{"id":10778,"date":"2010-11-07T14:25:10","date_gmt":"2010-11-07T19:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/static\/?p=10778"},"modified":"2013-04-14T20:37:24","modified_gmt":"2013-04-15T00:37:24","slug":"why-wellfleet-will-get-wind-turbine-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/2010\/why-wellfleet-will-get-wind-turbine-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Wellfleet will get Wind Turbine Syndrome (Massachusetts)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: \u00a0The following article was published on this site in March 2010<\/span>, when the Town of Wellfleet, Mass., was careening toward installing a huge wind turbine on the edge of town. \u00a0Happily, the Town Selectmen stopped the project dead in its tracks when they learned of the health hazards and other manifold shortcomings of this screwball plan. \u00a0We are reposting the article because, alas, it somehow got misplaced when we created our new website. \u00a0It now appears on the present website, again, for the first time. \u00a0We are reprinting it, as well, because we get many questions from communities and individuals facing the prospect of one, two, or three turbines, wondering if one or two turbines pose a problem to health. \u00a0The answer is, “yes”!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

—Calvin Luther Martin, PhD<\/a> (3\/15\/10, reprinted 11\/7\/10)<\/span><\/p>\n

Wellfleet, Massachusetts.\u00a0 Nice town out on Cape Cod.\u00a0 Ever been there?<\/p>\n

Me neither.\u00a0 But it’s gotta be nice.\u00a0 National Seashore.\u00a0 Outstanding bird-watching.\u00a0 (Big migratory corridor; zillions of shorebirds come through.)\u00a0 Plus there’s marshes and ponds.\u00a0 And loads of really interesting people.\u00a0 What’s not to like?<\/p>\n

\"\"Coming soon is\u00a0one colossal wind turbine.\u00a0 Then it won’t be so nice.\u00a0 At least for people living within 2 km (1.25 miles) of that thing’s acoustic shadow.<\/p>\n

The plan is for a Vestas V90 1.8\/2.0 MW<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPhoto from Vestas website, with human figure added for perspective<\/p>\n

What’s not to like?\u00a0 “Clean, green, renewable,” after all.\u00a0 Right?<\/p>\n

I’ll try to be brief and keep it simple.\u00a0 (This isn’t going to be a happy story.\u00a0 If you don’t like sad stories, better bail out now.)<\/p>\n

Wellfleet hired an engineering firm (Tech Environmental<\/a>) to predict how much noise this thing will make.\u00a0 (The report refers to it antiseptically as the Project.\u00a0 It’s not the Project<\/em>; it’s a stupendously big goddam wind turbine with 3 propellors churning an area the size of a footbal field at approx. 200 mph at the blade tips, and 200 gallons of lubricating oil in the nacelle—bus-sized box at the top—waiting to start leaking.\u00a0 Plus access roads, immense steel rebar-reinforced concrete base, and underground or above-ground powerlines—and the possibility of “stray voltage,” depending on whether the\u00a0underground lines are properly insulated, which often they are not, and depending on how surplus power is disposed of when the\u00a0grid can’t handle it.\u00a0 Let’s start this story by getting the language right.)<\/p>\n

Here’s the full report.\u00a0 Be prepared to doze off, which may well be its intent.\u00a0 “Acoustic Study of the Community Wind Project for One V90 Turbine, Wellfleet, MA<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPeter H. Guldberg, Founder & President,
\nTech Environmental<\/a><\/p>\n

Download it.\u00a0 Look at p. 2, paragraph 1.\u00a0 Notice the sentences highlighted (by me) in italics.<\/p>\n

“The frequency spectrum of predicted maximum sound levels at the nearest residences was analyzed for low-frequency sound.\u00a0 In the two lowest octave bands (31.5 Hz and 16 Hz), the project\u2019s sound levels will be below the threshold of human hearing. This means very low-frequency sound from the wind turbine will not be audible at the nearest residences or at White Crest Beach and there will be no perceptible infrasound. The project will not cause vibration effects inside residences.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now p. 19, bottom paragraph.\u00a0 Notice the sentence highlighted (by the author, presumably Peter Guldberg—the guy in the suit) in italics.<\/p>\n

