Wind turbines across Oregon stir up health scare:

[phantom power]

BOARDMAN, ORE. — Sherry Eaton pulled into the driveway of her rural, high-desert home to see one of several giant wind turbines being assembled a half-mile away.

"I started to cry," Eaton, 57, recalled of her first sight of the Willow Creek Wind Project in late July. "They're going to be hanging over the back of our house, and now there's the medical thing."

"The medical thing" is new research suggesting that living close to wind turbines, as Eaton and her 60-year-old husband, Mike, soon will be doing, can cause sleep disorders, difficulty with equilibrium, headaches, childhood "night terrors" and other health problems.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/health/5947095.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. hmmm I wonder who sponsored those studies....

Could it be anyone connected with the oil or atomic energy industries????

Ya think?????

I would like to see the actual studies, who did them, who sponsored them and when and where they were done.

[DCKit]

14. I did some checking around yesterday.

No involved group will admit to any industry involvement or funding. Several of the "citizens against..." groups look to be NIMBY types.

Nor was there any information on K-Selected Press (or its previous publications), the company publishing the study.

[diane in sf]

2. Still sounds better than mercury and radiation

[no limit]

3. You can't be serious.

[phantom power]

5. I'm serious that they're serious...

I doubt any of it is true, although it could be seen as a logical extension of the ELF radiation thing that has many people scared of living near high-voltage lines. If you live close enough to a wind-turbine, you will be subjected to ELF.

[suziedemocrat]

27. I think you hit the nail on the head.

[Vincardog]

4. I did a study and the shit always ran down the drain in a clockwise direction near wind turbines.

I believe there are health implications. Where is my grant?

[texastoast]

6. Oh from the HOUSTON Chronicle

Houston - World oil business capital.

Hmm.

[madrchsod]

7. google the doctor behind the "wind turbine syndrome"

according to one site her studies involved 50 people

[JohnWxy]

8. the so-called "research" consisted of interviews of 10 families, no control group.

"Her (Pierpont) interest was piqued by a wind farm being built near her upstate New York home, and she studied 10 families living near wind turbines built since 2004 in Canada, England, Ireland, Italy and the United States."

this was certainly good for laugh. The people in the article live 3/4 of a mile away from the wind farm. I wonder if they can hear them at all.

Maybe they actually are a pair of talking barn owls.

[JohnWxy]

9. Do the concerns of two people constitute a "health scare"???

[peace13]

10. If the industry offered free electricity to homes within ten square miles

the health issues would clear up immediately. Go figure.

[kristopher]

11. Heritage Foundation published it on 8/15

And they reference "The Oregonean" on 8/10.

Post 8/10 there were no other references I found until after Heritage published their story on it. Since then, it has been mentioned much more widely.

http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/1218250522129010.xml&coll=7&thispage=2

http://blog.heritage.org/2008/08/15/morning-bell-unintended-consequences-of-wind-energy/

Heritage is a primary source for wingnut talking points, in case you haven't heard.

[phantom power]

13. You don't say.

I'm sure you've already guessed that I'm mostly interested that the claims are being made, not in their truth or falsehood, since they are pretty clearly specious.

[depakid]

15. You can chalk a lot of this up to NIMBYism

Central Oregon's been in a housing boom (soon to bust). A lot of people moved out there for the drier weather, more solitude and scenery. Windfarms weren't exactly what they had in mind with that "mountain viewlot."

[kristopher]

17. NImbyism? No, I don't think so.

Nimby is a catchall term that really has meaning only as a pejorative. It is used by proponents of various types of projects to label opposition to those projects as being selfishly motivated. However, it has no true descriptive value in understanding such opposition.

Google: Martin Wolsink; he's written extensively on the topic.

[depakid]

18. Folks in the article are actually quoted as saying as much!

They don't want to look at windmills!

(or hear them, either).

They like wind power just fine- as long as it's not in their "back yard."

Then again, the typical resident in those areas of Oregon also wants government services but is adamently opposed to ponying up the taxes for them.

[kristopher]

19. Folks "in the article" eh?

Do you think that might have been the type of quote the reporter was trying to get?

I misspelled the name earlier, it is Maarten Wolsink.

