{"id":29352,"date":"2014-06-27T12:14:26","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T16:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/static\/?p=29352"},"modified":"2014-06-27T16:51:08","modified_gmt":"2014-06-27T20:51:08","slug":"got-wind-turbine-syndrome-this-harvard-medical-school-professor-believes-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/2014\/got-wind-turbine-syndrome-this-harvard-medical-school-professor-believes-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Got Wind Turbine Syndrome? This Harvard Medical School Professor believes you!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"doctor\"<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note<\/em>: \u00a0You\u2019ve heard of the<\/span> Harvard Medical School<\/a>, correct? And I\u2019ll bet\u00a0you\u2019re aware it\u2019s one of the finest medical schools in the world, right? \u00a0 Harvard Medical School has a number of world-class institutes and centers. \u00a0One being the<\/span> Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary<\/a>\u00a0(MEEI).<\/span><\/p>\n

Put\u00a0it this way. Let\u2019s 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\u2019re someone\u00a0in this stratum of society, in other words, and your doctor says\u00a0you have an inner ear disorder, something affecting your utricle or saccule\u00a0or semicircular canals, or your cochlea. \u00a0Because you don\u2019t want to mess around with medical mediocrity, you have your physician make an appointment for you at<\/span>\u00a0Massachusetts Eye & Ear<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

You fly\u00a0to Boston and meet with a specialist at MEEI. \u00a0The specialist is likely to be\u00a0a physician\u00a0doing a fellowship in neuro-otology. \u00a0(He\u2019s called a \u201cFellow in Neuro-otology.\u201d) \u00a0Or perhaps it\u2019s one of the senior, attending physicians \u2014 that is, one of the full-time faculty.<\/span><\/p>\n

The doc does a bunch of tests, but\u00a0he\u2019s still mystified about\u00a0what\u2019s going on. He needs to consult with some colleagues. \u00a0If he\u2019s really stumped (or \u201cshe,\u201d if the doc\u2019s 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\u2019t help you \u2014 and if you\u2019re really lucky \u2014 the cardinal may ask the pope for a consultation.)<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Medical Director of Mass. Eye & Ear\u2019s Clinical Balance & Vestibular Center<\/em> comes on board, you can safely assume you are seeing the ultimate authority on balance and vestibular disorders \u2014 in the world. The pope. \u00a0Or at least, you\u2019re seeing one of the half-dozen best qualified and knowledgeable and trained and recognized specialists in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow me so far?<\/span><\/p>\n

When Dr. Stephen Rauch<\/a> says the following, it\u2019s worth paying attention to. \u00a0 (Incidentally, Dr. Rauch has read Dr. Pierpont\u2019s \u00a0book, \u201cWind Turbine Syndrome.\u201d Dr. Rauch met with Dr. Pierpont in Cambridge, Mass., several years ago.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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 \u201cvery consistent\u201d 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\u2019s no existing test for either condition but \u201cNobody questions whether or not migraine is real.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe patients deserve the benefit of the doubt,\u201d Rauch says. \u201cIt\u2019s clear from the documents that come out of the industry that they\u2019re trying very hard to suppress the notion of WTS and they\u2019ve done it in a way that [involves] a lot of blaming the victim.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When the Medical Director of Harvard\u2019s Clinical Balance & Vestibular Center says the above, and says<\/span> this<\/a>, the\u00a0question becomes: \u201cWhy 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 \u2014 with anyone, for that matter?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Why are we even considering ludicrous\u00a0theories like the \u201cnocebo effect\u201d advanced by Australian sociologist<\/span> Simon Chapman<\/a>, whose scholarly speciality is \u201ctobacco industry advertising\u201d? \u00a0(I\u2019m serious.) \u00a0Why are we listening to British physicist<\/span> Geoff Leventhall<\/a> (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\u00a0absolutely no clinical credentials, who for years maintained that wind turbines produce negligible infrasound, and for years argued\u00a0that \u201cif you can\u2019t hear something audibly, it can\u2019t affect you negatively\u201d \u2014 why are we still paying attention to this irrelevant man?<\/span><\/p>\n

Who gives a goddam\u00a0whether Geoff Leventha<\/em>ll<\/em> or Simon Chapman think Wind Turbine Syndrome is real or not?<\/em> \u00a0(Am I missing something in this discussion?)<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to Dr. Rauch, there is\u00a0<\/span>Dr. Alec Salt<\/a>, worldclass neuro-physiologist at the<\/span> Washington University School of Medicine<\/a> in St. Louis, Missouri, where he is head of the<\/span> Cochlear Fluids Research Laboratory<\/a>. \u00a0Dr. Salt specializes in inner ear disorders. He\u2019s been doing this for decades, publishing in major clinical journals. \u00a0Dr. Salt is the one who demolished Leventhall\u2019s silly thesis that \u201cif you can\u2019t hear it, it can\u2019t hurt you<\/em>.\u201d (Leventhall was not the originator of that stupid idea; he\u2019s just parroted it for decades and, like a wind-up toy, refuses to stop.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Geoff<\/p>\n