“The frequency graphs (Figures 4 through 11) reveal that in the two lowest octave bands (31.5 Hz and 16 Hz) the project\u2019s sound levels will be below the threshold of human hearing. This means very low-frequency sound from the wind turbine will not be audible<\/em> at the nearest residences or at White Crest Beach.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Okay, turn to Fig. 4.\u00a0 I copied it, below, and added a few overlays.\u00a0 First, note Guldberg’s explanatory legend in the upper right corner.\u00a0 It says the broken red line shows the “Threshold of Human Hearing.”\u00a0 So far, so good.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Take a look at the path of that broken red line.\u00a0 On the left side of the graph it shows that at very low frequency (20 Hertz and below), whatever noise & vibration this thing makes will be well below human hearing<\/em>.\u00a0 (This claim, by the way, is probably true.)<\/p>\n

Notice where the broken red line crosses the heavy blue line—somewhere less than 45 dB.\u00a0 (That heavy blue line shows “V90 Maximum Continuous Sound,” according to the legend.)\u00a0 In other words, as the noise & vibration of the V90 continues to climb, Wellfleeters have nothing to worry about, because humans can’t hear it.\u00a0 “This means very low-frequency sound from the wind turbine will not be audible<\/em> at the nearest residences or at White Crest Beach” (p. 19).<\/p>\n

Do you smoke?\u00a0 Mind if we go outside?\u00a0 (Can\u00a0I bum one?)<\/p>\n

Nice evening.\u00a0 Um, all the stuff on the graph?\u00a0\u00a0Like I said, it’s correct.\u00a0 But irrelevant<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Take another look at Guldberg’s graph, above.\u00a0 See where I’ve doctored it a bit on the left side.\u00a0 I did what the guy in the suit should have done: \u00a0I extended the frequency (Hertz = Hz) down to zero.\u00a0 I then highlighted the Sound Pressure Level (which is in decibels = dB) for 0-20 Hz with a wide blue band.<\/p>\n

Still with me?\u00a0 Focus on the wide blue band I drew in.<\/p>\n

(Mind if I bum another smoke?)\u00a0 Notice that any turbine noise\/vibration within that wide blue band is well below the threshold of human hearing.<\/p>\n

Here we need to get into a little physiology.\u00a0 (Don’t panic; it’s painless.)\u00a0 So what’s “human hearing” mean?\u00a0 Human hearing is what the cochlea<\/em> detects.\u00a0 The cochlea’s the snailshell-shaped organ in this diagram.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When Guldberg writes,<\/p>\n

The frequency graphs (Figures 4 through 11) reveal that in the two lowest octave bands (31.5 Hz and 16 Hz) the project\u2019s sound levels will be below the threshold of human hearing. This means very low-frequency sound from the wind turbine will not be audible<\/em> at the nearest residences . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

. . . he means the cochlea (which is the organ we hear with) won’t detect it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He’s right, as I said above.\u00a0 (There are some minor quibbles one could interject here, but for all practical purposes he’s right.)\u00a0 The broken red line in Fig. 4 corresponds to what the cochlea is detecting and, to flog the issue once more, the cochlea won’t hear that low-frequency noise and infrasound.<\/p>\n

While we were smokin’ the first cigarette, I sand-bagged you by saying that what the cochlea “hears” is irrelevant.\u00a0 Guldberg is focusing on the wrong organ.\u00a0 It’s not the cochlea that matters; it’s the little organs immediately adjacent to it that matter<\/em>.\u00a0 Three weird little organs you vaguely remember from high school biology.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They’re called the (1) semi-circular canals, (2) utricle, and (3) saccule.\u00a0 All together, as a triad, they’re known as the “vestibular organs.”<\/p>\n

Better take a deep drag on that cigarette, \u2018cause these cute little organs are gonna determine whether you live in heaven or hell in the months ahead.\u00a0 (Click here<\/a> and here<\/a> and here<\/a> for hell on earth.\u00a0 Then re-read the “Inferno.”\u00a0 Living 2 km from a turbine is to live in one of Dante’s circles of hell—precisely 2 km from ground zero.)<\/p>\n

The utricle and saccule, arguably the most interesting of the vestibular organs, are known as the otolith organs.\u00a0 Because they have “otoliths” in them.\u00a0 What’s an otolith?\u00a0 (If you’d paid more attention in biology, instead of gazing at the pretty girl in row 1 . . . )\u00a0 It’s an “ear stone.”\u00a0 Yeah, that’s what it means.\u00a0 “Ear rocks.”\u00a0 Except they’re minute.\u00a0 Made out of calcium carbonate.\u00a0 Yeah, same stuff as seashells and chalk.<\/p>\n

