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An international panel of experts set up by the American and Canadian Wind Energy Associations has released a report which concludes that sounds or vibrations emitted from wind turbines have no adverse effect on human health.

The study was based on a review of a large body of scientific literature on sound and health effects, with specific regard to sound produced by wind turbines.

A seven-member panel - including experts in the fields of medicine, audiology, acoustics, environmental and public health from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Denmark - produced the report.

Dr Robert McCunney, one of the authors of the study and an occupational/ environmental medicine physician and research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: "The panel's multidisciplinary approach helped to fully explore the many published scientific reports related to the potential impact of wind turbines on people's health.

"There is no evidence that the sounds, nor the sub-audible vibrations, emitted by wind turbines have any direct adverse physiological effects on humans."

The study's panel was jointly established in early 2009 by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) to conduct a review of all current peer-reviewed scientific literature available on the issue of perceived health effects of wind turbines.

The objective of the panel was to provide an authoritative reference document for those making legislative and regulatory decisions about wind turbine developments.

Findings

Some of the findings in the study included evidence that the ground-borne vibrations from wind turbines are too weak to be detected by, or to affect, humans and that the sounds emitted by wind turbines are not unique.

The panel found that:

• Sound from wind turbines does not pose a risk of hearing loss or any other adverse health effect in humans;
• Subaudible, low frequency sound and infrasound from wind turbines do not present a risk to human health;
• Some people may be annoyed at the presence of sound from wind turbines. Annoyance is not a pathological entity;
• A major cause of concern about wind turbine sound is its fluctuating nature. Some may find this sound annoying, a reaction that depends primarily on personal characteristics as opposed to the intensity of the sound level;
• If sound levels from wind turbines were harmful, it would be impossible to live in a city given the sound levels normally present in urban environments.

The panel claimed that most complaints about wind turbine noise related to the aerodynamic sound component (the swish sound) produced by the turbine blades, but argued that only a small minority of those exposed reported annoyance and stress associated with noise perception.

The report also summarised a number of physical and psychological variables that may influence adverse reactions. In particular, the panel considered "wind turbine syndrome" and vibroacoustic disease - tissue inflammation and fibrosis associated with sound exposure - which have been claimed as causes of adverse health effects.

The evidence indicated that "wind turbine syndrome" was based on misinterpretation of physiologic data and that the features of the so-called syndrome were a subset of annoyance reactions.

Evidence for vibroacoustic disease was also "extremely dubious at levels of sound associated with wind turbines", according to the report.

CanWEA president, Robert Hornung, said: "This study will go a long way in addressing people's concerns and answering their questions about the effects of wind turbines.

"Canada's wind energy industry will continue to take a proactive role in ensuring wind energy developments are good neighbours to the communities that have embraced wind energy."

Source: New Energy Focus

Download the paper here.

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