wind power fraud rally, June 2013, Canberra.
Over the past couple of months, AGL has bombarded TV viewers with propaganda claiming that its push to wallow in the massive and endless subsidies ladled out to wind and solar power generators comes “with no compromises to you”.
A more accurate way of putting it would be that AGL will make no compromise, give no quarter and show no mercy to anybody that stands between it and the $42 billion worth of Renewable Energy Certificates still currently available under the Federal government’s Large-Scale RET.
AGL is responsible for the public-health calamity better known as the Macarthur wind farm in Victoria’s Western districts.
While detailing the battle between corrupt public health authorities and the wind industry’s pet acoustic consultants, on the one hand, and the handful of ethical acoustic experts, like Steven Cooper, working to identify the precise mechanism by which wind turbine noise and vibration causes sleep deprivation and other adverse health effects, on the other, The Australian’s Graham Lloyd throws a spotlight on one of AGL’s long-suffering victims, Jan Hetherington.
Wind turbine syndrome: infrasound and fury
The Australian
Graham Lloyd
5 July 2017
When Janet Hetherington went to a Melbourne hospital for a minor procedure late last year she had an odd experience. She was unable to sleep in the bed she was given and forced to move to escape a disturbing sensation that made it impossible for her to settle.
She reported her incident to hospital authorities, who later called in acoustic experts who confirmed a concentration of low-frequency noise in the precise area that she had been settled.
The noise has not affected everyone who has used that bed and, rather than do anything about the source, hospital staff have been told to be on the lookout for anyone who may experience a similar reaction.
Hetherington’s hospital experience is especially interesting as she has lived at Macarthur in southwest Victoria, home to one of the country’s biggest wind farms.
Disturbance from low-frequency noise from industrial airconditioning fans and compressors is pretty normal stuff in big buildings, and Victorian and Queensland health departments documents recognise that low-frequency noise sensitivity and sensitisation can be a problem for some people.
Hetherington’s hospital experience is another chapter in an ongoing saga for Macarthur wind farm owner AGL and the wind industry globally, which many say has been forced to jump at shadows on the issue for the past two decades.
Hetherington now has left the Macarthur area and says her sleep and health are greatly improved.
As the number of wind farms increases around the world, the number of complaints also is rising, as are the cases for noise nuisance being settled by wind power developers — the latest being last month in the Irish High Court, where a German wind power operator admitted liability but settled before the issue of punitive damages was determined by the court.
What has been dismissed by some leading commentators as an imaginary ailment is of increasing concern in medical circles internationally and acoustic specialists are investigating whether there is a physical explanation for what is going on.
The French Academy of Medicine has published a position paper on the issue that found the noise from wind turbines represents an “existential suffering” and real threat to the quality of life of nearby residents that must be taken seriously. After an investigation of the scientific literature, the academy did not reach a conclusion on the cause of widespread complaints about a so-called wind turbine syndrome. But it said even if wind turbines did “not seem to directly induce organic pathogens, it affects through its noise and especially visual nuisance the quality of life of a part of the residents” and thus their “state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing which today defines the concept of health”.
The academy recommended new wind turbines be built only “in areas where there was consensus among the population concerned as to their visual impact”, and a system of ongoing noise checks with a reduction in allowable noise limits to a weighted 30 decibels (30dBA) for outside dwellings and 25 decibels inside. It also repeated an earlier call for an epidemiological study on health nuisance from wind turbines.
Wind turbine syndrome symptoms cover a wide spectrum of disorders including sleep loss, fatigue, nausea, headaches, tinnitus, disturbances of balance, dizziness, stress, depression, irritability, anxiety, perturbed steroid hormone secretion, hypertension and socio-behavioural changes.
“At the medical level, wind turbine syndrome produces a complex and subjective entity in the clinical expression of which several factors are involved,” the French academy report says.
Analysis of the medical and scientific literature did not show that wind turbines had a significant impact on health.
“In other words, no disease or infirmity seems to be imputable to their functioning,” the academy says. “The problem, however, is that the definition of health has evolved and that, according to World Health Organisation, it now represents a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
The question of whether wind turbines are physically capable of producing the adverse reactions claimed is unresolved. However, it is now scientifically demonstrated by Swedish researchers that amplitude-modulated low-frequency wind turbine noise can directly cause sleep disturbance, even in young fit people taking part in its research study.
Much attention has been put on the possible role of low frequency or infrasound below the threshold of hearing. Australian researchers at the University of Sydney-affiliated Woolcock Institute of Medical Research are working with acoustics experts to test surrounding inaudible, or infrasound, noise attributed to wind turbines. However, the study is using synthesised “infrasound” and not that actually generated by wind turbines.
A sample of 40 people who are prone to being disturbed by noise will face three weekends in a purpose-built laboratory being exposed to silence, traffic noise and synthesised wind turbine infrasound. The researchers will monitor their health throughout the experiment, especially as they sleep. Results will be available in about 2020, but there is intense debate about whether wind turbine sound can be adequately replicated in the laboratory for such experiments.
