{"id":14535,"date":"2011-03-19T05:30:45","date_gmt":"2011-03-19T09:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/static\/?p=14535"},"modified":"2012-01-25T09:21:18","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T14:21:18","slug":"is-this-vibro-acoustic-disease-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/2011\/is-this-vibro-acoustic-disease-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this Vibro-Acoustic Disease? (Germany)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2014Calvin Luther Martin, PhD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7<\/span>
\nIs this VAD? \u00a0We don’t know<\/em>. \u00a0Read on.<\/p>\n

Marco Bernardi and his wife Jutta Reichardt<\/a> have been living next door to wind turbines (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) since 1994.<\/p>\n

At first it was 3. \u00a0Each, 39m (128ft) high and each 200kW, 450-750m (0.28-0.47mi) from their home.<\/p>\n

Soon, several more went up, with the same specifications—except closer still, 320-450m (0.20-0.28mi).<\/p>\n

The building frenzy began in 2001, when 115 more appeared like huge mushrooms, 2.3km (1.4mi) to 15km (9mi) from their front door. \u00a0This last batch ranged from 1 to 5MW, with a height of 90m (295ft) to 189m (620ft).<\/p>\n

The Wind Turbine Syndrome symptoms started soon after the initial 3 began operation. \u00a0By Marco and Jutta’s account, the symptoms have markedly worsened over time. \u00a0(The following is an imperfect, digital translation.)<\/p>\n

Jutta<\/span>: \u00a0tinnitus (4 different tones), insomnia, nausea (for about 3 years continuously), high blood pressure (at certain wind directions), angina pectoris vibrating of the upper body, ear pressure (a feeling like cotton wool in the ears), urgency, difficulty falling asleep, palpitations, heart flutters or tachycardia, reddish-white ulcers in the mouth, fluctuating blood pressure at highly variable pulse, internal unrest with urge to work more and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marco<\/span>: \u00a0tinnitus (4 different tones), sleep disorders, high blood pressure (at certain wind directions), angina pectoris (not as pronounced as with Jutta), vibrating of the upper body, ear pressure (a feeling like cotton wool in the ears), difficulty falling asleep, palpitations, heart flutters or tachycardia, reddish-white ulcers in the mouth, fluctuating blood pressure at highly variable pulse, lethargy in conjunction with internal unrest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, Nina Pierpont was notified by Marco that Jutta is now hospitalized with tissue damage which Nina suspects the Vibro-Acoustic Disease (VAD) research group in Portugal (Castelo Branco and Alves-Pereira) might well diagnose as VAD—from the turbines. <\/p>\n

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

Vibro-Acoustic Disease? \u00a0Nina explains the difference between VAD and WTS as follows. \u00a0(See Wind Turbine Syndrome<\/em>, 2009, pp. 13-14.)<\/p>\n

Readers should understand that Wind\u00a0Turbine Syndrome is not the same as Vibroacoustic Disease.10<\/span><\/sup> I say\u00a0this because the two are often equated in the popular media. The\u00a0proposed mechanisms are different, and the noise amplitudes are\u00a0probably different as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wind Turbine Syndrome, I propose, is mediated by the vestibular\u00a0system\u2014by disturbed sensory input to eyes, inner ears, and stretch\u00a0and pressure receptors in a variety of body locations. These feed\u00a0back neurologically onto a person\u2019s sense of position and motion\u00a0in space, which is in turn connected in multiple ways to brain\u00a0functions as disparate as spatial memory and anxiety. Several lines\u00a0of evidence suggest that the amplitude (power or intensity) of\u00a0low frequency noise and vibration needed to create these effects\u00a0may be even lower than the auditory threshold at the same low\u00a0frequencies. <\/span><\/p>\n