Wellfleeters have seashells in their heads.\u00a0 In fact, we all do.\u00a0 In fact, all vertebrates do.\u00a0 Everything that climbed aboard Noah’s Ark, and a lot that didn’t—they’ve all got them.\u00a0 This means they’re Very Important Structures<\/em> (VIS) in Mother Earth’s great big complicated scheme of things.<\/p>\n

In these seashell organs—the otolith organs (utricle & saccule)—lies the key to much of your brain function, dear Wellfleeter—some otolaryngologists think they’re the Sixth Sense—and the explanation for why many of you are surely going to get Wind Turbine Syndrome when the town throws the switch on that V90.<\/p>\n

Stop here.\u00a0 If you live within 2 km of that proposed V90, you absolutely must read this long passage taken from Pierpont’s “Wind Turbine Syndrome” book (“Report for Non-Clinicians,” pp. 200-204).\u00a0 If you’re a Wellfleeter living outside that 2 km strike zone, skip this section.\u00a0 If you’re not a Wellfleeter at all, you too can skip this section—until you, too,\u00a0find yourself targeted by a wind turbine (or natural gas compressor)\u00a02 km or less from your back door.<\/p>\n

The otolith organs are key to understanding Wind Turbine Syndrome. They consist of two little membranous sacs, the utricle (\u201cyou-trick-ul\u201d) and saccule (\u201csack-ule\u201d), which are attached to the cochlea (\u201ccoke-lee-ah,\u201d the spiral-shaped, membranous organ that transduces the mechanical energy of sound into neural signals) and to the semicircular canals (membranous organs which make a semi-circle in each of the three planes of movement\u2014vertical forward, vertical sideways, and horizontal\u2014and transduce angular acceleration: when your head is nodding or turning, they detect it).<\/p>\n

Embedded in the two otolith organs are\u2014believe it or not\u2014rocks.\u00a0 (Oto<\/em> = ear and lith<\/em> = rock. Remember when your teacher declared you must have rocks in your head?) Well, not really rocks. They\u2019re tiny. In fact they\u2019re microscopic crystals of calcium carbonate (like calcite or oyster shells), called otoconia (\u201coto-cone-ia\u201d), stuck together in a mass on top of the patch (macula, pronounced \u201cmack-you-la\u201d) of movement-sensing hair cells. The weight and mass\u00a0of these stones allows the hair cells to detect gravity and linear acceleration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Things now get truly beautiful. Imagine God \u201cwith his broad sculptor-hands leaf[ing] through the pages in the dark book of the beginning\u201d (Rilke),\u00a0showing us the blueprints for the semicircular canals and otolith organs. \u00a0Structures so fundamental to brain function that they are shared by fish, amphibians, and (so-called) higher vertebrates. Yes, including us. In each of these creatures these organs perform a function not only older than the mind can grasp, but so profound it has come to define what mind itself is. (Note: the cochlea, the organ we use for hearing, evolved much later in mammals.)<\/p>\n

We are in the presence of a master key to the mammalian mind. (Not just mammalian, but the entire backboned animal world.) It is this master key, dear reader, that is counterfeited by the low frequency noise from the massive, spinning wind turbine outside your window.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019re in the presence, here, of truly ancient anatomical structures. Many millions of years old. Fish, amphibians, and \u201chigher\u201d vertebrates all have semicircular canals and otolith organs.<\/p>\n

Consider this. Teleost fish, such as cod, hear with their otolith organs. Their otolith organs are their detectors of sound and vibration, such as the movements of nearby predators or prey. Their otolith organs also detect gravity (which way is up) and acceleration (if the fish moves or turns). Atlantic cod otolith organs are so sensitive to water perturbations from infrasound (at 0.1 Hz, or one wave every 10 seconds) that the fish may be able to use seismic sounds from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge or the sounds of waves breaking on distant shores to guide them during migration, hundreds of miles away.<\/p>\n

Consider this. In frogs, the saccule (one of the otolith organs) remains the part of the ear most sensitive to substrate-borne vibration. Both the saccule and a newly evolved part of the frog ear, the basilar papilla, detect both sound and vibration, with the saccule capturing lower frequencies and the papilla higher frequencies.<\/p>\n

All by way of laying the groundwork for the idea that our own otolith organs have been, ancestrally, detectors of sound, vibration, and low frequency sound, in addition to detecting gravity and body movements. Human otolith organs have retained some of these functions, it turns out: they respond to noise or vibration by sending out vestibular signals.<\/p>\n

