Wind turbine syndrome

[[File:Windmill_02.JPG|thumb|right|165px|The cause of all your misery!]]{{pseudosciencenav}}{{expand}}
{{cquote|'''[[Donald Trump|Donald 
Quixote
 Trump]]:''' We just don't use [our coal resources]. It's sort of a shame, but wind power is good. I don't like when you have a beautiful area of this country and then you see these windmills all over the place. Not only visually unattractive, but they make a lot of noise. They make the noise and people say, "Oh, my God." A lot of people that thought wind was great and now saying, "We have to live with these things for the rest of our lives."<br/>
'''David Letterman:''' Now, I'd rather see the windmills than the choking clouds of coal smoke.|||''Late Show with David Letterman''<ref>[http://www.allreadable.com/95f5KbtU March 2010]</ref>}}
'''Wind turbine syndrome''' ('''WTS''') is an [[bullshit|alleged]] condition suffered by 
 windmill crusaders
 people living close to [[Renewable energy#Wind energy|wind turbines]].  It was invented by Dr. Nina Pierpont in 2009 as [[propaganda]] against what a handful of anti-wind energy advocates refer to as "'''Big Wind'''."<ref>[http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/wind-turbine-syndrome/current-news-articles/ Current News & Articles].  Wind Turbine Syndrome.</ref>  It has zero [[evidence]] supporting it, and its main proponents are people who [[NIMBY|don't want tall metal structures visible from their house]] and the [[fossil fuel]] industry through [[Astroturf|front]] organisations.<ref>http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Waubra_Foundation</ref><ref>http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/curious-distribution-for-wind-turbine-sickness/4323486</ref>

The symptoms of WTS are claimed to be "internal pulsation, quivering, nervousness, fear, a compulsion to flee, chest tightness and tachycardia — increased heart rate."<ref>Margareta Pagano. [http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/are-wind-farms-a-health-risk-us-scientist-identifies-wind-turbine-syndrome-1766254.html Are wind farms a health risk? US scientist identifies 'wind turbine syndrome']. ''The Independent''.  2009 August 2.</ref> It's notable that these symptoms are more closely associated with [[hypochondria]] than anything else.<ref>RJ Goldberg.  ''[http://lccn.loc.gov/2006037788 Practical Guide to the Care of the Psychiatric Patient]'', 3<sup>rd</sup> ed. Mosby-Elsevier. 2007.</ref>  Other symptoms may include elevated levels of NIMBYism, crankery to rival the spinning of the rotors themselves, and severe bloating of wallets caused by an influx of oil money.

==Wild claims==
[[File:Nina010-447x521-b1.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Dr. Nina Pierpont, here seen just moments before rogue turbine blades got tangled in her perm. Press F to pay respects]]
Despite a book, ''Wind Turbine Syndrome'', and a website dedicated to selling the book,<ref>[http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/ "Wind Turbine Syndrome"].</ref> the research that claims to have identified it is not published in any [[peer review]]ed papers<ref>There is [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Wind+turbine+syndrome four results] on PubMed as of June 2016 for "wind turbine syndrome", basically concluding that more research is needed.</ref> — if you want to read what evidence there is for it, you'll have to pay for Pierpoint's book first.  

From what can be deduced, the evidence presented by Pierpont is a series of case studies — and a small number at that, being only a series of 38 people, only 23 of whom were spoken to directly and those were only over the phone. 15 of the 38 were family members whom Dr. Pierpont was told about by one of the 23 direct contacts. The 23 people [[Selection bias|self-selected]] by responding to an ad run in the area of wind turbines asking people who attributed their ailments to wind turbines to contact Dr. Pierpont.<ref>Mike Barnard. [http://www.quora.com/Wind-Power/Is-Dr-Nina-Pierpoints-Wind-Turbine-Syndrome-a-real-medical-syndrome-caused-by-wind-turbines/answer/Mike-Barnard Answer to: Wind Energy: Is Dr. Nina Pierpoint's "Wind Turbine Syndrome" a real medical syndrome caused by wind turbines?] Quora. 2012 May 2.</ref>

Participants in Dr. Pierpont's research were asked about their symptoms before they were exposed to wind turbines as a control study. As anyone with any knowledge of appraising research should know, this was certainly not a good control, especially considering that many of the participants were already convinced that wind turbines caused their symptoms.<ref>[http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/08August/Pages/Arewindfarmsahealthrisk.aspx Are wind farms a health risk?] Health news. National Health Service. 2009 August 3.</ref> Although the website claims that the book has gone under a form of "peer review" (while at the same time downplaying its importance), the reviews that were given read more like simple book reviews than professional appraisals of the evidence given<ref>[http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/wind-turbine-syndrome/peer-reviews/ "Peer Reviews"]. Wind Turbine Syndrome.</ref> and one of the original "peer reviewers" was her husband, a retired associate professor of [[history]] and long-time anti-wind advocate.