**Wolsink, Maarten., Invalid theory impedes our understanding: a critique on the persistence of the language of NIMBY” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (2006) 31 (1), 85–91. doi:10.1111/j.1475-5661.2006.00191.x

Wolsink, Maarten., Wind Power and the NIMBY-myth: institutional capacity and the limited significance of public support” Renewable Energy 21, (2000) 49-64

Wolsink, Maarten., Wind Power Implementation: The nature of public attitudes: Equity and fairness instead of “backyard motives”, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 11, Issue 6 August 2007 Pages 1188-1207


**best

[depakid]

20. Come on now

It's hardly a stretch that people don't want windmills near their property, especially in Central and Eastern Oregon.

As to the low frequency noise studies, I haven't read them so I don't know how credible they are. Could well be there are valid public health issues to consider in the siting process. If there are, it wouldn't surprise me, because there's no free luch when it comes to energy.

[kristopher]

21. It goes to the definition of nimby.

You know how academics are about defining things. As I said, the only real meaning of the term nimby is found in its function as a way of name-calling. Let's use another example,
A: You're a jerk.
B: Yeah, I'm a jerk, so what?

What, exactly, is a jerk?

It is the same with nimby. It is just another way of calling someone a selfish jerk. That some people accept the label doesn't negate the concept that it really only means someone is doing something you don't like.

As to the validity of the OP referenced study; I doubt if there is anything to it as there has been a great deal of study on the topic and nothing has turned up that I know of except for the possible effect of flickering light on epileptics.

I think it is more likely that the people suffering illness like symptoms are showing the results of stress associated with loss of control over their little piece of the world. People can become so emotionally invested in such conflicts that it does affect their health. That has nothing specifically to do with wind power, however. It could just as easily be a fast food restaurant opening across the road from your home.

One more point, the Renewable Energy Policy Project did a reasonably comprehensive hedonic price study of housing in the viewshed of wind turbines and found that those homes with a view of the turbines sold for more money than comparable homes without a view. To me, that says a great deal about public perception of the technology.

[suziedemocrat]

28. You know - I think they look cool.

[Nederland]

23. Agreed

People use the term NIMBY exclusively as a pejorative--much like people on DU use the term right-wing as a pejorative. The truth is that you should analyze the strength and weaknesses of a claim on the merits, regardless of origin. For example, just because a study comes from the Heritage Foundation does not mean that is wrong, and just because a statement came from Ronald Reagan doesn't mean it's a lie.

[kristopher]

16. That was the reason I pointed out the involvement of Heritage.

They don't deal in truth, just propaganda. I agree that it is PROBABLY nothing more than smoke and hot air.
But the involvement of partisans and a small sample doesn't automatically negate the possibility that the research may be valid. It sounds weak from the reporting of it, but I'd like to read the original study to judge for myself.

[phantom power]

24. The Heritage connection is interesting...

A major cog in the Mighty Wurlitzer.

[jberryhill]

12. Odd....

My wife and I find them very relaxing and calming to watch.

[Javaman]

22. I also heard that wind turbines will also cause hair to fall out, gums to bleed

anal itch, rectal leakage, inflamed toes, ingrown nostril hairs, webbed feet, lack of finger nails, chronic backward talking, over production of flem, a bullseye for bees, bad breath, itchy knee syndrome, spontaneous back flips, air fungus, tree peeing, howling at the moon, rapid eye flutter, bulging veins on forehead, meek voice, loud voice, no voice, mouth on hoof syndrome, tender feet, the occasional opening and closing of the eyes, excessive yawning, evil hand, heroin addiction, faulty wiring, leg cramps, frantic rubbing of the belly and itchy sock disorder.

the list just goes on and on.

[Nihil]

25. Not all the time ...

... only if they were built by someone who has a friend whose cousin
once went out with the ex-wife of the guy who drove the minibus for
the cleaning company at a nuclear power station THAT HAD RADIATION!!!

You know full well that none of those ailments were ever reported
until Al-Qaeda dropped their first atomic bomb in Chernobyl!

(Great list BTW! :thumbsup: )

[Dead_Parrot]

26. Damn.

I was blaming our new laundry powder. Guess I'll have to move again.
:evilfrown: