Since the Waubra wind farm started generating power in 2009, the town has acquired a dubious reputation: the so-called `Waubra Disease’ is now known internationally. But how much sense does it make? Whilst there’s a small number of complainants among the population of 500, there are also 30 families hosting turbines on their land as well as many turbine neighbours – including community leaders – who live happily with the turbines.
Wind Noise, Health, & Safety
For several years, a Portuguese research group has been touting the horrors of something they termed “vibroacoustic disease” or VAD, claiming that this was a physiological affliction due to extended exposure to infrasound. In recent years, they’ve been making the claim that wind turbines can cause this affliction.
Typically, we listen to experts, particularly when they’re telling us about imminent danger. Yet, climate scientists have been burdened with an effective, angry and motivated crowd of climate ‘skeptics’ – fueled by talented pseudoscience communicators like Joanne Nova and Andrew Bolt. They derail the public confidence in the science of climate change by convincing people to demand ‘evidence’ that climate change is real. Tory Shepherd of the Adelaide Advertister describes the phenomenon well, in her Radio National piece, relating to anti-flouridians
As each of anti-wind types’ arguments get shot down in flames, they usually resort to more and more outlandish claims. One of the most outlandish is that research on sonic or acoustic weapons is somehow pertinent to wind turbines and the health impacts that people claim that they cause.
People who host wind turbines on their properties and derive rental income from wind energy companies have important stories to tell about living alongside turbines, but they’ve largely been absent from the debate on wind farms and health. Australian filmmaker and researcher Neil Barrett is finally giving this critical group a voice in his new short film, The way the wind blows, released today.
I am posting a link to this article for its discourse on modern manias that could be compared to the panic caused in some communities by anti-wind energy activists, mostly in the English-speaking world.
moking-related diseases caused 14,900 deaths in 2004-05, there have been 4,700 deaths from mesothelioma since the 1980’s, and during the thalidomide crisis, 10,000 children were born with birth defects. No registered health professional or health authority in the world has been able to find evidence that infrasound from wind turbines can harm human health. –
The Waubra Foundation, Australia’s key player in the spread of health fears around wind energy, have stepped up their efforts – a flashy new website has popped up, adorned with brazen statements in which they directly appeal to health professionals – an unambiguous effort to recruit GPs and doctors to the cause of anti-wind efforts:
There have been 17 reviews of the evidence about wind farms and health published internationally. Each of these reviews have concluded that wind turbines can annoy a minority of people who live near them, but there is no strong evidence that they make people ill.
In an interesting study by an Australian consulting company, the acousticians found that complaints about noise were directly related to the attitude of receptors toward the perceived aesthetic impact of the wind farms.
