How’s Your Health? 

Doctors say that wind generators, because of their low-frequency noise, are a hazard to the health of those living near them. The turbines, say these medical men, can cause headaches and depression in people living up to a mile away.

Near Padstow, Cornwall, England, the Bears Down wind farm was erected two years ago. It consists of only 14 generators. Still, one survey found that all but one out of the 14 people living near there had experienced an increase in the number of headaches. Ten said they had problems sleeping and suffered from anxiety.

Dr. Amanda Harry, who did the research, said, “People demonstrated a range of symptoms from headaches, nausea, migraines, dizziness, palpitations and tinnitus to sleep disturbance, stress, anxiety and depression. These symptoms had a knock-on effect in their daily lives, causing poor concentration, irritability and an inability to cope.” Dr. Harry observed that low-frequency noise was used as an instrument of torture by the Germans during the Second World War.

“It travels further than audible noise, is ground-born and is felt through vibrations,” she said. “Some people are having to leave their homes to get away from the nuisance.”

Similar problems have been found by Dr. Bridget Osborn, a doctor in Moes Maelogan, a village in North Wales, also in England, where only three turbines were erected in 2002. She has presented a paper to the Royal College of General Practitioners detailing a “marked” increase in depression among locals. She notes that audible noise surveys are conducted by the wind power industry, but not inaudible noise. She also notes that the affects felt depend on body shape; some not being affected while others suffer greatly.

Staying in England, Dr. Stephen Briggs, and archaeologist from Liangwryfron in West Wales initially welcomed the windmills, 20 in number. Two of his neighbors became sick and after four years of “frustrated appeals” the Briggs family has moved out of their home of 17 years. That was made more difficult because house prices near the wind farm have “plummeted.”

Mark Taplin, of Truro in Cornwall, has lived near a farm for almost a decade. According to him, “It has been a miserable, horrible experience. They are 440 meters away but if I step outside and they are not generating I know immediately because of the silence. They grind you down – you can’t get away from them. They make you depressed – the chomp and swoosh of the blades create a noise that beggars belief.