—Calvin Luther Martin, PhD

Editor’s note:  Anyone who wishes to post this piece on a website, may do so.  It is public domain.  In fact, every article on WTS.com is public domain (if it was written by us), and you are welcome to post it as you wish.

Hammond, NY.  (Full disclosure.  For decades, my family had a summer home in Hammond Township. Dark Island, in the Thousand Islands.) As I remember, Hammond was one of the deadest towns this side of Montana.  Right up there with those almost-ghost towns in the Sand Hills of Nebraska.

What passes for “downtown” is a half dozen houses, wornout Presbyterian church, feed store, and two or three derelict storefronts.  When I lived there the only traffic light was blinking—on a county road you could safely sit (literally) on when you were stupid and seventeen, and swill a six-pack with a buddy while enjoying the crickets of a warm summer evening.

Such was the town I knew.

Last night this bullshit town (don’t get me wrong; I adore the place) electrocuted energy giant Iberdrola.  Right in its testicles.

Testicles, really?  Spain’s smug steroid-bloated Wind Bull—the ballsiest of the ballsy.

Yeah, well, last night one crappy little upstate NY town fried the bull’s machismos.  Both of ’em.

How?  Want the short answer?  Brilliantly!  Hammond’s wind committee overwhelmingly voted (9 to 1) to insist the town’s wind law must include a Residential Property Value Guarantee Agreement (RPVG).  (The only member to vote “nay” was, unsurprisingly, a dead-ender with a lease.  You couldn’t make this stuff up!)

(more…)

Editor’s note:  The following anguished letter was written Christmas Day by Barry Funfar to the Falmouth, Massachusetts, Board of Health.

December 25, 2010

Dear Madam and Sirs,

As I write this, sitting at my desk looking out over my snow-covered woodland garden in the rear of my property, I also have a clear view of Falmouth’s Turbine #1 and the huge red crane that is assembling Wind Turbine #2. Every window on the back of my house has a great view of the Falmouth Industrial Park turbines.

I have a feeling of being overwhelmed by these machines. Nobody deserves to be subjected to this torment. Nearly every waking hour is spent being aggravated by it or aggravating over what to do about it, or medical appointments because of it, or talking to people calling me about it or who come to my house to see it for themselves, or meetings to do with it, or Internet exchanges dealing with it, or seminars and symposiums on it, or reading articles and books about it.  All this on top of my investing nearly $7000 fighting my own town over it.

I want my life back, and I am more than willing to fight for it. Persistence pays. The town sewage odor issue took 20 years. This is no less important to me. This is a matter of basic human rights. I learned one thing with the sewer issue:  that town officials are not forever. Replacements can be seated soon enough, and not all people are mindless.

This is Christmas Day. What is so outrageous about wind turbine nuisance is that it continues each and every day. Christmas, Thanksgiving, every holiday, every special occasion. It takes zero time off from annoying people. It is a negative mood setter. Have friends over for a cook-out:  no one likes this noise.  Some of us are driven insane by it. What otherwise could be a perfect day in the garden becomes a day of resentment and anger towards the town and another fist full of pills taken for depression, anxieties, and hypertension.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak at your Board of Health, December 20th, meeting. I do not agree with one board member’s analogy of wind turbine noise vs. botulism, and how the one affecting everyone and the other only some people makes the wind turbine detriments more complex to deal with.   What about blade and ice throw?  There is a proper, safe distance to setback even though the ice or blade would not hit everyone.

Actually “the hit” of ice or blade would affect fewer people than the noise does. Just because the victim would bleed from the physical hit does not lesson the impact on the victim who is suffering from noise induced anxiety, depression, and pain.

What do you say when you find him hanging on the turbine fence with a .357 round in his head?

You are responsible for the the health of all the citizens of Falmouth, including the ones who are sensitive to the noise, shadow flicker, strobe lights, and whatever other annoyances are caused by wind turbines or anything else in Falmouth. Your list of duties clearly includes noise. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency says that “noise is a significant hazard to public health,” and finds that an absolute noise limit fails to adequately protect the public health.