Between Harvard\u2019s Dr. Rauch and \u00a0Washington University\u2019s Dr. Salt, and Dr. Pierpont\u2019s meticulous, peer-reviewed research (M.D. from the<\/span> Johns Hopkins Univ. School of Medicin<\/a>e, Ph.D. from<\/span> Princeton<\/a> in Population Biology), there really need be no further discussion about the legitimacy of WTS. \u00a0Yes, the\u00a0neuropathology of WTS needs further elucidation, but there is absolutely no question whether the illness is real. Anyone who denies it is simply playing games \u2014 and the moon (don’t you know?) is made of Swiss cheese and the Easter Bunny, folks, is honest-to-god real.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Read on. The author of the following article, Alex Halperin, requested an interview with Dr.\u00a0Pierpont before writing the article. She declined. (At this point, she prefers that specialists like Dr.\u00a0Rauch speak to the issue.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rauch\"<\/p>\n

.<\/span>
\n\u201cBig Wind Is Better Than Big Oil, But Just as Bad at P.R.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2014 Alex Halperin, The New Republic<\/span><\/a><\/span> (6\/15\/14)<\/span><\/p>\n

Nancy Shea didn\u2019t learn about the wind farm until after she moved to northwest Massachusetts to enjoy a quiet country life. The news didn\u2019t bother her. Shea, who describes herself as \u201cgreen\u201d and \u201ccrunchy,\u201d favors clean and renewable energy. But just days after the 19-turbine project went online Shea sensed something wrong. She \u201cfelt kind of queasy,\u201d one day in the kitchen. Later she woke up feeling like she had bed spins.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Shea\u2019s husband did some research and learned about wind turbine syndrome (WTS), a condition said to be caused by \u201cinfrasound,\u201d an inaudible low-frequency sound produced by the turbines. Sufferers complain about symptoms like insomnia, vertigo, headaches and disorientation. \u201cIt\u2019s a hard to describe sensation, you just want to crawl out of your skin,\u201d Shea says.<\/p>\n

A few nights later, the couple could hear the turbines spinning\u2014<\/span>the closest is 2,200 feet away. It sounded, Shea says, like a jet repeatedly flying over their cabin. Neither of them could sleep and they drove through a snowstorm to another property they have several miles away. Shea felt better immediately. Similar symptoms have been reported worldwide by people who live near wind turbines. But America\u2019s wind industry says their condition is psychological.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a great deal to like about wind power. It\u2019s a domestic, renewable power source that doesn\u2019t produce greenhouse gasses. It doesn\u2019t require digging anything out of the ground and, unlike nuclear energy, doesn\u2019t create any risk of catastrophic accidents. According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), more than 70 percent of the public view wind energy favorably. Following President Obama\u2019s recent push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there\u2019s every reason to believe that these giant pinwheels will become more familiar sights on the American landscape.\u00a0<\/strong>(The towers alone are hundreds of feet high.)<\/p>\n

Clean energy, however, is not the same thing as flawless energy. Producing power on a large scale involves processes and infrastructure which disrupt ecosystems and have other unintended consequences. Dams, for example, remain the most important source of renewable power in this country and environmentalists hate them.<\/p>\n

Wind farms have raised objections for ruining views and being noisy. But the fight over WTS presents a more difficult challenge for the industry. And while wind power advocates like to think of it as a forward looking and pragmatic fix for America\u2019s energy needs, when it comes to managing this mysterious phenomenon, they\u2019re foolishly borrowing from the bad old energy playbook.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, two physiologists at Washington University in St. Louis published a paper in the journal\u00a0Acoustics Today<\/em>\u00a0detailing several mechanisms by which infrasound from wind turbines could have detrimental effects. One, for example, is \u201cexcitation\u201d of nerve fibers in the inner ear that are related to tinnitus and \u201caural fullness.\u201d The article concludes that more study of infrasound is needed and pointedly states:<\/p>\n

If, in time, the symptoms of those living near the turbines \u2028are demonstrated to have a physiological basis, it will become apparent that the years of assertions from the wind industry\u2019s acousticians that \u201cwhat you can\u2019t hear can\u2019t affect you\u201d\u2026 was a great injustice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last year the same journal published an article by an England-based acoustician named Geoff Leventhall who argues that wind turbines don\u2019t produce infrasound at sufficient levels to cause health problems. When I called Leventhall, whose clients have included wind power developers, he said he doesn\u2019t believe WTS exists. Leventhall doesn\u2019t dispute that infrasound can distress people. His disagreement with the Washington University scientists, grossly simplified, is in how the infrasound produced by wind turbines should be measured.<\/p>\n

In written responses to questions, AWEA says that waves on the seashore, a child\u2019s swing, a car and even a human heartbeat expose people to higher levels of infrasound than wind turbines do. AWEA relied heavily on Leventhall\u2019s work and calls him \u201cthe most cited and referenced acoustician regarding wind energy in the world.\u201d The organization cited two studies, one from Australia, one from New Zealand, which suggest that WTS results from a \u201cnocebo\u201d effect, essentially that if people are told wind turbines make them sick, they will feel sick around wind turbines. Leventhall endorses this view.<\/p>\n

