senators, mayors and  government councillors. Let us turn the issue of ill health effects into a workhorse, and the Danish mink tragedy into a spearhead. The mink are but the latest in a long list of domestic animals being slaughtered or deformed by wind turbines.  Note that animals can’t be accused of having “psychological hangups” regarding wind farms.  The argument that “it’s all a nocebo effect” is rendered absurd by this episode. The media can no longer ignore the issue — provided we put it under their noses a thousand times. We have new documents on the Danish mink tragedy: the report of the veterinarian involved, a video, and a second newspaper article from Denmark. The mink story furnishes us with powerful arguments against misplaced wind turbines. The main one being that wind turbine low frequency noise, including infrasound down to 0.1 Hz, is harmful. We must now insist that turbine noise and vibration be measured inside the homes of windfarm neighbors.   We are all as vulnerable as these mink.

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“Wind Turbines Caused 1600 Miscarriages On Fur Farm”

A new wind farm has been linked to the premature births of over 1,600 mink at a fur farm in Denmark last month. Veterinarians have ruled out viruses and food as possible causes, leaving the 460ft (140 metre)-high wind turbines as the only variable that has changed since last year.

According to the World Council for Nature (WCFN), most of the mink were dead at birth and many had severe deformities, including lack of eyeballs.

The new wind farm is located 358 yards (328 metres) from the fur farm, and consists of four 3MW turbines, reaching out to 460ft at the tip of the blades.

The farm had already reported another incident related to the turbines when they became operational last autumn. The farmer reported millions of Danish kroners in damage to pelts after the animals became aggressive and started attacking one another. According to the WCFN, he even took his case to the Danish parliament.

This is the latest in a series of incidents where wind turbines have reportedly harmed and altered the behaviour of animals and humans. Last year, a Canadian emu farm, popular with tourists, was forced to close after its animals started becoming aggressive and losing weight when wind turbines were installed nearby.

In March, Breitbart London reported that the deputy chief medical officer at the Irish Department of Health warned that people who live near wind turbines were at risk of “wind turbine syndrome”. Symptoms include fatigue, dizziness, headache, difficulty concentrating and insomnia.

“There are specific risk factors for this syndrome and people with these risk factors experience symptoms. These people must be treated appropriately and sensitively as these symptoms can be very debilitating,” the deputy CMO said.

Editor’s note:  Okay, here’s the story, in a sentence or two.  Prof. Moller is a senior professor, specializing in acoustics, at Denmark’s Aalborg University.  A public university, by the way.  Moller has been publishing and speaking against the lies of the wind industry — lies about wind turbine noise (i.e., infrasound).  The big industry in Denmark is Vestas, makers of wind turbines sold around the world.

Against this backdrop, what do you make of the fact that Prof. Moller was just summarily fired (shit-canned) by his dean?  (Consider this ingredient as you ponder.)

Here’s the story (click here) from a Danish news source, translated below.

Editor’s note:  We are told, in the comment below by Mark Duchamp, that this story has been suppressed in the Danish media — by the government.  To protect Vestas’s interests, which (we’re told) are considered congruent with interests of state.

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“1,600 Miscarriages at Fur Farm Near Wind Turbines”

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— World Council for Nature (6/7/14)

Denmark: 1,600 animals were born prematurely at a mink farm last month. Many had deformities, and most were dead on arrival. The lack of eyeballs was the most common malformation. Veterinarians ruled out food and viruses as possible causes. The only thing different at the farm since last year has been the installation of four large wind turbines only 328 meters away.

Some of the 1,600 minks born prematurely

The wind farm consists of four 3 MW turbines, VESTAS model V112, reaching out to 140 meters in height at the tip of the blades. When they became operative last fall, a first mishap was reported by the mink farmer, who testified about it at a parliamentary committee on wind farms in January this year.¹ The World Council for Nature (WCFN) reported the incident earlier: “In Denmark, which is the EU’s leader in mink farming, millions of Danish kroners were lost in damaged pelts when wind turbines started to operate near a mink farm. The animals became aggressive, attacking one another, and resulting in many deaths.”²

Dead minks at Danish wind farm

Injured mink in a cage

Both incidents are alarming, as they constitute definitive proof that wind turbines are harmful to the health of animals living in their vicinity. And they are not the only ones. In the letter mentioned above, WCFN quoted more of them, all leading to the conclusion that low frequency vibrations emitted by wind turbines can cause serious ill-effects on health, including altered behaviour, deformities, miscarriages and premature births.²

Deformed mink foetus

Humans, of course, are exposed to the same risks. In view of this new evidence, lying to the public, pretending that wind turbines are harmless to people becomes a criminal act. Politicians, and wind industry promoters who, like often-quoted Mike Barnard or Simon Chapman, deny the risks to health, are now liable to be successfully sued by wind farm victims. And so are governments, as they still refuse to measure infrasound emitted by modern wind turbines.