Many communities have adopted a rule that adequately protects the public health by establishing a relative standard that limits the noise caused by the operation of a wind energy system to no more than 5dBA above the ambient noise level (as measured at any point on property adjacent to the parcel on which the wind energy system is located). The Falmouth boards should have been looking into this back in 2004 when the wind turbine was being proposed. There was plenty of information back then to realize the detrimental effects of industrial wind turbines when sited too close to populations. The wind industry disclosed only the bright side of the picture.  Town officials either had their eyes closed or outright just “hoped” that things would turn out okay.

Not enough research was done, or at least not heeded.  The town took a huge risk, and now the consequences must be faced.

You dither around wasting time. You do not need peer reviewed studies from Canada or Denmark or Australia to prove to you the detrimental affects of industrial wind turbines on human beings. You have your own neighbors living right here, in Falmouth, whom you can speak to in person.

• You can stand by their houses
• You can look in their medicine cabinets
• You can review their medical records
• You can witness their beds moved down to their basements

We are suffering right here in Falmouth in real time!  After every meeting, when the turbine issue is yet again postponed, we hear Neil Andersen and Colin Murphy cry out “What am I supposed to do until then?”

(more…)

Clinical monitoring after a night of wind turbine noise exposure reveals dangerously high blood pressures (called “hypertension”), including in people with no prior history of hypertension—up to 4 km (2.5 mi) distance.

·

—Sarah Laurie, MD
Medical Director
Waubra Foundation
South Melbourne
Australia

Preliminary results of investigations (24-hour blood pressure Holter Monitor) are showing that some people living adjacent to turbine developments (distance of 3 to 4 km = 1.9 to 2.5 mi) are getting episodes of hypertension (high blood pressure) at night, sometimes dangerously high, while they are asleep and while the turbines are operating. As this will mostly be asymptomatic, people generally will be unaware that it is happening to them until this investigation is done on a night when the turbines are operating.

Holter Monitor without blood pressure cuff

Notice, these patients do not necessarily have previously diagnosed hypertension; they and their family physician might think their blood pressure is normal, since it is normal when measured in the doctor’s office, during the day, well away from the turbines.

There is peer reviewed published experimental evidence which shows that infrasound can cause elevations in blood pressure and heart rate of humans:

Chen Yuan Huang Qibai and Hanmin Shi, “An investigation on the physiological and psychological effects of infrasound on persons,” in The Effects of Low-Frequency Noise and Vibration on People, ed. Colin H Hansen (Essex, UK: C Multi-Science Publishing, 2007), pp. 303-310.  Reprinted from the Journal of Low Frequency Noise Vibration and Active Control.

(more…)

Editor’s note:  The following is a translation of a handwritten letter from a Wind Turbine Syndrome victim in Germany.  The letter was sent to Thomas Jacob, Ostfriesland, Lower Saxony, Germany, on December 5, 2010.  The author of the letter has asked to remain anonymous, for fear of reprisals. It is an imperfect translation, to be sure, but it gets the point across.

Dear Mr. Jacob,

Due to your appeal on the Internet, where you seek out concerned citizens in close proximity to wind turbines, I would like to describe briefly my (and our) symptoms, respectively.

With the erection of the bigger wind turbines here on the North Sea coast, I’m suffering, and some members of my family are suffering, from diverse symptoms like hypertension, dizziness, headache and insomnia—or, rather, sleep deprivation, which is extreme for me and one of my relatives because we can “hear” the infrasound as a vibration of our bodies.

We have one or more bass tones, 24 hours a day, which can’t be absorbed by anything—really, anything! Also, the whole body vibrates like on a ship at stormy sea.

We only hope the authorities get us out this extreme problem, after all, and let us still live on! It is a trip to hell!

Our appeal to the authorities: Immediate overnight shutdown of all wind turbines, infrasound noise measurements in dwellings and also in houses which are far-off from windfarms.

I would have taken part in the Berlin anti-turbine demonstration with pleasure, but my current state of health (Wind Turbine Syndome) does not permit it, anymore!

In hope that, nevertheless, everything turns to well, I remain with the best wishes for all.

An inhabitant of the North Sea coast, respectfully from hell on earth,

Name withheld

Editor’s note:  The following is the transcription of an interview conducted by Jutta Reichardt, Germany, with a Wind Turbine Syndrome victim named Christine Breda.  Ms. Reichardt did the English translation.