In an email, one AWEA manager wrote that \u201cIndependent, credible studies from around the world have consistently found that sound from wind farms has\u00a0no direct impact on human physical health.\u201d AWEA also cites a 2012\u00a0report<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0prepared for two Massachusetts state agencies by an independent panel which found no evidence of the existence of WTS. (Activists who oppose situating turbines near homes have numerous objections to the report.)<\/p>\n

Anyone who has ever played the NIMBY game knows the power of a scientific imprimatur. But the two sides are wielding their science to achieve asymmetrical goals. In the Washington University paper, Alec Salt and Jeffrey Lichtenhan write:<\/p>\n

Whether it is a chemical industry blamed for contaminating groundwater with cancer-causing dioxin, the tobacco industry accused of contributing to lung cancer, or athletes of the National Football League (NFL) putatively being susceptible to brain damage, it can be extremely difficult to establish the truth when some have an agenda to protect the status quo.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In these cases, industry\u2019s primary goal isn\u2019t to be right on the merits, though that would be nice, but to continue operating. As long as it\u2019s planting turbines, the wind industry is winning.\u00a0But as long as it\u2019s simply dismissing WTS, the industry is putting itself at risk of losing its sympathetic, clean image.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cvery consistent\u201d 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\u2019s no existing test for either condition but \u201cNobody questions whether or not migraine is real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe patients deserve the benefit of the doubt,\u201d Rauch says. \u201cIt\u2019s clear from the documents that come out of the industry that they\u2019re trying very hard to suppress the notion of WTS and they\u2019ve done it in a way that [involves] a lot of blaming the victim.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the inconstant nature of symptoms can compound WTS. Even when someone doesn\u2019t feel the effects, they\u2019re always conscious of wind speed and direction as they try to sense when their symptoms might return. (Turbines produce infrasound independently of audible noise.)<\/p>\n

Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick aims to increase the state\u2019s wind energy capacity to 2000 megawatts by 2020, a total equal to roughly 15 percent of the state\u2019s current electricity production. In a densely populated state that means more people are inevitably going to feel affected by WTS, even if it doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

As wind power has become more prominent, so have complaints. Scores of residents of Herkimer County, N.Y. are suing the Spanish wind power company Iberdrola over a wind farm. A judge has ordered that two wind turbines in Falmouth, Mass. can only be operated 12 hours a day and not on Sundays.<\/p>\n

The wind industry might take a lesson from Nancy Shea: People are generally reasonable, maybe more reasonable than they should be. Shea refuses to spend any more nights in the house she and her husband bought. She calls it a \u201cdead asset.\u201d Nonetheless, she still considers herself pro-wind.<\/p>\n

In the annals of corporate public relations debacles, WTS is a relatively minor one, at least for now. It would be self-defeating if the industry squanders this promising moment by failing to candidly address WTS concerns. Not doing so invites further attacks from\u00a0Fox News<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0National Review<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0and other conservative groups looking for an excuse to bash clean energy.<\/p>\n

The best advice might come from the Salt and Lichtenhan article. Big Wind, it argues, should \u201cacknowledge the problem and work to eliminate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rauch-c-516x226\"<\/p>\n

\n

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

Editor\u2019s note: \u00a0You\u2019ve heard of the Harvard Medical School, correct? And I\u2019ll bet\u00a0you\u2019re aware it\u2019s one of the finest medical schools in the world, right? \u00a0 Harvard Medical School has a number of world-class institutes and centers. \u00a0One being the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary\u00a0(MEEI). Put\u00a0it this way. Let\u2019s 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\u2019re someone\u00a0in this stratum of society, in other words, and your doctor says\u00a0you have an inner ear disorder, something affecting your utricle or saccule\u00a0or semicircular canals, or your cochlea. \u00a0Because you don\u2019t want to mess around with medical mediocrity, you have your physician make an appointment for you at\u00a0Massachusetts Eye & Ear. You fly\u00a0to Boston and meet with a specialist at MEEI. \u00a0The specialist is likely to be\u00a0a physician\u00a0doing a fellowship in neuro-otology. \u00a0(He\u2019s called a \u201cFellow in Neuro-otology.\u201d) \u00a0Or perhaps it\u2019s one of the senior, attending physicians \u2014 that is, one of the full-time faculty. The doc does a bunch of tests, but\u00a0he\u2019s still mystified about\u00a0what\u2019s going on. He needs to consult with some colleagues. \u00a0If he\u2019s really stumped (or \u201cshe,\u201d if the doc\u2019s 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\u2019t help you \u2014 and if you\u2019re really lucky \u2014 the cardinal may ask the pope for a consultation.) When the Medical Director of Mass. Eye & Ear\u2019s Clinical Balance & Vestibular Center comes on board, you can safely assume you are seeing the ultimate authority on balance and vestibular disorders \u2014 in the world. The pope. \u00a0Or at least, you\u2019re seeingRead More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[157,163,166,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29352"}],"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=29352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}