If stimulated by a loud click or abrupt tone, normal human vestibular organs trigger a measurable, specialized reflex: an electrical signal to muscles in the front of the neck (called the \u201cvestibular evoked myogenic potential\u201d or VEMP). Let me rephrase this, since it\u2019s important: a noise, delivered to the ear without any movement of the head or body, sets off a rapid (neural) chain of events that changes neck muscle tone. This neck muscle signal is part of the vestibulo-collic reflex (collic<\/em> meaning \u201cneck,\u201d like collar<\/em>). The purpose of the vestibulo-collic reflex is to stabilize the head during body or head movement. A noise, albeit a loud and distinctive type of noise, sets off a reflex chain of events showing that the vestibular system thinks the body or head is moving, even when it is not. Yes, in normal, healthy adult humans<\/em>. (Wind developers, are you reading this?)<\/p>\n

Noise doesn\u2019t necessarily come in via the air, eardrum, and middle ear, however. Vibrations or \u201cbone-conducted sound\u201d can reach the inner ear directly through the bone in which the inner ear is sculpted. To do this in experiments or as a clinical test, a vibrating object is put against the skin over the mastoid bone behind the ear. It takes less energy (a lower decibel level) to trigger the vestibular response when the signal comes in through bone conduction than when it comes in through the air\u2013middle ear route. Bone conduction also works better at lower sound or vibration frequencies.<\/p>\n

Most exciting, it was shown in 2008 that the normal human vestibular system has a fish- or frog-like sensitivity to low frequency vibration<\/em>. In this experiment, a vibrating rod was applied to the skin over the mastoid bone, using carefully calibrated force. Subjects could hear the vibrations as tones, and the researchers detected vestibular responses by measuring electrical signals coming from the subjects\u2019 eye muscles. Interesting that this response has a distinct tuning peak at 100 Hz, meaning there is a\u00a0much bigger vestibular and eye muscle response at 100 Hz than at higher or lower frequencies. (By way of comparison, 100 Hz is equivalent to G-G#, 1\u00bd octaves below middle C. That is, keys 23\u2013 24 on a piano.) At this tuning peak the vibration still produced a measurable vestibular response (eye muscle electrical signals) when the vibration intensity had been reduced so much that the subjects could no longer hear the tones. In fact, the power of the vibration that produced a vestibular response was only about 3% of the power the subjects could hear (15 dB lower).<\/em><\/p>\n

This means that some part of the vestibular organs in the inner ear is more sensitive to vibration or bone-conducted sound than the cochlea is. The authors of this study think it\u2019s the utricle, one of the two otolith organs, and some special, vibration-sensitive hair cells and nerve fibers that occur mixed in with the other hair cells in the utricle and other vestibular organs.<\/p>\n

This is amazing. (It would be heretical if it hadn\u2019t been shown in a well-conducted experiment.) It has been gospel among acousticians for the past 70 years that if a person can\u2019t hear a sound, it\u2019s too weak for it to be detected or registered by any other part of the body. We can now write this as follows: If a person can\u2019t hear a sound, it\u2019s too weak for it to be detected or registered by any other part of the body<\/span>. Because it turns out it\u2019s wrong. (It also means that using the A-weighted network for community noise studies is probably outdated.)<\/p>\n

And silent be,
\nThat through the channels of the ear
\nMay wander like a river
\nThe swaying sound of the sea.<\/p>\n

\u2014W. H. Auden, from \u201cLook, Stranger\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Okay so far?\u00a0 I’m going to talk, now, as though you skipped that long passage from Pierpont.\u00a0 (A pity if you did; it’s outstanding.)\u00a0 For years, Big Wind\u00a0has denied that turbines produce infrasound & low frequency noise (ILFN).\u00a0 Either denied it exists or dismissed its significance as so trivial, it’s\u00a0not worth considering<\/a>.\u00a0 The (lucrative) rule of thumb being, “If you can’t hear it, it can’t hurt you.”<\/p>\n

This has been definitively proved wrong.\u00a0 Wrong on two counts.<\/p>\n

\"\"(1) It turns out the vestibular organs of the inner ear, along with other bodily organs of balance<\/em>, motion<\/em>, and position<\/em> sense, are profoundly affected (“dis-regulated”) by sub-audible ILFN.\u00a0 It turns out that the frequency range of the normal human vestibular system (semi-circular canals, utricle, and saccule) is 0 (DC) to 20 Hz.\u00a0 Yes, this is infrasound, ladies and gentlemen.\u00a0 (Yes, DC\u00a0means “direct current.”)<\/p>\n