·
September 2010:  Jutta Reichardt’s Interview with Christine Breda, Osterstedt, Schleswig Holstein, Germany about her life with windturbines and their effect on her health and that of her cockatoos.

Jutta: Where have you experienced windturbines and how far away were they from your home?

Christine: Initially in Reher, Schleswig-Holstein. We moved there in September 2000. The first windturbines had already been erected outside the village. I think that there were 4 or 5 of them. I believe there are now 12 to 15. They must be about 2 kilometres away from our former house.

Jutta: How long did you live with them?

Christine: I work mostly at home, freelancing. This means that on days when I could do my telephone calls, I was at home all day. This amounted to 3-4 days a week, from 2000 to 2009.

My migraines became worse and worse. Until a month ago I had attacks every ten days. Also, they lasted increasingly long, from 2 to 6 days. If you take into consideration that I have to drive a lot for my job and am affected by vision disturbance, faintness and pain, all as a result of the turbines, then you can imagine that the situation has affected me professionally.

I have had many appointments with doctors, everything from physiotherapy (two years of it), acupuncture, and electric shock treatment. Nothing helped. Only walks through the woods well away from the windturbines have helped.

Since we have moved to Osterstedt, the attacks have decreased to one every 4 to 8 weeks. This is a real improvement, because I am much better able to work effectively. I have done nothing other than to move to an area where there are no windturbines. (more…)

·
“The hills are alive with the sound of wind turbines”

—Melissa Fyfe, The Age (12/26/10)

Remember the orange-bellied parrot, the bird that briefly stopped a wind farm on Victoria’s south-east coast? Well, endangered birds are so 2006 when it comes to wind farm politics. The biggest issue these days is infrasound, the low-frequency noise anti-wind-farm campaigners say is generated by turbines and makes people sick.

Infrasound is the latest front in the battle over wind farms and will be investigated next year by a Senate inquiry set up by Family First’s Steve Fielding. The inquiry will look at the health impacts of living near turbines and concerns over excessive noise and vibrations caused by wind farms.

Anti-wind-farm campaigners say infrasound causes ”wind turbine syndrome”. Sufferers complain of nausea, dizziness and headaches.

(more…)

—from The Ballarat Courier (12/20/10)

Mr Andrew Bray refers to “possible” health effects of wind turbines in his article (The Courier, December 15).

The reported health effects experienced by people living in the vicinity of wind developments are unfortunately all too real, and have been well described around the world by a number of different medical researchers including Dr Nina Pierpont, Dr Michael Nissenbaum, and Dr Amanda Harry.

These independent researchers have all found that the health problems in some instances are so serious that farmers (sometimes fifth generation) are being forced from their land because of serious illness which they or their family are suffering.

This has also happened in Australia; in Gippsland (Toora), in the Ballarat region (Waubra) and in the Portland region (Cape Bridgewater).

(more…)

“New Jersey residents oppose wind turbine technology”

·
—Ryan Fennell, The Two Rivers Times (12/24/10)

TRENTON – Harnessing the power of wind might be better for the environment than burning fossil fuels but residents and officials in Union Beach and Sea Girt are questioning the necessity of placing Industrial Wind Turbines (IWT) in populated areas.

In Union Beach the Bayshore Regional Sewerage Authority (BRSA) has proposed constructing a wind turbine at its Oak Street location to power its sewer treatment plant. The proposed turbine would be 280 feet at center and peak at 380 feet when the turbine blades are at their highest points.

The National Guard Training Center in Sea Girt has plans to construct a wind tower 330 feet high at center and topping out at 406 feet.

Currently in New Jersey there is no legislation restricting the placement of these facilities and no setback requirements.

A study performed in 2000 by Dr. Nina Pierpont, the leading researcher in the field, identified a condition known as Industrial Wind Turbine Syndrome.

Pierpont attributes this syndrome to low frequency and ultra-sonic noise and vibrations as well as shadow and flicker effects produced by IWT’s.

In her study, Pierpont recommends a 1.25-mile setback from residences, schools, hospitals, and businesses. The World Health Organization recommends a 1.5-mile setback.

The Union Beach turbine would stand approximately 1,040 feet from the nearest residence. The proposed turbine in Sea Girt would be built within 1,350 feet of the nearest residence and 975 feet from the nearest residence in neighboring Manasquan.

