Wind Turbines NOT hazardous to health

You can put away your tin foil hats

By Will Collette

On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) released a new independent report by a panel of physicians and scientists. These experts are credentialed in acoustical noise, infrasound, public health, sleep disturbance, mechanical engineering, epidemiology and neuroscience. The study was commissioned by MDEP in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Health. 

They examined whether there are any potential risks to human health from prolonged exposure to the effects of wind turbines. In a nutshell, they concluded that there are not.

This may come as a shock to our local wind NIMBYs, Ill Wind RI, and to CCA-anointed Town Council Vice-President Dan Slattery. They have taken it as an article of faith that wind turbines cause terrible health effects. Ill Wind has referred to a number of thoroughly discredited reports. Council member Slattery has claimed to have a huge collection of health effects research which he has not shared with the public, as seems to be his common practice.


While I'm no fan of industrial turbines in Charlestown, I support residential wind generators. I also think there is a lot of potential for small commercial or communal (shared residential) wind generators. I really cringe at the unscientific and often downright false claims that have been made by anti-wind NIMBYs. 

Read the new MDEP report here. 

Here are their key findings as listed by MDEP:

• There is no evidence for a set of health effects from exposure to wind turbines that could be characterized as a "Wind Turbine Syndrome."
• Claims that infrasound from wind turbines directly impacts the vestibular system have not been demonstrated scientifically. Available evidence shows that the infrasound levels near wind turbines cannot impact the vestibular system.
• The weight of the evidence suggests no association between noise from wind turbines and measures of psychological distress or mental health problems.
• None of the limited epidemiological evidence reviewed suggests an association between noise from wind turbines and pain and stiffness, diabetes, high blood pressure, tinnitus, hearing impairment, cardiovascular disease, and headache/migraine.
• There is limited epidemiologic evidence suggesting an association between exposure to wind turbines and annoyance. There is insufficient epidemiologic evidence to determine whether there is an association between noise from wind turbines and annoyance independent from the effects of seeing a wind turbine and vice versa.
• There is limited evidence from epidemiologic studies suggesting an association between noise from wind turbines and sleep disruption. In other words, it is possible that noise from some wind turbines can cause sleep disruption. Whether annoyance from wind turbines leads to sleep issues or stress has not been sufficiently quantified. While not based on evidence from wind turbines, there is evidence that sleep disruption can adversely affect mood, cognitive functioning, and overall sense of health and well-being. 
• Scientific evidence suggests that shadow flicker does not pose a risk for eliciting seizures as a result of photic stimulation. There is limited scientific evidence of an association between annoyance from prolonged shadow flicker (exceeding 30 minutes per day) and potential transitory cognitive and physical health effects.

Deputy Dan should re-check his research

Unfortunately, all this comes a bit late for Charlestown, which has the dubious distinction of being the most anti-wind NIMBY community in the United States. With town ordinances banning all large wind turbines and making residential wind energy generators all but impossible to legally install, Charlestown, at least for now, has shut the door on this proven technology that is becoming popular around the world.

But not here. We still have town leaders who believe this technology will make your eyeballs explode and testicles shrivel. It may disturb the out-of-state property owners who actually control this town. It does not fit within the traditional village concept nor our colonial-era rural lifestyle.