'Turbines wind up my goats' (Wind turbine noise blamed for goat deaths in Taiwan!)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/21/archipelago-wind-farm-goats-deaths

'Turbines wind up my goats'

Sam Jones and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 May 2009 22.14 BST

After three years of intrigue and confusion, not to mention a death toll of 400, the great Penghu archipelago goat mystery may finally have been solved.

Officials investigating the unexplained deaths of scores of the animals on the windy island chain in the Taiwan strait believe that the introduction of noisy wind turbines could have given the unfortunate goats a fatal case of exhaustion.

After the eight turbines were installed on the archipelago, a farmer told the authorities that his livestock were beginning to die for no apparent reason, according to Council of Agriculture inspection official Lu Ming-tseng.

It now appears that the turbines' ­high-volume, late-night, spinning was more than just an aural nuisance and could have induced terminal insomnia in the animals.

…

[patrice]

1. Solar.

Also: I'm not sure yet, but Kansas! seems less windy now.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Of course, then Kansas will get darker (just joking)

I'm a great fan of wind power (and solar) however, I think it's important for us to be aware that these alternative energy sources are not panaceas. They have their negative impacts as well.

[HelenWheels]

3. We're breaking ground for our turbines in an hour

our school district was given a grant for two wind mills and we're breaking ground at 10 AM. Hopefully these will be quieter.

[NJCher]

4. I've been reading about wind turbine site procedures

How awful--what a horrible way for these animals to have died. And I don't think it would take a genius to figure out what was killing them. Sometimes the actions of humans infuriates me.

In regard to site selection, however, in some parts of the midwest, they require the turbines to be 70 acres apart. I wonder if the great distance would cut down on the noise.

Also, there are a great number of factors that go into deciding on a site for each of these turbines. As you are well aware, each turbine is enormously expensive, so they are put on sites where they will produce the most.

If paying off farmers for ailing or dying livestock becomes part of the equation, the proximity of animals becomes part of the process of site selection. Already houses and buildings are part of that selection process.

I learned the above from a couple Ph.D. dissertations I read on the topic.


Cher

[Canuckistanian]

5. Bullshit

I'm calling major bullshit on this - it has "paid alternative energy critic" written all over it.

There's a blog called "The Lay Scientist" that picks this article apart from a journalistic and scientific POV:

The Goat-Killing Wind Farm Mystery

By Martin - Posted on 21 May 2009, 18:22 (GMT)

I haven't picked on the BBC for a while, but today their department of "and finally..." stories came up with this little gem: "Wind farm 'kills Taiwanese goats'." Now, I've not no axe to grind regarding wind farms, but the story is more tenuous than a fart in a hurricane, and smells about as bad.

The story comes from a small island near Taiwan, on which the imaginatively-named Taiwanese power company TaiPower (who curiously fail to mention collateral goat damage on their website) decided to plant a number of fancy new wind turbines. At the time the eight turbines were installed, nearby farmer Kuo Jing-shan claims to have had 700 goats. Four years later, his herd had been reduced to just 250, as one-by-one they died. The farmer told a local BBC reporter:

"The goats looked skinny and they weren't eating. One night I went out to the farmhouse and the goats were all standing up; they weren't sleeping. "I didn't know why. If I had known, I would've done something to stop the dying."


http://www.layscience.net/node/570

Read the rest of the post, it's quite informative.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. I didn't really find it terribly informative, not much more than simply saying "bullshit."

On the other hand:

http://www.steubencourier.com/news/2009/0222/front_page/005.html

February 22, 2009

Prattsburgh residents get warning on wind turbines

BY MARY PERHAM GATEHOUSE NEWS

SERVICE

PRATTSBURGH — Wind turbines will disturb your peace and quiet, neighboring town residents warned the Prattsburgh town board last week.

"It's like a jet engine landing right behind you," Hal Graham, of Cohocton, said. "It's constant noise."

…

"When I signed the contract, I was assured there was no noise," he said. "Well, people can't sleep at night, in the winter, with the windows closed. As the wind speed increases, the noise level rises. It rattles our windows ... It's like a jet engine going full blast."

The noise can be heard in neighboring hamlets of Ingleside, Atlanta and North Cohocton, according to Graham, and other Cohocton residents at the meeting. Other residents complained about a lack of sleep and disturbed animals.

…

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/04/14/tech-090414-wind-turbines.html

Wind turbines causing health problems, some Ont. residents say

Last Updated: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 | 5:09 PM ET
CBC News

Noise and vibrations caused by wind turbines are causing sleep disruptions and other health problems among people who live nearby, some Ontario residents say.

"I'm very concerned about the victims that we've got in Ontario because they're really suffering some pretty significant, adverse health effects," said Carmen Krogh, a retired Alberta pharmacist who is conducting a survey of people living near wind turbines.

Krogh, who now lives in Cormac, Ont., about 130 kilometres west of Ottawa, said she once fell ill while vacationing near a wind turbine complex in 2005. Initially, the turbines weren't moving, but once the wind picked up the blades started turning. Within 10 minutes she began to experience vibrations through her body, an intense headache, queasiness, dizziness and heart rhythm irregularities, she told CBC's The Current on Tuesday.

…

Last year, Dr. Nina Pierpoint, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, published a book called Wind Turbine Syndrome describing symptoms reported by people who live near wind turbines in the United States.

…

Now of course people can step forward to say, "I've never experienced a problem," but I (for one) am willing to accept that (for example) different manufacturer's turbines may behave differently or, a malfunctioning turbine may be noisier than a well maintained one or different people may be more sensitive than others.

Or, a herd of goats which had previously been largely isolated from industrial noise might be more sensitive than others…

[Canuckistanian]

7. I've been doing a lot of research on this lately

There is a concerted effort to paint wind power as either dangerous or ineffective. And some on this board are helping to spread the misinformation.