“What started out as a quote, Sea Girt problem, the more information we got about this thing, the more we realized statewide legislation is necessary,” said Sea Girt resident Gary Cademartori.

Cademartori said he and several other residents are a group of concerned citizens that have “realized this is a statewide problem.”

According to Cademartori through his research he has discovered that the New Jersey legislature intends to construct approximately 130 Industrial Wind Turbines throughout the state within the next decade.

State Senator Sean Kean (R-11) has introduced legislation, with a matching bill in the Assembly, that would require 2,000-foot setbacks for any Industrial Wind Turbine constructed in populated areas.

“My legislation as drafted would create a state law that would prohibit the siting of a windmill within 2,000-feet of a residential structure,” Kean said. “I researched it through our team in Trenton and basically, its kind of wide-open in the U.S. There’s not a lot of laws in the different states but, in Europe there are a lot of guidelines and a lot of them are over 2,000-feet.”

The bill is currently in committee.

When asked about the setbacks recommended by the WHO and Pierpont of 1.5-miles and 1.25-miles, respectively, Kean said that he was unaware of those recommendations.

“That’s news to me, but its welcome news because there’s not a track record out there,” Kean said. “I go through the Office of Legislative Services, which is the non-partisan bill drafting, mostly attorneys, out in Trenton that do all of this stuff and they didn’t get me that information.”

(more…)

I am Misty Romack, mother of two. I currently am a MaryKay independent sales consultant and private baker. A little over two years ago we had to do an emergency remodel on our bathroom (single bathroom home) which caused us to refinance the home.

Approximately 6 months later, we were told that the surrounding farmers were going to “sandwhich” our home between two windmills and use the south end of our property as an access road. At this time our son was 4 almost 5, and daughter was 9.

(more…)

“The Wind Subsidy Bubble:  Green pork should be a GOP budget target”

—Editorial, Wall Street Journal (12/20/10)

Ethanol isn’t the only heavily subsidized energy source that won a multibillion dollar jackpot in last week’s tax deal. The other big winner was the wind industry, which received a one year extension of a $3 billion grant program for renewable energy projects.

Talk about throwing good money after bad. Despite more than $30 billion in subsidies for “clean energy” in the 2009 stimulus bill, Big Wind still can’t make it in the marketplace. Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, had warned that without last week’s extension of the federal 1603 investment credit, the outlook for the wind industry would be “flatline or down.” Some 20,000 wind energy jobs, about one-quarter of the industry’s total, could have been lost, the wind lobby concedes. For most industries that would be an admission of failure, but in Washington this kind of forecast is used to justify more subsidies.

But what have these subsidies bought taxpayers? (more…)

—Calvin Luther Martin, PhD

Congress just sent an $801 billion tax cut bill to President Obama for his signature.  Obama will sign it into law.  At the last minute, as a result of carpet-bomb lobbying and dire prophecies by the American Wind Energy Association, Democrats inserted language into the bill to extend the huge, absurd, direct federal subsidy for wind energy projects—guaranteeing Americans at least one more year of The Great Wind Energy Opera.

This means that you, dear reader, may wind up contemplating a wind turbine or two near your home, soon.

Should this happen, you’re doubtless going to hear (probably for the first time) the phrase “Wind Turbine Syndrome,” as your community debates this so-called “wind farm.”  (It’s not a “farm”; it’s a major industrial plant.)

You will soon make an interesting connection. The people who have signed leases with the wind developers consider Wind Turbine Syndrome to be so much moonshine.  As a Brewster, MA, town officer recently put it, “hogwash.”  (Note:  These “WTS = moonshine” experts signed those leases long before you were apprised of this whole project, but that’s a scandalous story for another day.)

Of course, the moonshine crowd has zero credentials, or, for that matter, any real knowledge of what Wind Turbine Syndrome in fact is.  (Frankly, they wouldn’t know a syndrome from a Las Vegas hooker.  Or a peer review from their pudenda.)  They heard it’s moonshine from the wind developers—and that’s good enough for them.

But I digress.  The point is, you’re looking down the barrel (a very large barrel!) of a wind turbine—maybe lots of them—and wondering if these things really, honest-to-god make people sick.

Short answer?  Yes, they do.  Sick enough that many either sell their homes (if they can), or they raise enough hell with the developer that the company (secretly) buys them out, or they abandon their home.  (Lock the door and drive away.  No kidding.)