(2) Secondly, it turns out that industrial wind turbines produce strong infrasound and low frequency noise, precisely in the range (0 to 20 Hz) “listened to” by the vestibular organs—the body’s principal organs of balance<\/em>, motion<\/em>, and position<\/em> sense.\u00a0 There are, now, numerous noise\/vibration studies unequivocally demonstrating turbine ILFN.\u00a0 This being one of the best:<\/p>\n

“The Inaudible Noise of Wind Turbines,” by Lars Ceranna, Gernot Hartmann, and Manfred Henger.\u00a0 Presented at the Infrasound Workshop, November 28 \u2013 December 02, 2005, Tahiti.\u00a0 Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Section B3.11.\u00a0 Stilleweg 2, 30655 Hannover, Germany.\u00a0 Click here for the full report<\/a> (PDF).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"
\nGraph taken from Ceranna et al., “The Inaudible Noise of Wind Turbines” 2005, p. 14<\/a>, with overlaid explanatory\u00a0text by KS.com<\/p>\n

The graph demonstrates unambiguous and powerful wind turbine infrasound. Infrasound (which, mind you, is lower than low frequency noise) is defined as noise & vibration less than 20 Hz—except this is “noise” you can’t hear.\u00a0 The point is, your vestibular organs register this as alarming, confusing signals. Signals that disrupt (hijack) these multimillion-year-old, exquisitely sensitive inner ear structures. Thus creating the panic (“fight or flight”) response upon awakening in the night, plus the vertigo and nausea, plus the more long-term memory and concentration deficits (yes, the vestibular organs affect cognition).\u00a0 And so on.<\/p>\n

Think of it this way.\u00a0 Wind turbines make people seasick—yet worse, because it’s long-term.<\/em> “Worse,” too, in the sense that people become sensitized to\u00a0the ILFN.\u00a0 No, I didn’t say “de-sensitized”; I said “sensitized.”\u00a0 Meaning, you become increasingly sensitive<\/em> to ILFN the longer the exposure.\u00a0 (Yes, there is plenty of clinical evidence for this.\u00a0 Read Pierpont’s book.)<\/p>\n

Internationally acclaimed noise expert George Kamperman calls Ceranna et al.<\/em> “the best documentation I have seen on wind turbine infrasound. This is a careful study on a single wind turbine utilizing instrumentation appropriate for measuring very low frequency infrasound.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGeorge Kamperman, P.E., INCE Bd. Cert., past member of the acoustics firm Bolt, Beranek & Newman<\/em> (USA), currently CEO of Kamperman Associates<\/em><\/p>\n

Turn to the final page of Ceranna et al.<\/em>, p. 23, for the authors’ conclusions:\u00a0 “Wind turbines and wind farms generate strong infrasonic noise which is characterized by their blade passing harmonics (monochromatic signals).”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mind if I bum another cigarette?\u00a0 Guldberg’s report for the Town of Wellfleet?\u00a0 It’s irrelevant because it focuses on the wrong organ.\u00a0 It’s referring to the cochlea.\u00a0 The whole report is built on a theory dreamed up a century ago by some acoustics professor (George Kamperman can tell you who it was) and, alas,\u00a0it’s been gospel ever since. \u00a0That theory being, “If you can’t hear it, it can’t hurt you.”\u00a0 As Pierpont demonstrates, that theory is now more properly rendered,\u00a0“If you can’t hear it, it can’t hurt you<\/span>.”\u00a0 One of the many “science” dogmas consigned to the scrapheap of history—except it’s there,\u00a0hidden in plain view,\u00a0serving as the linchpin of Guldberg’s report to the\u00a0good people\u00a0of Wellfleet.<\/p>\n

“The frequency spectrum of predicted maximum sound levels at the nearest residences was analyzed for low-frequency sound.\u00a0 In the two lowest octave bands (31.5 Hz and 16 Hz), the project\u2019s sound levels will be below the threshold of human hearing. This means very low-frequency sound from the wind turbine will not be audible at the nearest residences or at White Crest Beach and there will be no perceptible infrasound. The project will not cause vibration effects inside residences<\/em>,” p. 2.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“The frequency graphs (Figures 4 through 11) reveal that in the two lowest octave bands (31.5 Hz and 16 Hz) the project\u2019s sound levels will be below the threshold of human hearing. This means very low-frequency sound from the wind turbine will not be audible<\/em> at the nearest residences or at White Crest Beach,” p. 19.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wellfleeters might have seashells in their heads, but they don’t have garbage in their heads.\u00a0 This, ladies and gentlemen, is nonsense—literally, irrelevant noise.<\/p>\n

