Noise and Health

NOISE

 

Wind Turbine Noise What Audiologists should know by Jerry Punch, Rich ard James and Dan Pabst

http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/wp-content/uploads/AudiologyToday-WindTurbineNoise.pdf

 

Excerpt:  People living within a mile of one or more wind turbines, and especially those living within a half mile, have frequent sleep disturbance leading to sleep deprivation, and sleep disturbances are common in people who live up to about 1.25 miles away.

 

Important Factors when planning a Wind Farm

http://www.retexo.de/english/wind/seite5a.htm

Excerpt:  Buildings, particularly housing, should not be nearer than 2 km to the wind farm.

GE Reports How Loud is a wind turbine?

http://www.gereports.com/how-loud-is-a-wind-turbine/

For the stillest, most rural areas, Longtin says the background noise is 30 decibels. At that level, a turbine located about a mile away wouldn’t be heard.

 

Vestas Policy on Noise from Wind Turbines

http://www.vestas.com/en/about-vestas/strategy/political-initiatives/policy-recommendations/noise.aspx

 

Excerpt:   Vestas also recommends that governments supplement relative noise limits with a low absolute maximum limit in areas of very low background noise (e.g. quiet countryside), which ensures minimal noise disturbance for turbine neighbours also in these places.

 

 

National Institutes of Health

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/news/releases/10/07_28_10.htm

 

Excerpt:  Regardless, it might not be enough to place wind turbines further away from human populations to keep them from being bothersome, since infrasound has the ability to cover long distances with little dissipation.

 

Wind Energy Resource Zone Board Comments: NASA Langley

Wind-Turbine Noise Research

http://efile.mpsc.state.mi.us/efile/docs/15899/0086.pdf

 

Excerpt:  These results have recently been re-confirmed by the work of den Berg (2004, [4] ) who has shown that wind gradients can increase sound levels at night by up to 15dB, and Pedersen (2004, [5] ), who has reported that wind-turbine noise is very much more annoying and intrusive than the criteria set by conventional dBA (e.g. EPA) considerations. He showed that annoyance rises rapidly for wind-turbine noise levels above 35dBA-38dBA.

 

In this respect, problems such as those from the wind-farm recently established at Ubly, are not unexpected. Reports from families living close to Ubly who have had their lives disrupted by wind-turbines are entirely consistent with this prior NASA knowledge and research. I hope you will be able to take these comments into consideration.

 

STATE OF MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, LABOR & ECONOMIC GROWTH, MICHIGAN PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION WIND ENERGY RESOURCE ZONE BOARD

 

Public Hearing held before the Wind Energy Resource Zone Board, at the Huron County Expo Center , 170 West Soper Road , Bad Axe, Michigan , on Monday, August 24, 2009 , at 11:00 a.m.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mpsc/windenergy-badaxe_292171_7.pdf

 

Excerpt:  The reality of our living nightmare is that we are not only woken from the sound that you can hear, but there is a low-frequency noise in our home that you can feel at night and sometimes all throughout the day.

 

 

Oregon Public Health office decides it's time to study health effects of wind turbines

Published: Thursday, October 21, 2010 , 11:48 PM      Updated: Friday, November 05, 2010 , 4:05 PM

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/10/oregon_public_health_office_de.html

 

Excerpt:  The growing number of wind farms has led to more complaints about their health effects, said Sujata Joshi,  an epidemiologist in the environmental public health office. Health concerns raised to date focus on noise and vibration generated by the huge turbines.