It is indeed criminal to deny health risks where there is so much evidence, starting with official studies published in the 1980’s, which have been shelved to protect the wind industry.³  Dr Sarah Laurie, CEO of the Waubra Foundation, wrote: “Dr Kelley and his co-researchers at the Solar Energy Research Institute in the US, closely connected with the US Department of Energy and NASA, identified in 1985 that the source of the annoyance for the residents living near a single downwind bladed turbine was ‘impulsive infrasound and low frequency noise, which resonated within the building structures.’”⁴

The wind industry, their friends in government, and self-serving professionals benefitting indirectly from the huge subventions, all have been denying any health problem linked to wind farms. But there is now sufficient evidence to warrant:

• A moratorium on wind farms,
• Comprehensive epidemiology studies,
• Quantification of vibrations emitted by wind turbines, as measured inside the homes of resident neighbours, at night, on windy days, encompassing all frequencies down to 0.1 Hz.

Short of taking these health-saving measures, governments will be liable to be sued for damages, and criminal charges could be laid against decision-makers.

The World Council for Nature hopes that the political class will take this public health issue seriously, more so than that of wildlife conservation, for instance. We have denounced before that governments are letting over 100 million birds and bats be sacrificed annually on the altar of this expensive, intermittent energy of doubtful practical value.⁵  We can only pray that human health will receive more consideration from our leaders.

Media contact

Mark Duchamp
Chairman, WCFN
Tel: +34 693 643 736+34 693 643 736
www.wcfn.org
wcfn@live.com

References

(1) www.maskinbladet.dk/artikel/tidligere-miljominister-vil-aendre-vindmollebekendtgorelse

(2) wcfn.org/2014/03/31/windfarms-vertebrates-and-reproduction

(3) Kelley, N et al, 1985 “Acoustic Noise associated with Mod 1 Turbine; its source, impact and control”
waubrafoundation.org.au/resources/kelley-et-al-1985-acoustic-noise-associated-with-mod-1-wind…

Kelley, N 1987 “A Proposed Metric for Assessing the Potential of Community Annoyance from Wind Turbine Low-Frequency Noise Emissions”
waubrafoundation.org.au/resources/1987-problem-with-low-frequency-noise-from-wind-turbines…

Hubbard, H 1982 “Noise Induced House Vibrations and Human Perception” (1982) 19:2 Noise Control Engineering Journal 49
waubrafoundation.org.au/resources/hubbard-h-1982-noise-induced-house-vibrations-human-perception

(4) waubrafoundation.org.au/resources/laurie-s-wind-turbine-noise-adverse-health-effects-and…

(5) wcfn.org/2014/05/21/bullet-news-3

Behold Dr. Nina’s Eurovan camper.  V6 Audi engine, chassis by VW, camping package by Winnebago.  Check these out on the web; they’re a collector’s item.  (VW stopped making them in 2002.  We bought ours new in 2000.)

It’s VW’s final version of this:

When you own one of these things — poof! — you become an instant hippy.  We had a 1978 version, wherein we traveled all over North America — back when we were young and didn’t mind having an air cooled engine (not so great in Arizona in July) and zero heat (not so great in New Hampshire in January).  Then we got old and decided to go for luxury, and bought the 2000 Eurovan.

We are done with our exploring, vagabonding, camping days.  We’ve decided to sell this baby — though with a broken heart.  We love this thing!

We’d like to sell it to someone who needs it to escape their infrasound-tormented home.  (You can actually live in it.  We have for a month or so. Entirely self-contained.)

Sleeps 4 (2 double beds), apt.-size fridge (runs on plug-in or rear coach battery or propane), 2-burner propane stove, pop-top, propane furnace (when camping), running water, front seats turn around, 2 tables, lots of interior lights, lots of cupboard storage space, awning, double kayak rack.  Plus Dr. Nina’s own-invention:  a rear shower stall (no patent pending).

Looks identical to these photos.  (Photos are off the web.)

It’s in embarrassingly pristine condition.  (Embarrassing?  It reveals my OCD instincts.  Some men play golf.  My hobbies are doing the laundry, vacuuming, and cleaning things.)  Never driven in winter.  Absolutely no rust.  Meticulously maintained by a patient of Dr. P’s who, um, builds cars from scratch.  (Guy’s brilliant.)  Not a scratch.  Not a dent.  Never in an accident.

