Falmouth Wind Turbines BOH Bias For A Political Agenda

Falmouth Wind Turbines BOH Bias For Political Agenda

Conflicts of interest at the Falmouth Board of Health has the potential to bias the primary interest of the public welfare, health and safety.

The Falmouth Board of Health has failed to act to abate the wind turbine nuisance that has caused lack of sleep leading to heath problems.

The Falmouth Board of Health has taken the position of defending the Town of Falmouth in as many as ten lawsuits against the town.

The Falmouth Board of Health is denying all the thousands of documentations, studies and noise complaints for the last six years.

The wind turbine health study done by the state of Massachusetts in 2012 did identify two potential impacts, concluding that limited scientific evidence exists that suggests:

1) an association between turbine sound and sleep disruption, which may lead to adverse health impacts;

2) prolonged exposure to shadow flicker (more than 30 minutes per day) can trigger annoyance, leading to potential transitory cognitive and physical health effects.

Two municipal turbines in Falmouth, Massachusetts, have been at the center of the heath impacts discussion. Nearby residents have long claimed that the turbines are negatively impacting their health.

The MassDEP released a study on May 15, 2012, finding the town’s Wind I turbine in violation of state noise standards.

The Massachusetts Wind Turbine independent expert panel :Jeffrey M. Ellenbogen, MD, MMSc;, Dora Anne Mills, MD, MPH, FAAP, Sheryl Grace, PhD, MS Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering;, James F. Manwell, PhD Mechanical Engineering,Wendy J. Heiger-Bernays, PhD; Kimberly A. Sullivan, PhD; Marc G. Weisskopf, ScD Epidemiology, PhD Neuroscience; Susan L. Santos, PhD.

The Panel meeting in 2012 merely reviewed literature and public media sources and met only three times.The panel was unaware at the time the Falmouth turbines generate110 decibels of noise. The board was also unaware that in April 2013 the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center admitted the acoustic noise study for Falmouth Wind 1 was a flat out fiasco using extrapolated noise figures.

Dr. James F. Manwell and Dora Anne Mills are extreme pro-wind advocates.

Dr. James F. Manwell oversaw the first utility scale wind turbine and the largest wind turbine constructed in Massachusetts.

Dr. James F. Manwell has won several awards from American Wind Association and U.S. Department of Energy

The Massachusetts wind turbine health study states that 5 of the panel members “did not have any direct experience with wind turbines.” While the other members had backgrounds in epidemiology, toxicology , neurology, and sleep medicine, they had no past direct experience with wind turbines.

The literature available to the independant expert panel in 2012 showed decibel mapping for the Town of Falmouth turbine using a 1.5 megawatt wind turbine generating 103.5 decibels of noise. A warning letter to the Town of Falmouth hidden since 2010 shows the actual Vestas wind turbine generates 110 decibels of noise raising the current decibel map up around ten decibels.

The Massachusetts Wind Turbine independent expert panel was never made aware of the Vestas noise warning of 110 decibels on noise.

A follow up study of the 2012 Massachusetts Wind Turbine Health study was done by the University of Massachusetts called Overview: Wind Turbine Health Impact Study. MA, 2012.
The overview sites 110 decibels of noise as having the ability of chest pounding.

On October 19, 2015 the Falmouth Board of Health voted to send a single letter and one Canadian study to the Falmouth Select Board and Zoning Board.

The Falmouth Board of Health has shown now it has two interests. The health of the citizens of Falmouth and the financial interest of the wind turbines. Why else out of thousands of wind turbine documents in their possesion would the Board of Health choose to send one ( 1 ) document to the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The primary mission of the Falmouth Board of Health: Protect the public health by regulating environmental complaints. Sending one (1 ) document and omitting all the other documents shows a bias towards any other study except the one ( 1 ) selected report. This is clearly not the mission of any board of health in Massachusetts.

The Falmouth Zoning Board of Appeals has twice ruled that the turbines are a nuisance. Barnstable Superior Court Judge Christopher J. Muse found that the defendants in the case face “a substantial risk and will suffer irreparable physical and psychological harm from the wind turbines

Falmouth Board of Health has thousands of written certified noise complaints, studies, documents, emails, letters related to turbine noise and health issues. The BOH is aware of the notification to the Town of Falmouth by the Mass Department of Environmental Protection the turbines break state noise laws 310 CMR 7.00.

The Falmouth Board of Health must make all these documents public for Town Meeting Members, Select Board and Zoning Board of Appeals. There is no reason in the world to only send one (1) document and negate all the others.

The certified noise complaints are the number one proof that the turbines were built far too close to residential homes. The written certified noise complaints are documents that show the main complaint of a lack of sleep.

Wind turbine companies along with the Town of Falmouth and board of health may be violating federal racketeering law by colluding to defraud the public about the threat posed by regulatory noise pollution from commercial wind turbines.

The Falmouth turbines generate 110 decibels of noise.