Many more sit tight and suffer.   (more…)

·
“We urge anyone, from anywhere in the world, to make a submission,” Dr. Sarah Laurie (Australia)

·
The Australian Federal Senate is taking submissions on adverse health effects from wind turbines. The inquiry was supported by the entire Senate. Closing date for submissions is February 10, 2011.

The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online or sent by email to community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.

Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:

Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

We urge anyone, from anywhere in the world, to make a submission. It is a chance to be heard, and to be certain that health impacts are given the audience and wide exposure they deserve.

The Australian media has been doing an outstanding job exposing the reality of living next to turbines, and will be watching these submissions with much interest.

Sarah Laurie, MD
Medical Director
The Waubra Foundation
Australia

Sarah Laurie, MD

Editor’s note:  The following is probably the most painful article we’ve ever posted.  Written by an ex-GI.  The man has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Nineteen months combat, Vietnam.  Sergeant, US Marines.

Dr. Pierpont has come across research strongly suggesting that people with PTSD are suffering not from “battle trauma” or “battle stress” per se, but “noise trauma” to vestibular organs or to brain centers under vestibular influence—noise trauma associated with battle.  PTSD is a form of brain trauma.  The US government has known this for years.  Indeed, much of the research was done by US military scientists.

If she can ever squeeze enough “spare time” out of her medical practice, Pierpont will publish her research into this.  Meanwhile, we are finding that a good many people reporting WTS symptoms are, unsurprisingly, combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD.

11/17/10

To the Falmouth Board of Selectmen:

I am someone who has been on both sides of the mental health fence. I lived 35 years with undiagnosed, chronic PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from 19 months combat in Vietnam), followed by seven years of intensive, twice/week therapy.

(more…)

“[Mr. Irwin] estimates that he knows of at least 20 cases of severe symptoms, with many others effected to a lesser degree.

“’People were suffering migraines, dizziness, nausea and heart palpitations due to low frequency sound and infrasound,’ Mr. Irwin said.”

·
—Barbara-Ann MacEachern, myKawartha.com (12/9/10)

For the Irwin family, who moved to Manvers Township to get away from wind turbines, news that several could be installed near their new home was not exactly welcome.

“We would never have moved here,” said Tammy Irwin, adding that they thought they were safe from wind turbine projects because of their new proximity to the Oak Ridges Moraine.

Her husband Darryl’s family had been living on the same farm in Ripley, ON for 135 years, before they decided to move to this area just under three years ago.

“We’re to the point up there that we will be completely surrounded in the next year or so if these turbine developments continue,” Mr. Irwin said of the 38 existing Enercon E-82 wind turbines, and the 50 proposed new and bigger turbines in Ripley.

The couple and their twin three-year-old boys had lived in Manvers Township for less than a year when the projects were proposed.

“If we allow 15, or even five [wind turbines], it will grow exponentially. It just opens the door to them,” Mr. Irwin said.

“It feels like you are standing in the middle of a railroad track with a train coming,” he added.

(more…)

As (useless) wind energy adds to the cost of energy consumption in the UK, many find themselves reduced to “fuel poverty.”

“National Energy Action estimates that 5.5 million households will have plunged into fuel poverty by early next year due to price rises.

“This is up 400,000 on the group’s last estimate and represents 21 per cent of the UK’s 26 million households. The last official figures, for 2008, showed there were 4.5 million fuel-poor households in the UK. On Friday, British Gas will raise prices for eight million customers. Millions more customers of Scottish & Southern Energy and ScottishPower have already been hit by price rises.  [Editor’s note: Click here and then here to read about Scottish & Southern Energy’s commitment to ridiculously expensive, yet government mandated and contrived, wind energy—the almost certain culprit for these price increases being passed on to homeowners.  ScottishPower, by the way, is part of Iberdrola, a world leader in wind energy.]

“Last winter 70 per cent of households were forced to cut down or ration their energy use because of cost.

“Uswitch’s Ms Robinson, who advised Tony Blair’s government on energy policy, warned: ‘Winter price hikes will simply force even more people down this route.'”

—Tracey Boles and Lucy Johnston, Express.co.uk (12/5/10)

Middleclass families are among millions of Britons who cannot afford to heat their homes this winter, as elderly ride on buses all day to stay in the warm.