The Swedish study, Physiological Effects of Wind Turbine Noise on Sleep, reported in September last year to the International Congress on Acoustics, highlights the importance of the pulses of noises made by rotating wind turbine blades that lead to a variation in the sound level. This variation in the sound level is described as amplitude modulation and can vary from inaudible to clearly audible.
“The presence of beats and strong amplitude modulation contributed to sleep disturbance, reflected by more electrophysiological awakenings, increased light sleep and wakefulness, and reduced REM and deep sleep,” the study says.
“The impact on sleep by these acoustic characteristics is currently the focus of interest in ongoing studies.”
Four of the world’s leading acoustic experts working on a joint paper have suggested two simple experiments that may resolve many of the issues.
The research can be traced back to work conducted by Steven Cooper in 2015, commissioned by wind developer Pacific Hydro, into noise emitted from its Cape Bridgewater wind farm in Victoria.
The latest paper includes contributions from the industry doyen of wind farm noise, Geoff Leventhall, and Paul Schomer, chairman of the American National Standards Committee dealing with noise. The researchers agree that “infrasound from wind turbines can almost be ruled out as a potential mechanism for stimulating motion sickness symptoms”. But they recommend “two relatively simple and relatively inexpensive studies be conducted to be sure no infrasound pathways to the brain exist other than through the cochlea”. The tests involve asking residents to identify when wind turbines are being turned on and off.
Residents’ responses also would be measured in relation to changes in the amount of electric power being generated by operating wind turbines.
The wind industry has been reluctant to co-operate with these sorts of investigations in the past.
However, Australia’s meticulous records of power generation for the National Electricity Market may provide a solution.
The proposed tests stem from findings of Cooper’s Cape Bridgewater research in which affected residents were asked to keep diaries of their experience, which later were compared to wind farm operation. Cooper found the study participants responses correlated better to the electric power being generated rather than to the acoustic signal. It suggests that people may be affected more by the speed of the wind turbine operations when depowering the turbine and to large changes in the electric power being generated.
“The fact that the subjects’ responses correlated with electric power, which is something the subjects could have no way of knowing, lends strong support to Cooper’s findings,” Schomer says.
Schomer says the suggested new tests are important for two reasons.
First, the subjects are incapable of having detailed knowledge of the electric power being generated. Second, if true, it is something that is potentially correctable by the wind industry through changes to blade design and operation.
Acoustician George Hessler says for a very small change in sound level generated by the wind turbine, there can be a very large change in the electric power generated.
Other research suggests a source of low-frequency audible sound is produced each time a blade passes the support tower.
The wind turbine blades flex so that the blade tip comes closer to the support tower as the electrical power being generated increases. The reverse occurs as the power being generated decreases.
“The facts in this analysis indicate that this should be studied further, since this may be an important factor in the community response — both annoyance and other physiological effects,” Schomer says.
“The fact that this sound source can be controlled by the operator, to some degree, gives some promise to our ability to mitigate or eliminate this problem.”
The collective conclusion of researchers has been that none of the opinions and recommendations answers the posed question — does low-frequency noise from wind turbines disturb people’s sleep or make people sick?
“It is abundantly obvious that intense adverse response occurs at certain sites,” they say.
“Realistically it is not even possible to answer the posed question to all parties’ satisfaction without practical research.”
But they argue the wind farm industry must accept that there are enough worldwide sites that emit excessive wind turbine noise resulting in severe adverse community reactions to adopt and adhere to policies setting out a reasonable sound level limit.
Likewise, wind farm opponents must accept reasonable sound limits or buffer distance to the nearest turbine.
Leventhall says stress from wind turbines, if it arises, is normally low level but, in a very small number of people, it may become intense and overpowering so that opposition to wind turbines is the dominating emotion in their lives.
He says research has shown reaction to noise, especially low-level noise, is largely conditioned by attitudes to the noise and its source.
“Persistent repetition that infrasound from wind turbines will cause illness develops stressful concerns in residents, but repetition is neither evidence nor proof,” Leventhall says.
He cites concerns on inaudible infrasound from current designs of wind turbines began 10 to 15 years ago, linked to objections to the growth of wind farms, and has accelerated during the past five to 10 years.
“It is inevitable that, in the absence of good supporting evidence, these speculative claims will become discredited over the next five to 10 years,” Leventhall says.
Australian researcher Cooper is focusing his continuing research on infrasound and amplitude modulation, highlighted also by the Swedish research.
In a paper presented to a congress on Noise as a Public Health problem in Zurich two weeks ago and at the Acoustical Society of America conference in Boston last week, Cooper says his research finds “modulation of low-frequency noise at an infrasound rate that occurs at or near the threshold of hearing may lead to a trigger response in individuals”.
In other words a mechanical cause for some people’s complaints may have been identified that is more complex than simply very low frequency noise.
If Cooper’s research is correct, the industry may have some new clues on how to fix a problem that has raised intense passions and caused a good deal of concern around the world.