We’ve driven this thing to Newfoundland (twice — yeah, take the ferry), the Pacific NW, the SW.  Fabulous traveling vehicle.  A dream to drive.  Cruise control.  Approx. 20 mph highway.  65,000 original miles.  Powerful V6 engine with overdrive.  Quiet engine.  Air conditioning.  Blah blah blah.

These sell for $45K to $50K on the web.

Contact Dr. Martin if you’re interested:  rushton@twcny.rr.com or 518-651-2019.

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“Liberal wind scam:  Sun News Network documentary ‘Down Wind’ exposes the Wynne-McGuinty green energy disaster”

— Lorrie Goldstein, Toronto Sun (5/31/14)

Anyone who has studied the Ontario Liberal government’s failed experiment with wind power knows what a financial and social catastrophe it has been.

How billions of taxpayers’ and hydro customers’ dollars are being wasted, and will continue to be wasted for decades to come, because of former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty’s naive blunder into wind energy, now fully supported by Premier Kathleen Wynne.

How it has contributed to skyrocketing hydro bills and to the loss of 300,000 manufacturing jobs in Ontario.

A 2011 report by then auditor general Jim McCarter documented how the government rushed into wind energy without any business plan, ignoring even the advice of its own experts that could have substantially reduced costs.

As a result, Ontarians are now locked into 20 years of paying absurdly inflated prices for inefficient and unreliable wind power, which, ironically, still has to be backed up by fossil fuel energy, meaning natural gas.

That means the Liberals’ gas plants scandal, costing taxpayers and hydro ratepayers up to $1.1 billion — according to reports by McCarter and current Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk — is also part of the Liberals’ legacy of wind power waste.

Indeed, while the Liberals were telling us they were replacing coal power with wind and solar energy, they were actually doing it with nuclear power and natural gas.

Wind can’t replace coal because it can’t provide base load power to the electricity grid on demand.

That’s why the Liberals were frantically building new natural gas plants, even as they were imposing, and continue to impose, unwanted wind turbines on rural communities across Ontario.

McGuinty cancelled the locally unpopular Mississauga and Oakville gas plants to save five Liberal seats in the 2011 election, which we now know could cost up to $220 million per bought riding in public money.

A new documentary, Down Wind: How Ontario’s Green Dream Turned into a Nightmare, by Sun News Network’s Rebecca Thompson — airing Wednesday, June 4 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. — powerfully and succinctly explains the enormity of the Liberals’ wind power catastrophe.

The Surge Media production explains we are wasting and will continue to waste, billions of public dollars for a non-existent environmental benefit — the Liberal myth that wind and solar power replaced polluting coal-fired electricity in Ontario.

Nonsense. As one of Thompson’s interviewees accurately puts it in Down Wind, turbines “don’t run on wind, they run on subsidies.”

Thompson compellingly tells the story of how an unholy alliance of Liberal government insiders, wind industry developers, so-called environmentalists and Bay Street investors worked hand-in-glove to impose wind turbines on unsuspecting farming and rural communities across Ontario.

How those who tried to fight back were and are being crushed by the Liberals’ dictatorial Green Energy Act, which took away the planning rights of local municipalities.

How we don’t need the tiny amount of expensive and unreliable power wind supplies, both because Ontario has a huge energy surplus and because wind developers have to be paid for their energy first, while we dump or export inexpensive and green hydro power at a loss.

How the reported health concerns hundreds of affected residents have experienced because of the sound, vibration, low-frequency noise and shadow flicker from wind turbines — up to 50-storeys high, many located just 550 metres from homes — have been suppressed by the government.

Those symptoms include sleeplessness, nausea, migraines, heart palpitations, all dismissed by the Ontario government, even as Ottawa conducts a major study into what has become known as “wind turbine syndrome.”

The most powerful footage in Down Wind comes from ordinary Ontarians — some forced to leave their homes — telling their stories, often reduced to tears, bitterness and anger.

How on one day they were living peaceful lives in rural Ontario and how, almost overnight, were plunged into a nightmare, as wind companies turned neighbour against neighbour by leasing the land of some property owners to erect turbines, while running roughshod over the concerns of everyone else.

To me, Ontario’s wind power disaster has always been a story of urban greed, ignorance, arrogance and phony environmentalism overpowering rural interests.

Of smug, trendy, hypocritical Toronto downtowners — Wynne’s core constituency — whose experience with wind turbines is limited to one at the CNE — ignorantly accusing rural communities of NIMBYISM (as did McGuinty).

Down Wind exposes all this along with the scariest reality of all.

That the Liberals have gone too far to ever admit they were wrong, and that if we re-elect them, they’ll double down on their wind energy disaster.