After a week of snow and freezing temperatures a shocking picture has emerged of the bleak months ahead for 5.5 million households.

Pensioners, who are among those most vulnerable to the cold, are resorting to extraordinary measures to keep warm.

Many have been using their free travel passes to spend the day riding on buses while others are seeking refuge from the cold in libraries and shopping centres.

(more…)

The problem

• The wind industry refuses to accept proper setbacks for its turbines.
• The wind industry sneers at all the medical studies verifying Wind Turbine Syndrome.

The solution

• While you’re waiting (forever) for the government to stop this criminal behavior, insist that your town board draft a wind law which insists that wind developers fully compensate property owners for demonstrated, independently-verified lost property value from those turbines next door.

·

—Matt McAllister, The Ogdensburg Journal (12/8/10)

HAMMOND, New York – If Hammond adopts a wind law that requires Iberdrola Renewables Inc. to compensate property owners who see drops in their land values, the company says it will scrap plans to build a proposed wind farm. [Editor’s note:  Click here for a copy of Iberdrola’s letter.  Better read it twice, to be sure you grasp the logic.  If you giggled—you probably got it. If you giggled so hard you wet your pants, you really got it.]

“They’ve basically said if we pass this agreement, that they will pick up their tinker toys and leave the sandbox,” said Richard K. Champany, the wind committee member responsible for the proposal. Mr. Champany, a real estate attorney with offices in Alexandria Bay and Pulaski, said he didn’t anticipate this reaction from Iberdrola.

“It’s very infuriating,” he said, holding up the letter from Iberdrola. “I’ve attempted to mediate and make everyone happy. This is a very fair proposal. I didn’t expect this kind of reaction.”

“It also says they don’t have any experience with property values dropping,” said Michele W. McQueer, committee tri-chair, “and that they would like to discuss the proposal with us.”

“I could care less what Iberdrola feels about the agreement,” said Ronald R. Papke, tri-chair of the committee appointed by the Hammond town board to draft a law regulating wind turbines. “If there aren’t any negative effects to property values, then they are no worse for wear if this agreement is included. We’re here to protect the citizens of Hammond.”

According to Mr. Champany, his proposal calls for assurances from Iberdrola that if a property owner cannot get the appraised value of his/her home at sale because of the presence of wind turbines, then Iberdrola would be required to make up the difference.

(more…)

—Alec N. Salt, PhD, Cochlear Fluids Research Laboratory, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

Click here for original report

·
Overview of The Problem

Wind turbines such as those currently being constructed in rural areas generate high levels of infrasound noise. This is very low frequency noise (sound waves of less than 20 cycles per second) that you cannot hear. Even though you cannot hear the sound, it is easily detected by the ear at the levels that are produced and can have effects on the body that profoundly disturb some individuals.

The situation is somewhat similar to ultraviolet (UV) light and the eye. We cannot see ultraviolet light but we all understand that it can affect us profoundly, causing sunburn, photokeratitis (also known as snow blindness or welder’s flash) and cataracts. For UV light, there are simple ways that the damaging effects can be avoided using sunscreens and eye protection.

For infrasound exposure in your home, there is currently no way to protect yourself. (more…)

“Mr Hood hit the headlines last year when he undertook limited sound testing at Waubra in response to residents who reported experiencing nausea, headaches and sleep deprivation.

“Initial results showed definite infrasound readings from turbines.

“Infrasound is undetectable by the human ear and is not measured by normal wind farm sound monitoring equipment.”

·
—Brendan Gullifer, The Courier.com.au (12/6/10)

The real problem with the wind turbine industry is that we should be heralding this clean and green technology — but instead we’re pitting neighbour against neighbour.

That’s the view of recently retired University of Ballarat engineering lecturer Graeme Hood.

Mr Hood hit the headlines last year when he undertook limited sound testing at Waubra in response to residents who reported experiencing nausea, headaches and sleep deprivation.

Initial results showed definite infrasound readings from turbines.

Infrasound is undetectable by the human ear and is not measured by normal wind farm sound monitoring equipment.

According to a recent British study, infrasound can trigger anxiety, sadness, revulsion and fear.