And I know all about "Dr. Pierpoint" and her "Wind Turbine Syndrome".

Go look up "Wind Turbine Syndrome" in wiki. It doesn't exist. It WAS an entry but it was tagged and deleted because there were NO peer-reviewed instances of the supposed effects. Also, Dr. Pierpoint isn't there, either. If she's such an "eminent researcher", why does she have no other published works?

And the Ontario story is being propagated by a group called "Wind Concerns Ontario", a shadowy "grass roots group" that seems to be more of a PR firm than a bunch of concerned citizens. They've had stories with almost EVERY Canadian TV station, radio station and newspaper. Not a bad record for a small citizens group.

I've tried to get information on who they are and where they came from, but come up blank so far.

In short, there are people out to deceive on wind power. I'm trying to find out who.

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. Wikipedia is now the arbiter of truth?

http://www.ninapierpont.com/?s=practice&p=5
http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/

I frequently cite articles from Wikipedia, but I'm under no illusions about it.


I agree that there's a lot of nonsense spread about wind turbines (say, have you heard they kill birds?) But I'm not going to simply gainsay any statement regarding possible health effects due to the noise they make.

http://oem.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/64/7/480

Published Online First: 1 March 2007. doi:10.1136/oem.2006.031039
Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2007;64:480-486
Copyright © 2007 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Wind turbine noise, annoyance and self-reported health and well-being in different living environments

Eja Pedersen and Kerstin Persson Waye

Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

Correspondence to:
Mrs E Pedersen
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, Göteborg University, PO Box 414, SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden; [email protected]

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of perception and annoyance due to wind turbine noise among people living near the turbines, and to study relations between noise and perception/annoyance, with focus on differences between living environments.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in seven areas in Sweden across dissimilar terrain and different degrees of urbanisation. A postal questionnaire regarding living conditions including response to wind turbine noise was completed by 754 subjects. Outdoor A-weighted sound pressure levels (SPLs) were calculated for each respondent. Perception and annoyance due to wind turbine noise in relation to SPLs was analysed with regard to dissimilarities between the areas.

Results: The odds of perceiving wind turbine noise increased with increasing SPL (OR 1.3; 95% CI 1.25 to 1.40). The odds of being annoyed by wind turbine noise also increased with increasing SPLs (OR 1.1; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.25). Perception and annoyance were associated with terrain and urbanisation: (1) a rural area increased the risk of perception and annoyance in comparison with a suburban area; and (2) in a rural setting, complex ground (hilly or rocky terrain) increased the risk compared with flat ground. Annoyance was associated with both objective and subjective factors of wind turbine visibility, and was further associated with lowered sleep quality and negative emotions.

Conclusion: There is a need to take the unique environment into account when planning a new wind farm so that adverse health effects are avoided. The influence of area-related factors should also be considered in future community noise research.

Abbreviations: LSD, least significant difference; SPL, sound pressure level

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120084200/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Wind turbines, flicker, and photosensitive epilepsy: Characterizing the flashing that may precipitate seizures and optimizing guidelines to prevent them

*Graham Harding, *Pamela Harding, and †Arnold Wilkins
*Neurosciences Institute Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom ; and †Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom
Address correspondence to Professor Graham Harding, The ElectroDiagnostic Centre Ltd, Greenfields, Upton Snodsbury, Worcester WR7 4NR, U.K. E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright © 2008 by the International League Against Epilepsy
KEYWORDS
Photosensitive epilepsy • Flicker • Rotors • Visual discomfort • Wind farms • Wind turbines • Green power

ABSTRACT

Wind turbines are known to produce shadow flicker by interruption of sunlight by the turbine blades. Known parameters of the seizure provoking effect of flicker, i.e., contrast, frequency, mark-space ratio, retinal area stimulated and percentage of visual cortex involved were applied to wind turbine features. The proportion of patients affected by viewing wind turbines expressed as distance in multiples of the hub height of the turbine showed that seizure risk does not decrease significantly until the distance exceeds 100 times the hub height.

Since risk does not diminish with viewing distance, flash frequency is therefore the critical factor and should be kept to a maximum of three per second, i.e., sixty revolutions per minute for a three-bladed turbine. On wind farms the shadows cast by one turbine on another should not be viewable by the public if the cumulative flash rate exceeds three per second. Turbine blades should not be reflective.

Accepted February 1, 2008; Online Early publication April 4, 2008.
DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)
10.1111/j.1528-1167.2008.01563.x About DOI

[Canuckistanian]

12. Just show me the peer-reviewed science

Then I'll believe it.

But until then, shit like this (the OP) is used to create enough FUD so that NO windfarms get built.

[OKIsItJustMe]

13. Actually, I did

http://oem.bmj.com/

Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) is an international peer reviewed journal concerned with areas of current importance in occupational medicine and environmental health issues throughout the world. Original contributions include epidemiological, physiological and psychological studies of occupational and environmental health hazards as well as toxicological studies of materials posing human health risks.

…

http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0013-9580

Epilepsia is the leading, most authoritative source for current clinical and research results on all aspects of epilepsy. As the journal of the International League Against Epilepsy, subscribers every month will review scientific evidence and clinical methodology in: clinical neurology, neurophysiology, molecular biology, neuroimaging, neurochemistry, neurosurgery, pharmacology, neuroepidemiology, and therapeutic trials. In each issue subscribers will find original peer reviewed articles, brief communications, editorial commentaries, meeting reports, and announcements.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Yeah, that's fine

I have no problems with legitimate research.

It's just this other BS that I object to.

[JohnWxy]

11. The original wind turbine critic -

[jpak]

8. I call bullshit - it was the Chupacabra!

:D

[JohnWxy]

9. LOL!