(Note to Wellfleeters:\u00a0 Beware of noise engineers and acousticians making clinical pronouncements, explicit or implied.\u00a0 Like, “if you can’t hear it, it can’t hurt you.”\u00a0 These people are not clinicians.\u00a0 They have no clinical training whatsover.)<\/p>\n

But don’t believe me.\u00a0 Go ahead and allow your town board to build that V90 and flip the switch at a big town celebration.\u00a0 Balloons, hot dogs, rousing speeches, kids running around—the whole nine yards.\u00a0 “Let’s have a big hand for the big marvels of Big Wind!”<\/p>\n

Then pull out this article when you’re waking up in the night in a panic and can’t get back to sleep.\u00a0 Or you start feeling the nausea.\u00a0 And vertigo.\u00a0 And tinnitus (ringing in the ears).\u00a0 And headaches.\u00a0 And pressure in the head and ears.<\/p>\n

And, my favorite, a weird sensation of internal quivering, like your insides are vibrating (which they in fact\u00a0are).\u00a0 It’s called Visceral Vibratory Vestibular Disturbance<\/em> (VVVD).\u00a0 Pierpont named it that.\u00a0 (She will likely be reading a paper on VVVD at a clinical conference soon.\u00a0 She’s been invited.\u00a0 Wellfleeters can provide her with more data.\u00a0 She’d like that.)\u00a0 Lots of WTS victims get VVVD.\u00a0 The person who described it best was a medical doctor in Pennsylvania suffering from turbines next door (closest one being 2400 feet, a little under half a mile).\u00a0 Here’s how Pierpont defines it in her book:<\/p>\n

Visceral Vibratory Vestibular Disturbance<\/em> (VVVD): a sensation of internal quivering, vibration, or pulsation accompanied by agitation, anxiety, alarm, irritability, rapid heartbeat, nausea, and sleep disturbance.\u00a0 See pp. 55\u201360, 76\u201379, 224, and 235\u201336.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, I’m not done listing your symptoms.\u00a0 There’s also cognitive problems.\u00a0 Your memory starts eroding.\u00a0 And concentration, too.\u00a0 Yes, that’s vestibular as well, as Pierpont explains.<\/p>\n

Some of you will perhaps get ocular strokes, or something similar.\u00a0 That’s in her book, too.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, when these strange symptoms start showing up (Wind Turbine Syndrome), pull out this article.\u00a0 Join the dots—to that V90.<\/p>\n

One thing you needn’t bother doing:\u00a0 complaining to the town board.\u00a0 The board will contact a noise engineer who will come out and take noise\/vibration measurements.\u00a0 I assure you—better yet, I guarantee you—the measurements will show the turbine is compliant with town law, which will say something along the lines, “the turbine shall not exceed 50 dBA.”<\/p>\n

Here’s the key to understanding the “weighting game.”\u00a0 Noise engineers who come out and take measurements do so in the audible range of hearing<\/em>.\u00a0 That’s what the “A” refers to in the “50 dBA.”\u00a0 I repeat, their measurements will unequivocally show that the turbine is compliant with your town law:\u00a0 it does not exceed 50 dB in the audible range<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Whereupon the Wellfleet Town Administrator, undoubtedly a decent and honest man, will say, “Sorry folks!\u00a0 It’s within the noise limits set out in the ordinance.”<\/p>\n

The problem being, of course, that the noise engineer won’t be measuring in the 0-20 Hz (infrasound) range, where the dB is HUGE, with frequent (several times a second) pressure bursts up to 90 dB.\u00a0 (Turbines, again, produce an enormous amount of infrasound.)<\/p>\n

If, by some miracle of God, you manage to browbeat the town administrator into hiring a noise engineer to take (warning:\u00a0 they’re very expensive)\u00a0linear<\/em> noise measurements (i.e., not limited to the A = audible range—called A-weighting), you will find, Aha! that damn turbine is generating loads of infrasound after all!<\/em><\/p>\n