(more…)

“The Legislature finds and declares that . . . recent developments in the area of wind power production have . . .  indicated that the noise and vibration stemming from the operation of large-scale industrial wind turbines may cause nearby residents to suffer from a health condition known as “wind turbine syndrome,” which may result in sleep disturbance, headaches, ringing of the ears, ear pressure, dizziness, vertigo, nausea, visual blurring, racing heartbeat, irritability, problems with memory and concentration, and panic episodes accompanied by internal pulsation or quivering sensations; that people have moved away from their homes to avoid the ill effects associated with “wind turbine syndrome”; and that medical, noise, and acoustics experts, as well as wind energy organizations, have indicated that incidents of “wind turbine syndrome” can be avoided if industrial-strength wind turbines are sited a considerable distance away from residential property.”

Click here for the bill.  Click here for the NJ Legislature website for the context of the bill.  (In the window that opens, where it says “Search by Bill Number,” type in S2374.)  Note that this bill has not yet been voted on.

STATE OF NEW JERSEY, SENATE, No. 2374, 214th LEGISLATURE

INTRODUCED NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Sponsored by:

Senator SEAN T. KEAN
District 11 (Monmouth)

Senator ANDREW R. CIESLA
District 10 (Monmouth and Ocean)

Co-Sponsored by:

Senator Gill

SYNOPSIS

Prohibits siting of industrial wind turbines within 2,000 feet of any residence or residentially zoned property.

AN ACT concerning wind energy and supplementing Titles 13 and 40 of the Revised Statutes.

BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. a. The Legislature finds and declares that industrial-strength wind turbines can be over 400 feet tall and have blades that sweep up to 1.5 acres in area; that, as a result of their size, these machines have the potential to obstruct scenic vistas, create large community eyesores, and reduce property values for nearby residents unless they are sited at appropriate distances from residential areas; (more…)

“The Vietnam veteran attempted suicide after the turbines prevented him from gardening or sleeping, Hurley reported.”

—Laraine Weschler, Citizen’s News (12/3/10)

PROSPECT—Homeowner Thomas Satkunas submitted a preliminary proposal for zoning changes that would regulate and control wind generating facilities Wednesday night at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting at Prospect Town Hall.

Several members of the newly-formed Save Prospect group made emotional appeals to the commission to help them prevent BNE Energy from building two wind turbines near their homes.

“The intent is to have some town control over the development of wind farms so it’s not strictly only up to Siting Council,” said Bill Donnavan, land use official.

Residents also previously requested a public hearing from the Connecticut Siting Council, which regulates public utilities.

Donnavan said the residents who spoke at the zoning meeting seemed genuinely concerned about their own health and the value of their properties.

(more…)

“We were led to believe they were totally quiet.”

·
—Jim Oliver, Windsor Star (12/3/10)

At first, when I heard about wind turbines, I thought it would be a great idea for the environment and all those in the community. I was led to believe they were made to reduce energy and lower our electricity bills.

As everyone knows, they have nothing to do with our present bills or none in the near future.

In fact, I believe that we are paying our highest hydro bills to pay these off.

Yet, that is not my biggest concern. The peace and quiet we moved out in the county to admire has been totally destroyed.

(more…)

“[Neil] Andersen said he wants the town to shut the turbine off until a mitigation plan is created. ‘I’m just hoping someone will please turn it off until it gets figured out,’ he said. ‘That thing is dangerous. If it doesn’t get stopped we’ll be forced to move. Our house is uninhabitable.’”

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—Aaron Gouveia, Cape Cod Times (12/3/10)

FALMOUTH — Residents who live near the municipal wind turbine on Blacksmith Shop Road said they simply want the town to follow its own rules.

The question posed to the town Zoning Board of Appeals Thursday night was whether the 1.65-megawatt turbine, erected nearly a year ago and dubbed Wind I, required a special permit before it was built. Town officials claim a special permit was not necessary because the turbine is a municipal use, but neighbors think the town exempted itself from its own bylaws.

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“[Dr. Hazel] Lynn said she changed her mind about the possible relationship between illness and living near wind turbines because of a growing body of evidence in the medical literature. She says it is plausible that health is disturbed by low-frequency infrasound.

“‘And it’s very consistent throughout the world. When people live closer than a kilometre, then the complaints start to rise,’ she said.”