Re-stating this, it appears that even low frequency\u00a0noise or vibration too weak to be heard can still stimulate the\u00a0human vestibular system, opening the door for the symptoms I call\u00a0Wind Turbine Syndrome. I am happy to report there is now direct\u00a0experimental evidence of such vestibular sensitivity in normal\u00a0humans.11<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

Vibroacoustic Disease, on the other hand, is hypothesized to be\u00a0caused by direct tissue damage to a variety of organs, creating\u00a0thickening of supporting structures and other pathological\u00a0changes.12<\/span><\/sup> The suspected agent is high amplitude (high power\u00a0or intensity) low frequency noise. Given my research protocol,\u00a0described above, my study is of course unable to demonstrate\u00a0whether wind turbine exposure causes the types of pathologies\u00a0found in Vibroacoustic Disease, although there are similarities\u00a0that may be worthy of further clinical investigation, especially with\u00a0regard to asthma and lower respiratory infections.<\/span><\/p>\n

10<\/span><\/sup> Castelo Branco NAA, Alves-Pereira M. 2004. Vibroacoustic disease. Noise\u00a0Health 6(23): 3\u201320.
\n11<\/span><\/sup> Todd NPMc, Rosengren SM, Colebatch JG. 2008. Tuning and sensitivity of the\u00a0human vestibular system to low-frequency vibration. Neurosci Lett 444: 36\u201341.
\n12<\/span><\/sup> Castelo Branco and Alves-Pereira 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n

Extreme WTS can, it seems, cross the line into VAD. \u00a0At least this is Nina’s hunch, from conversations with the Portuguese VAD research group and her reading of the VAD literature.<\/p>\n

Nina’s concern is that Jutta Reichardt has perhaps crossed that line.<\/p>\n

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

Watch the video, below, made by Marco & Jutta last fall, I believe. \u00a0(Be sure to turn up your speakers; the native volume of the video is exceptionally low.<\/span>)<\/p>\n

\u00b7<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2014Calvin Luther Martin, PhD \u00b7 Is this VAD? \u00a0We don’t know. \u00a0Read on. Marco Bernardi and his wife Jutta Reichardt have been living next door to wind turbines (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) since 1994. At first it was 3. \u00a0Each, 39m (128ft) high and each 200kW, 450-750m (0.28-0.47mi) from their home. Soon, several more went up, with the same specifications—except closer still, 320-450m (0.20-0.28mi). The building frenzy began in 2001, when 115 more appeared like huge mushrooms, 2.3km (1.4mi) to 15km (9mi) from their front door. \u00a0This last batch ranged from 1 to 5MW, with a height of 90m (295ft) to 189m (620ft). The Wind Turbine Syndrome symptoms started soon after the initial 3 began operation. \u00a0By Marco and Jutta’s account, the symptoms have markedly worsened over time. \u00a0(The following is an imperfect, digital translation.) Jutta: \u00a0tinnitus (4 different tones), insomnia, nausea (for about 3 years continuously), high blood pressure (at certain wind directions), angina pectoris vibrating of the upper body, ear pressure (a feeling like cotton wool in the ears), urgency, difficulty falling asleep, palpitations, heart flutters or tachycardia, reddish-white ulcers in the mouth, fluctuating blood pressure at highly variable pulse, internal unrest with urge to work more and more. Marco: \u00a0tinnitus (4 different tones), sleep disorders, high blood pressure (at certain wind directions), angina pectoris (not as pronounced as with Jutta), vibrating of the upper body, ear pressure (a feeling like cotton wool in the ears), difficulty falling asleep, palpitations, heart flutters or tachycardia, reddish-white ulcers in the mouth, fluctuating blood pressure at highly variable pulse, lethargy in conjunction with internal unrest. Recently, Nina Pierpont was notified by Marco that Jutta is now hospitalized with tissue damage which Nina suspects the Vibro-Acoustic Disease (VAD) research group in Portugal (Castelo Branco and Alves-Pereira) might well diagnose as VAD—from the turbines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[166,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14535"}],"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=14535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}