Not so fast!\u00a0 You’re not out of the woods yet, because the First Law of Noise Engineers<\/em> is still, “if you can’t hear it, it can’t hurt you.”\u00a0 No kidding.\u00a0 And when you get mad as hell and bellow, “Goddammit, I’m getting sick from that turbine, and yes I can hear it!<\/em>“—you will be told it’s all psychosomatic.\u00a0 (This is what the much ballyhooed AWEA and CanWEA “expert” report, rebutting Pierpont’s “Wind Turbine Syndrome,” concludes.\u00a0 No kidding.\u00a0 It’s that corny.)<\/p>\n

It’s called the “nocebo” effect.\u00a0 Look it up in Wikipedia.\u00a0 You’re a\u00a0 nut case.\u00a0 You need to see a shrink.\u00a0 (The media will go along with it, by the way.\u00a0 They’ll write that you “claim” to have health effects.\u00a0 Not that you have<\/em> them; you claim<\/em> to have them.\u00a0 And they’ll call them your health “concerns,”\u00a0by the way.\u00a0 You’re not sick; you have health concerns<\/em>.\u00a0 Don’t look for any help from the media; most of them are stenographers for Big Wind.)<\/p>\n

Nothing violates the First Law of Noise Engineers<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s like gravity.\u00a0 Like Jehovah, it is the great industrial \u201cI am.”\u00a0 It’s gotta be the Industrial Supreme Being, otherwise the whole industrial noise reign of terror which has been around since, Jeez, the first steam engine!—will start to collapse.<\/p>\n

Then what do you do?\u00a0 I dunno.\u00a0 Punch a hole in the wall, I guess.<\/p>\n

Back to Wellfleet.\u00a0 Whoever is promoting this project—that is, whoever is selling your town board on this V90—has managed to hornswoggle the board into believing the 0-20 Hz infrasound is irrelevant.\u00a0 On the contrary, it’s the most relevant thing about the whole project!<\/em> And, by the way, when Geof Karlson, Chair of the Wellfleet Energy Committee, states the following, he’s wrong.<\/p>\n

What is most important is the attenuation of sound over the distance from the turbine nacelle to the closest residence, almost 1\/2 mile away.\u00a0 By the time the sound reaches the closest residences, it has attenuated to an extremely low level and its contribution to the decibel level at those residences is minor.\u00a0 (Wellfleet Forum—Wellfleet Wind Turbine Program—3\/1\/10, p. 12<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Infrasound does not attenuate like this, Mr. Karlson.\u00a0 (Did these guys ever study physics?\u00a0 Or does wishful thinking and bombast trump Physics 101?)\u00a0 Nor does wind turbine audible noise, for that matter.\u00a0 Depending on topography and geology, infrasound can travel very far.\u00a0 (In and over the ocean, for huge distances.)\u00a0 Furthermore, infrasound will readily\u00a0pass through\u00a0walls—like proverbial butter—oftentimes setting up resonance\/vibration patterns within the home, depending on room dimensions.<\/p>\n

Again, don’t believe me; just remember where you put this article when your Wind Turbine Syndrome kicks in.\u00a0 For some of you it will be pretty quick.\u00a0 For others, more gradual.\u00a0 For those with migraine disorder, you’re at special risk, as Pierpont demonstrates statistically.<\/p>\n

Migraine disorder?\u00a0 Did you get seasick and carsick as a kid?\u00a0 Then you’re motion sensitive.\u00a0 That V90 will make you seasick\/carsick again.\u00a0 And worse, because it’s long-term.<\/p>\n

The end.\u00a0 I promised to be brief.\u00a0 I lied.\u00a0 And, before you ask:\u00a0 No, there is no cure for WTS<\/em>.\u00a0 All you can do is move away.\u00a0 Since the V90 will be operating within specs and code, it won’t be turned off.\u00a0 Trust me, they never are.<\/p>\n

Go buy a “for sale” sign and hammer it in your front yard.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nd’Entremont home, Pubnico Point, Nova Scotia<\/p>\n

Then start worrying whether your property is worth anything.\u00a0 After all, your home is acoustically toxic.\u00a0 But that’s another sad story for another day.\u00a0 (Just as the windies will load you with documents proving<\/em> that Pierpont is blowing smoke about Wind Turbine Syndrome, they’ve got another stack of documents proving<\/em> that living near turbines absolutely does not hammer property value.\u00a0 I’m not kidding.)<\/p>\n