—Don Crosby, Owen Sound Sun Times, 12/3/10

The medical officer of health for Grey Bruce is preparing a proposal for a study of the health effects of living near wind turbines.

Dr. Hazel Lynn said in an interview Thursday that she’s been asked by the health unit’s board of directors to prepare a report on what’s possible for a study of the Grey Bruce region and estimated cost.

She said the options are somewhat narrow and revolve around comparing the effects on residents at increasingly greater distances from wind turbines.

“What you do is measure the effects at a kilometre, a kilometer and a half and two kilometers and try to do as complete a survey as possible if you don’t have a big population of everybody within those concentric rings,” Lynn said during a visit to Bruce County council to take in the inaugural meeting on Thursday.

Information would be gathered through a questionnaire, which has been tried in many other places around the world.

Lynn would like to conduct the survey in several communities that have wind turbines. She wonders if topography is a factor.

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“Bill makes building of wind turbines on land almost impossible in New Jersey”

“Gary Cadematori, a community activist who opposes the Sea Girt turbine, said his group has gotten letters from residents of Ocean Gate (which recently put a turbine up at its municipal building and plans another at a sewerage treatment plant) complaining the noise was ‘driving them crazy.’

“’You talk to the utility companies who are putting these things up, it’s one thing. Talk to the people living with them, and it’s another,’ he said.”

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—Matt Friedman, Statehouse Bureau NJ.com (12/1/10)

When state Sen. Sean Kean saw the fierce opposition a proposed wind turbine stirred in his shore-area district, he came up with a solution: Bar the construction of industrial electricity-generating windmills within 2,000 feet of any residentially zoned land.

But in the most densely populated state in the nation, environmentalists say it’s a case of “not in my back yard” gone wild. They say it would make it nearly impossible to put windmills on land along the wind-swept Jersey Shore.

“There’s probably no place on the Jersey Shore except for Long Beach Island that’s not within 2,000 feet of a home,” said Sierra Club New Jersey Director Jeff Tittel.

The bill (S2374) would not affect proposed offshore wind power projects, which would usually be a longer distance from shore. While the state Energy Master Plan calls for the lion’s share of wind power to be generated offshore, environmentalists say everything counts in developing clean, renewable energy.

“Our offshore wind potential is much greater than our onshore wind potential, but beggars can’t be choosers,” said David Pringle, political director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation. “We shouldn’t be putting unnecessary restrictions on this resource.”

Kean, R-Monmouth, drafted the bill after a proposed 325-foot windmill by Department of Military and Veterans Affairs at the National Guard training center in Sea Girt drew protests from hundreds of residents concerned it would threaten birds, cause noise, pose health risks and decrease property values. The Sea Girt council in September passed a resolution opposing building the turbine on the state-owned land.

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—Trevor Terfloth, Chatham Daily News (12/1/10)

Due to concerns over low-frequency noise, a legal challenge has been mounted against the recent approval of a wind farm near Thamesville.

Chatham-Kent Wind Action Inc. (formerly Chatham-Kent Wind Action Group), as well as a non-participating resident in the Kent Breeze Wind Power Project, filed the appeal on Monday.

Suncor Energy acquired the eight-turbine project from original developers Kent Breeze Corp. and MacLeod Windmill Project Inc.

Toronto lawyer Eric Gillespie is representing the plaintiffs in the case. He said there are currently no provincial standards on low-frequency noise.

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“Wind-farm health fears grow”

—Brendan Gullifer, The Courier (12/2/10)

Self-testing by a small group of Waubra residents could reveal a link between wind turbines and health.

South Australian doctor Sarah Laurie, director of the Waubra Foundation, says early indications suggest a possible link between turbine operation and early-morning blood pressure problems.

“It appears for some people that their blood pressure first thing in the morning is elevated if the turbines are going, and is not elevated if the turbine have been off overnight and early in the morning,” Dr Laurie said.

Dr Laurie said early-morning blood pressure elevation was a known risk factor for heart attacks.

She said eight people were checking their blood pressure north of the Waubra wind farm, within four kilometres of the nearest turbine, and some in the group had no knowledge of when the turbines were operating. All test participants were between one and four kilometres from the nearest turbine. Dr Laurie said not all in the test group had been affected.

“It’s very early days but there does appear to be something going on,” Dr Laurie said.

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