Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Academic Simon Chapman finds no evidence that wind turbines cause vibroacoustic disease

A leading Australian academic says there is no credible evidence to support the theory that wind turbines cause disease.
Professor Simon Chapman is the lead author of a paper examining a condition known as vibroacoustic disease, which some people say causes adverse medical conditions for people living or working with 10 kilometres of wind turbines.
The study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, examined 35 research papers on vibroacoustic disease, and found that all but one had a first author from the same research group.
Professor Chapman says the claim that wind turbines cause the disease is based on a single case study of a 12-year-old boy with memory and attention problems at school.
He says the condition has received virtually no scientific recognition beyond the group of Portuguese researchers who coined the term.
"The connection has been made from a conference presentation made in Europe some years ago and based on the study of just one person, a young boy whose only symptom was having difficulties at school," he said.
"Claims which have been made by anti-wind turbine groups that vibroacoustic disease is caused by wind turbines mysteriously turn out to not even have a single research paper looking at that connection."
Professor Chapman says the connection between wind turbines and the disease has gone viral online, but the original study has received virtually no scientific recognition.
"I think it's a highly interesting example of motivated science that has simply got out there as a factoid off the leash and is now being repeated by interest groups who are opposed to wind turbines," he said.
Action groups say serious medical conditions identified
But industrial wind action groups say the disease is not a fabrication.
An Australian group called the Waubra Foundation says the medical conditions identified by people living or working near wind turbines include high blood pressure, sleeping difficulties, depression, and the worsening of existing medical conditions such as diabetes, migraines, tinnitus, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The foundation says more than 20 Australian families have abandoned their homes because of serious ill health experienced since turbines commenced operating near their homes.
Gary Goland from the group Noise Watch Australia says more research needs to be done.
"I'm a medical researcher involved with physiology for the last 30 years and basically it's a complex area," he said.
"You need to look at the elements that do make the connection and a direct connection and one that is measurable to get a better understanding of what biological effects are happening.
"To say that there are no health effects of low frequency noise or other noise doesn't line up with the many publications that are in many journals for a long time indicating that there are health effects."
In 2012, clean energy made up 13.5 per cent of the electricity market, with energy derived from the wind powering the equivalent of 1 million homes.
A senate inquiry report in 2011 recommended more studies be done on the noise impacts of turbines.

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