The Australian
For the technically gifted, Steven Cooper’s analysis, discussed in Graham Lloyd’s article, is available here Cooper’ s Paper and a summary of it appears here Powerpoint Presentation
Here’s a letter from Jan Hetherington published in her local paper, detailing the depth of her despair and wholly unnecessary suffering.
Wind Farms – Serious Impacts
Hamilton Spectator – Letter to the Editor
Jan Hetherington
8 July 2017
In January 2017, I relocated to Port Fairy, having been forced to leave my home at Gerrigerrup, because of the constant exposure to the excessive pulsing infrasound, low frequency noise and vibration emitted by the 140 turbines at AGL’s Macarthur wind farm. The closest turbine was 3km away from my former home.
I had suffered constantly day and night, from severe symptoms such as ear and head pressure, dizziness, ice pick headaches and vibration along with sleep disruption, from 2012 when turbines first began operation to the end of 2016. I never had these symptoms before the wind farm started operating.
As a result of this ongoing sensory bombardment my body became, and still is sensitised.
The serious impact from acoustic emissions from turbines is cumulative, and the sensitisation will never go away although there has been an obvious improvement in my sleep and symptoms since I moved away from the turbines to Port Fairy.
My awareness of this cross sensitization to other noise sources first arose when I spent two nights in the newly built Western Private hospital in Melbourne in 2015, where I experienced severe vibration in my body and bed, in my hospital room. These were the exact same symptoms which I experienced back at home on the farm. The CEO of the hospital investigated this problem, after receiving a formal complaint from me, and engaged an independent acoustician to test the room. It was discovered there were high levels of specific frequencies of infrasound and low frequency noise in my room, which came from one of the hospital’s compressors.
Now, when I visit public places, cafes, restaurants, supermarkets etc. I am sometimes affected, experiencing heart palpitations, vibration, ice-pick headaches and have to quickly remove myself from that situation.
I am now affected by the fan on my new “gas log fire”. I can only run it on low, as when I run it on medium to high, I experience vibration and ice-pick headaches, and my body starts to “hum” leaving me anxious and feeling ‘nervy’.
I would hate to think what the long term impact of this constant harmful sensory bombardment could possibly be. Low frequency noise affects one’s central nervous system, endocrine system, cardiovascular system, hearing, speech in addition to sleep disruption.
Many other people living in the vicinity of AGL’s monster turbines have had their health damaged because of the constant barrage and exposure to acoustic emissions from the turbines at AGL’s Macarthur Wind farm. Several other families are forced to take respite weekly away from their farms, just so they can get a good night’s sleep. Some, like me, have moved away permanently because of the effect on their family’s health.
However this is totally denied, and both AGL and the Moyne Shire refuse to acknowledge there is a serious problem, let alone take any action to rectify this totally unacceptable situation.
Nobody should be forced to live amongst these seriously harmful conditions, without their permission, as we have next to the Macarthur Wind Farm.
The public has a right to know what is going on in this district, particularly as many more innocent rural families will possibly have their health severely damaged with the construction of hundreds more wind turbines throughout this entire south-west district of Victoria.
The public has a right to know that along with huge power price increases, this inefficient, expensive and unreliable form of power generation can possibly severely impact upon people’s health, their lives and their livelihoods.
Hamilton Spectator
STOP THESE THINGS 
Hi,
Here’s the link to the Petition on the Federal Government website for Australia to Withdraw from The Paris Climate Agreement.
Please Sign it by clicking on the link below and please also share it with everyone you know. There are only 1497 signatures to date, so it needs to move FAST !
Closing date for petition is 19/7/17.
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Petitions/House_of_Representatives_Petitions/Petitions_General/Sign_an_e-petition?id=EN0264
Thankyou.
Esther
UPDATE – there are just 1523 signatures to date. Please sign as there are only 5 days left to close of petition.
Thanks
All wind proponents should be made to acknowledge that harmful infrasound/low frequency sound exists as proven by independent acoustics experts.
Please refer to Steven Cooper’s last paper he presented in Zurich, as shown on the latest website edition of ‘Friends against wind’. Maybe a story for STT?
The relative phases of the sounds from each turbine must be a major factor, it would be easy to make measurements in places where there would be considerable cancellation between the turbines, but some unlucky souls may be located where the sounds are nearly in phase, hence add up to much more than the individual sound of a turbine.
I wouldn’t trust Vesey as far as I could throw him
Radiation increases inflammation. The more inflammation present in a person from existing illness, the more inflammation will be caused by the radiation. Much much much more than in a healthy person. When brain inflammation is present, the inflammation increasing effect of the radiation is much more obvious than inflammation elsewhere in the body. Many things can be affected, including heat shock protein expression, histamine release, peroxynitrite increase, cortisol increase, cell receptor function, blood brain barrier function, and on and on. We’ve only just started to expose the tip of the iceberg. Wind turbines, along with other sources of EMR and EMI (and maybe radiation we can’t detect) are condemning so many people to worse health.
People with brain inflammation are also more susceptible to low frequency noise. People with known neurological disease should to be included in studies and wind farm victims should be tested for markers of inflammation among other things.