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Photo courtesy of Kathryn Campbell Dodd

—Caroline Evans, “Letter to the editor,” WalesOnline.co.uk (1/27/10)

Today, the Institute of Acoustics conference will take place in Cardiff and will be discussing “wind turbine syndrome” and wind farm noise.

It is ironic to see that a key speaker will be the wind turbine consultant Andrew McKenzie.  [In the next sentence, Caroline Evans credits Dr. McKenzie’s company, Hayes McKenzie Partnership, as the firm “working with Statkraft, the developers of the Blaengwen Wind Farm (now entitled Alltwalis) in Brechfa Forest.”  Dr. McKenzie informs WTS.com that this is erroneous—Editor.]

The environmental statement [issued by the developers of the Blaengwen Wind Farm in Brechfa Forest states that]: “Based on these results the noise impact of the operational Blaengwen Wind Farm is therefore classified as being minor.”

Try telling that to the residents in Gwyddgrug who are now suffering from the noise and vibration from the 10 giant turbines on the slopes above their homes.

As more and more on-shore wind turbines are being built, the evidence is mounting that “wind turbine syndrome” can be suffered by many people who find themselves living near industrial wind turbines: symptoms include sleep disturbance, headaches, tinnitus, vertigo, dizziness, nausea, visual blurring, rapid heart rare, irritability, panic attacks and problems with concentration and memory.

Dr Nina Pierpont’s research outlines the problems of this new industrial plague and is something that planning decisions should take account of when looking at developments that can put these monster and inefficient turbines so near to people’s homes in many parts of beautiful rural Wales.
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