"Wind Turbine Syndrome" Allegedly Causes Heart Disease and Panic Attacks

Hearing Wind Turbines Through Ear Bones
According to a report in the Independent,

At the heart of Dr Pierpont's findings is that humans are affected by low-frequency noise and vibrations from wind turbines through their ear bones, rather like fish and other amphibians . . . This, she claims, overturns the medical orthodoxy of the past 70 years on which acousticians working for wind farms are using to base their noise measurements. "It has been gospel among acousticians for years that if a person can't hear a sound, it's too weak for it to be detected or registered by any other part of the body," she said. "But this is no longer true. Humans can hear through the bones. This is amazing. It would be heretical if it hadn't been shown in a well-conducted experiment."

Whether or not this was indeed a "well-conducted" study or not remains to be seen: it focused on a sampling of 38 people who lived near wind turbines, and draws its conclusions from them and previous research. Many scientists would take issue with such a small study claiming to yield such conclusive results. But Pierpont appears ready to defend herself. She says,

The wind industry will try to discredit me and disparage me, but I can cope with that. This is not unlike the tobacco industry dismissing health issues from smoking. The wind industry, however, is not composed of clinicians, nor is it made up of people suffering from wind turbines."

Well . . . except the wind industry's aim is to generate clean energy, and the tobacco industry's aim is to get people hooked on cigarettes. Don't think most people's health problems created by the tobacco company come from living to close to the crops . . . But I digress.

Wind Turbine Syndrome Explained
According to the Independent, Pierpont describes Wind Turbine Syndrome as

the disruption or abnormal stimulation of the inner ear's vestibular system by turbine infrasound and low-frequency noise, the most distinctive feature of which is a group of symptoms which she calls visceral vibratory vestibular disturbance, or VVVD. They cause problems ranging from internal pulsation, quivering, nervousness, fear, a compulsion to flee, chest tightness and tachycardia – increased heart rate. Turbine noise can also trigger nightmares and other disorders in children as well as harm cognitive development in the young, she claims.

Hence, people shouldn't live closer than 2 kilometers away from a wind turbine.

Pierpont may have a point, even if I shall remain skeptical of her study until it's properly reviewed by doctors and scientists: "It is irresponsible of the wind turbine companies – and governments – to continue building wind turbines so close to where people live until there has been a proper epidemiological investigation of the full impact on human health," she says.

Now, even if Wind Turbine Syndrome does sound a bit outlandish, perhaps it is worth considering the effect of an incessent, repetitive sound on residents who live near wind turbines--it's worth giving Dr. Pierpont's research its due, whatever that turns out to be. As for hearing vibrations through our ear bones, I'll be quite interested to find what the scientific consensus is on that one . . .

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