Dr. Nina Pierpont claims that it is the infrasonic to ultrasonic noise and vibrations emitted by wind turbines that cause some people to experience health problems.
posted
First I'll tell you I'm an electrical engineer so you know I have some credit when I say this. But really there's no reason wind turbines would cause any problems just as windmills back in the day didn't cause problems. If they were noisy then maybe the noise would stress people out or annoy them. But aside from some noise there's really nothing crazy or dangerous going on in a windmill. They are really that simple.
The only sort of thing even related to this that could cause problems is high voltage lines over peoples houses. And that is because the magnetic fields around the lines are so large and strong that they may have an effect on a persons body. But no one lives directly under wind turbines and the voltage they generate is much much lower that what is carried by some high voltage lines.
I could see a turbine getting rusty or getting something stuck in it then being extremely loud. So that could irritate the heck out of people which may have happened in some of the examples she talks about on her page.
Posts: 499 | From Indiana | Registered: Oct 2007
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MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
I'll add my 'former electrician' opinion and say that I agree with pryorka.
There are a lot of people arguing about wind turbines right now because of concerns about property values and noise and because it's a relatively new, or at least newly-expanding, technology. there is a lot of misinformaiton being put out there by people with an anti-windfarm agenda.
There is a LOT more that is bad about living near any other kind of electrical generating station- I'd take wind farms any day over a coal, gas burning, oil burning (diesel), or nuclear facility any day. As Pryorka said, the voltage in the lines leaving the wind turbines isn't likely to be as high as the enormous lines coming out of a larger, central generating station. What's worse about the coal, gas, diesel, or biomass burning facilities rather than wind farms, is that the other kinds of generators release a lot of pollutants. I grew up near several electrical generating stations, I wish I hadn't.
Noise is another issue- we're in a period right now where the industry and various local governments are working out the distances required to keep wind farm operators from annoying the neighbors- but it's the case even if you have a small gas generator in your neighborhood or any other kind of small electrical generation plant (or even an agricultural farm, which is where they're siting a lot of these things) is typically just as loud.
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TerryK
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 8552
posted
Thanks for posting these links.
My husband is an electrical engineer who teaches the technicians who maintain the turbines at wind farms. He has been very involved in safety issues for workers. The techs work at the wind farms 8+ hours a day, 5+ days a week.
He is well aware of subtle health issues because of my own sensitivities but he hasn't mentioned anything other than some people are upset that the farms are being located near their homes. Mainly for the reasons already mentioned, noise and property values. I'm certain he hasn't heard anything from the techs about health issues related to the job.
That said, most of the people who work on the turbines are young males who are quite robust. It is hard relatively dangerous work climbing very high towers in high winds.
I'll forward your links and if he has anything to say that is diffrent than what has already been said, I'll post it.
Terry
Posts: 6286 | From Oregon | Registered: Jan 2006
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emla999/Lyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12606
posted
In that article there was no mention that the electrical part of wind turbines was the cause of health problems.
Instead, Dr. Nina Pierpont claims that it is the infrasonic to ultrasonic noise and vibrations emitted by wind turbines that cause some people to experience health problems.
A medical doctor in Japan also claims something similar.
"Fumitaka Shiomi, 85, a doctor in Wakayama, Japan, who has studied infrasonic noise problems for 30 years, said, "There is health damage caused by infrasonic noise. Unless measures are taken immediately, a serious problem will occur."
Now, whether all of this is true or not I don't know. But I guess time will tell.
In the mean time Dr. Nina Pierpont is now recommending that wind turbines should not be built any closer than 2,000 meters to housing. Apparently, at that distance the infrasonic noise emitted by wind turbines will not cause any health problems.
Also, just for the record I am all for wind turbines and solar panels. But if the infrasonic to ultrasonic noise and vibrations emitted by wind turbines do indeed cause some people to experience health problems, then I would like to see this investigated further.
Posts: 1223 | From U.S.A | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
This prompted me to ask a question I have been dying to ask:
What makes some people more sensitive to all things than the others? Is it genetic? Is it Lyme? Is it...?
It seesm that on this group, we have more people who are sensitive to...almost everything. I said this not mean to discredit the notion. I simply try to point out what I have read here.
Are we losing perspective of how badly we cna be impacted by these modern day products? Or we are really talking about some serious issues here?
Posts: 822 | From midwest | Registered: Apr 2009
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posted
So the question would be do the turbines create ultrasonic noise.
Well this research sums it up.
"Although audible acoustic emissions from wind turbines have been extensively measured (i.e., frequencies below 20 kHz), the ultrasound emissions remain uncharacterized for most wind turbines. We performed a basic characterization of ultrasound emissions from a variety of wind turbines to determine whether ultrasound emissions may contribute to attracting bats toward wind turbines with consequential fatalities from rotor strikes. We were particularly interested in characterizing ultrasound emissions from the 1.5 MW NEG Micon turbines because of the documented bat mortality from these turbines operating at the Mountaineer Wind Energy Center in West Virginia. All turbines sampled generated only minor ultrasound above ambient sound levels. The majority of acoustic energy was emitted at audible frequencies and trailed off rapidly above audible frequencies with a similar profile to that of ambient wind noise. Measured from ground level, 34 m directly below the 1.5 MW NEG Micon wind turbine rotors, these turbines emitted approximately 5, 3, and 2 dB above ambient at 20, 30, and 40 kHz respectively. Above 50 kHz there was no significant difference from ambient sound levels. We conclude that ultrasound emissions, as measured from the ground-level, from these wind turbines do not likely play a significant role in attracting bats. However, ultrasound could be emitted from other turbines we did not measure during this preliminary investigation, or from the nacelle of turbines, possibly warranting further investigation."
So that's a very small level of any ultrasonic noise that would be present and it apparently matches the background noise levels. Some of those ultrasonic bird and insect repellents transmit noise at 112dB. BUT this study only tested one manufacturer's wind turbine, so who knows about other models.
Posts: 499 | From Indiana | Registered: Oct 2007
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