Daniel & Carolyn d’Entremont<\/a> pounded a “for sale” sign in their front yard—only to discover no one would buy it.\u00a0 So they locked the door and left.\u00a0 Yes, they are still gypsies, going from rental to rental.\u00a0 Still fighting the wind developer.\u00a0 The good news is, their Wind Turbine Syndrome (which the whole family got) disappeared once they abandoned their home.<\/p>\n

So.\u00a0 There you have it.\u00a0 This is what prompted Pierpont to write the following letter to the Wellfleet Town Administrator.\u00a0 Download it here<\/a>.\u00a0 And download Pierpont’s c.v. here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the cigarettes.\u00a0 (Don’t you know smoking’s bad for your health?)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOn the way to Naushon (1984)<\/p>\n

March 12, 2010<\/p>\n

Paul Sieloff, Town Administrator
\n300 Main
\nWellfleet, MA 02667<\/p>\n

Dear Mr. Sieloff,<\/p>\n

I am told that the Town of Wellfleet is proposing to build an industrial-scale wind turbine as close as 2 km to people\u2019s homes.<\/p>\n

Permit me to speak plainly. This is a reckless and violent act. The evidence for turbines producing substantial low frequency noise and, worse, infrasound, is no longer in dispute. Second, the clinical evidence is unambiguous that low frequency noise and infrasound profoundly disturb the body\u2019s organs of balance, motion, and position sense. Third, the case studies performed by me and other medical doctors have demonstrated unequivocally that people living within 2 km of turbines are made seriously ill, often to the point of abandoning their homes. Fourth, there is no doubt among otolaryngologists and neuro-otologists who have studied the evidence that wind turbine low frequency noise and infrasound are seriously disrupting the body\u2019s vestibular organs, resulting in the constellation of illness I have called Wind Turbine Syndrome.<\/p>\n

The cure for Wind Turbine Syndrome is simple: Move away from the turbines or shut them off. The prevention of Wind Turbine Syndrome is even simpler: Don\u2019t build these low frequency\/infrasound-generating machines within 2 km of people\u2019s homes. Governments and corporations who violate this principle are guilty of gross clinical harm. Such governments and corporations should be taken before whatever level of court is necessary to stop this outrage.<\/p>\n

These are strong words. They are carefully chosen. They are strong because governments and the wind industry stubbornly\u2014I would now add, criminally\u2014refuse to acknowledge that they are deliberately and aggressively harming people. This must stop. The evidence is overwhelming.<\/p>\n

I repeat, this must stop.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Nina Pierpont, MD (Johns Hopkins), PhD (Population Biology, Princeton)
\nFellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics
\nFormer Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics,
\nCollege of Physicians & Surgeons,
\nColumbia University<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: \u00a0The following article was published on this site in March 2010, when the Town of Wellfleet, Mass., was careening toward installing a huge wind turbine on the edge of town. \u00a0Happily, the Town Selectmen stopped the project dead in its tracks when they learned of the health hazards and other manifold shortcomings of this screwball plan. \u00a0We are reposting the article because, alas, it somehow got misplaced when we created our new website. \u00a0It now appears on the present website, again, for the first time. \u00a0We are reprinting it, as well, because we get many questions from communities and individuals facing the prospect of one, two, or three turbines, wondering if one or two turbines pose a problem to health. \u00a0The answer is, “yes”! —Calvin Luther Martin, PhD (3\/15\/10, reprinted 11\/7\/10) Wellfleet, Massachusetts.\u00a0 Nice town out on Cape Cod.\u00a0 Ever been there? Me neither.\u00a0 But it’s gotta be nice.\u00a0 National Seashore.\u00a0 Outstanding bird-watching.\u00a0 (Big migratory corridor; zillions of shorebirds come through.)\u00a0 Plus there’s marshes and ponds.\u00a0 And loads of really interesting people.\u00a0 What’s not to like? Coming soon is\u00a0one colossal wind turbine.\u00a0 Then it won’t be so nice.\u00a0 At least for people living within 2 km (1.25 miles) of that thing’s acoustic shadow. The plan is for a Vestas V90 1.8\/2.0 MW. Photo from Vestas website, with human figure added for perspective What’s not to like?\u00a0 “Clean, green, renewable,” after all.\u00a0 Right? I’ll try to be brief and keep it simple.\u00a0 (This isn’t going to be a happy story.\u00a0 If you don’t like sad stories, better bail out now.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[163,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}