Pierpont and her supporters claim that wind turbines generate low levels of noise that can [[Audio woo|induce illness]]. They also assert that conventional sound [[engineer]]s deny that sounds outside the hearing range of [[human]]s is harmful — something that is outright wrong, as it is well-known that [[infrasound]] (frequencies lower than 20 Hz) can cause feelings of unwellness. This effect has been documented with both artificial sound and that produced by natural events.<ref> John D. Cody. [http://journal.borderlands.com/1997/infrasound/ Infrasound]. ''Journal of Borderland Research''. 1997.</ref> Wind turbines, however, generate far too ''low'' a level of sound pressure to cause any harm to humans — the sound pressure they do generate is still less than what a human would experience standing 75 meters from a beach with waves rolling in.<ref>Mike Barnard. [http://www.quora.com/Wind-Power/Is-the-infrasound-emitted-by-wind-turbines-harmful-to-humans-or-animals/answer/Mike-Barnard Answer to: Wind Energy: Is the infrasound emitted by wind turbines harmful to humans or animals?] Quora. 2012 May 8.</ref>

In [[Australia]], a non-registered Doctor named Sarah Laurie, representing The Waubra Foundation, an industry front group,<ref>[http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Waubra_Foundation Sourcewatch]</ref> testified in court that wind farms cause "…lip vibration, the lip vibrations have been described to me as from a distance of 10 kilometers away."<ref>http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/bad-day-in-court-for-anti-wind-campaigner-sarah-laurie </ref> Her evidence was thrown out of court and the data that she presented showed the exact opposite: people were more likely to have "wind turbine syndrome" when they were ''not'' living near wind turbines.<ref>http://theballaratindependent.com.au/news/article/wind-turbines-good-for-health</ref> Somehow "lip vibrations" slipped the scientists' systematic review of the human health effects of wind farms by the National Health and Medical Research Councils.<ref>http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/eh54_systematic_review_of_the_human_health_effects_of_wind_farms_december_2013.pdf</ref>

==Actual research==
{{main|WOMBAT}}
Research has been done into the effect that wind turbines can have on people.  Acoustic engineers have measured the output from turbines and reported them to be within acceptable limits.<ref>[http://www.nrel.gov/wind/pdfs/34021.pdf Wind Turbine Generator System Acoustic Noise Test Report for the AOC 15/50 Wind Turbine (example)]</ref> A non-systematic study of the [[literature]] into the health effects of turbines was conducted and revealed that there were no side effects beyond "annoyance", something that in itself is not a physiological or psychological illness.<ref>W. David Colby, et al. [http://www.awea.org/learnabout/publications/upload/awea_and_canwea_sound_white_paper.pdf Wind Turbine Sound and Health Effects].  American Wind Energy Association.  2009 December.</ref> A review of this study was done by the [[UK]]'s [[NHS]] stating that more thorough studies need to be done to assess the effects of turbines.<ref>[http://www.nhs.uk/news/2010/01January/Pages/Wind-turbine-sound-and-health.aspx Newspapers report research on wind turbine syndrome]. National Health Service. 2010 January 28.</ref>  However, as the current research stands, WTS probably does not exist outside the realms of the [[nocebo]] effect.<ref>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Wind+turbine+syndrome+nocebo Possible psychological mechanisms for "wind turbine syndrome". On the windmills of your mind] by G. J. Rubin et al. ''Noise Health''. 2014 Mar-Apr;16(69):116-22. doi: 10.4103/1463-1741.132099.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Electromagnetic hypersensitivity]]
*[[Cell phone radiation]]
*[[Psychosomatic]]
*[[Renewable energy]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Big Stuff]]
[[Category:Energy woo]]
[[Category:Environmentalism]]
[[Category:Medicine]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]

Categories: Big Stuff, Energy woo, Environmentalism, Medicine, Pseudoscience