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Wind energy and health
Are wind
farms harmful to our health as sources of infrasound?
Infrasound and Low Frequency Noise are established as real causes of
illness in some people, but there are no harmful infrasound effects
from wind turbines.
There are all sorts of sources of infrasound in the modern world such
as cars and other road traffic, aircraft, diesel engines, trains, shipping,
factories, combustion, artillery, mining and quarrying, fridges and
other household appliances, fans, comressors and pumps, music, TVs,
and air conditioning. Infrasound is also ubiquitous in the natutal environment
from sources like air turbulence - even from earthquakes and storms,
sometimes thousands of miles away. Extensive work has already been carried out on infrasound from wind
turbines, which demonstrated that “Low frequency noise and vibration
levels were both found to comply with recommended residential criteria
even on the wind farm site itself with the acoustic signal, below 20
Hz, being well below accepted thresholds of perception.” In the
words of one infrasound expert: “There are no harmful infrasound
effects from wind turbines.” If a generator were to emit infrasound, the turbine tower would be
affected, noticeably vibrating, and although at below audible sounds,
this would be detected by the on board power control systems which monitor
the wind turbine and would automatically shut it off. Tens of thousands of wind turbines have now been operating worldwide
for up to 20 years, including in some of the countries with leading
general studies on infrasound. No link or problem has been identified
with the presence of wind turbines in these studies. Nevertheless, to be absolutely certain, it looks like the British Wind
Energy Association might well ask for the Government's 'Noise Working
Group' to be reformed and this work carried out again. Also, there are
strict guidelines on noise, as prepared by the Working Group set up
to address this issue back in 1996. Research on wind turbine noise has
been carried out under the Department's New and Renewable Energy Programme.
Copies of the reports 1 from those studies are available on the DTI
website at www.dti.gov.uk/publications.
See www.bwea.com/ref/noise.html
for more details.
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