Wind Vane: "Annoyance" Risk Finding Points To Health Board's Suspicion

Falmouth’s Board of Health has been offered preliminary evidence they’ve waited for since March 18, 2013. That’s when Health Board Chairman Jared Goldstone said the Board of Health had decided to table the wind turbine topics until new information became available.

Health Canada has recently completed its analysis of the data obtained over the course of many years which involved sampling 1238 participating households (see http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/noise-bruit/turbine-eoliennes/summary-re...). The ‘take-away’ from the study is that potential annoyance from wind turbine noise leads to sleep issues (a common complaint cited by the study). For Falmouth’s Board of Health, this finding affirms its March 4, 2013 conclusion that wind turbines cause sleep deprivation and associated problems. Associated problem that were enumerated by board member Gail Harkness, to the Wind Turbine Options Process committee, include hypertension, heart disease, stroke, depression, suicide, diabetes, obesity, impair immune function and other chronic diseases.

Unfortunately, the Health Canada study admits, the connection between Wind Turbine Noise and annoyance related sleep issues have not be sufficiently quantified. Annoyance however, was clearly found to be statistically associated to increased levels of wind turbine noise.

Falmouth Board of Health’s May 24, 2012 Wind Turbine Health Impact hearing testimony was quantified and results indicated that the major health effect reported to the board was sleep deprivation (85%) with attendant stress (53%). The board unanimously voted to forwarded the statistical report (http://www.cbuilding.org/sites... with an urgent request for a locally comprehensive health study, to the Mass Department of Public Health. The state agency’s response to the board at that time, “... such resources are not available at either the local or state level.”

The Board of Health decided that any board decision regarding Falmouth’s wind turbines must be supported by scientific evidence. The board’s March 4, 2013 position is corroborated. Our wind turbine problem has been acknowledged by the Court, Falmouth’s Zoning and Planning Boards. They’ve taken necessary steps, in line with their responsibilities, to mitigate and regulate..

The town turbines are now off at night during traditional sleep periods and this mitigates the most prevalent neighborhood effect (i.e. the annoyance of sleep disturbance from wind turbine noise). Should however, an operational period modification be pressed, due whether to alledged climate mitigation attempts or municipal budget campaigns, the Board of Health is now equipped with suitable scientific evidence to assure informed decisions for the preservation and protection of residents.