The global wind power developer lobby and others associated with the industry promote the idea that there are no “direct” health effects as a result of the noise and vibration (infrasound, sound pressure, low frequency noise) produced by large-scale wind turbines.
In truth, there is plenty of evidence to support a causal link via indirect pathways. The simplest explanation (but not the whole explanation) is that the noise and vibration keep people awake at night, they do not get restful sleep and resulting long-term sleep disturbance in turn causes health problems. This is documented and accepted.
In fact, both the Health Canada study and the report from the Council of Canadian Academies, confirm health impacts from wind turbine noise and infrasound. “Annoyance” –a medical term denoting distress–has been identified; annoyance IS an adverse health effect.
**To report wind turbine environmental noise pollution, use the Ontario government online reporting tool: Report Pollution | Ontario.ca (gov.on.ca)
Noise from modern wind turbines is not known to cause hearing loss, but the low-frequency noise and vibration emitted by wind turbines may have adverse health effects on humans and may become an important community noise concern.
Audiology Today, Aug 2010
Academic Resources
HEALTH
How simple is it? In 2016, Paul Schomer PhD, Standards Director Emeritus for the Acoustical Society of America, delivered a paper titled “Effects of Wind Turbine Acoustic Emissions.” In it, he states quite simply:
Audible sound –> annoyance
Infrasound (low frequency/inaudible noise) –> health effects
Both –> sleep disruption
Moreover, the noise emissions from wind turbines are not being measured properly: “A-weighting” is used to assess most noise including transportation noise, and the wind power industry insists that A-weighting should be used to assess wind turbine noise, too. But, says Schomer, A-weighting cuts out much of the high and low frequencies of noise, and wind turbine noise emissions have a strong low-frequency content. Therefore, industry standards, government regulations and the measurements being used by many researchers are not adequate —they are presenting an incomplete picture.
Wind power developers around the world use two Canadian documents to buttress their claims that there are no health effects: the 2010 Chief Medical Officer of Health statement from Ontario, and the 2014 Health Canada wind turbine noise study.
Wind Concerns Ontario had several comments and concerns about the Health Canada study and filed a formal comment document. Our concerns were well-founded: the result is a poorly designed study (which was not designed to establish a causal relationship, so the authors should not now be saying, there is no link!) with sparse results—nevertheless, the study found that 25% of people within close range of an industrial wind turbine experience adverse health effects. Find a summary report created by Wind Concerns Ontario’s own expert review panel here.
Annoyance
Read Dr. Robert McMurtry’s testimony on annoyance, sent to the Senate Committee on Wind Turbines in Australia, from July 2015
Diagnostic Criteria
Diagnostic criteria for adverse health effects in the environs of wind turbines by Dr. Robert McMurtry and Carmen ME Krogh from 2014. Article
Wind Turbines health effects
Association between wind turbine noise and human health problems by Drs Ian Arra, Hazel Lynn, et al. Report.
Adverse health effects of industrial wind turbines: a preliminary report by Michael Nissenbaum MD, Jeff Aramini PhD and Chris Hanning MD
A review of the impacts of wind turbines in Ontario communities where citizen concerns had been raised prior to projects’ operation. People warned the Ontario government of impacts from the approval of these industrial power sites. The authors document what happened next. Read the paper here.
ECONOMICS
A recent report prepared by a consulting economist specializing in energy issues documented the reality of wind power in Ontario: it’s expensive, and it doesn’t work. In Chasing the Wind by Edgardo Sepulveda, published by the MacDonald Laurier Institute, it is revealed that wind power in Ontario is so heavily subsidized that it is “staggering” cost to taxpayers. What’s more, the benefits to climate are few. The prime value of wind would be that it displace emitting forms of power generation, but it doesn’t. The intermittent nature of wind means that Ontario needs more natural gas to provide power.
Read Chasing the Wind here.
An earlier report documented the costs of wind power, and noted as does Mr Sepulveda, that wind power is not appropriate for Ontario. Read the report prepared for the Council for Clean &Reliable Energy here.
A look back at how wind power came to be in Ontario and the costs to citizens waas recently published by TVOntario. Read the article here.
In early 2024, then Minister of Energy Todd Smith gave an interview to Decouple Media on the power supply situation in Ontario. Wind and solar was an “ideological” choice, he said, not supported by science. The push for wind power caused electricity bills to spike, and destabilized the grid. Smith said he favoured nuclear energy as a reliable, affordable, clean source of power for the province. Read a transcript of that interview here.
WILDLIFE
The American Bird Conservancy has a statement on the risk to birds from wind turbines, which we find detailed and reasonable. Read it here.
Other forms of wildlife are at risk including reptiles such as the endangered Blandings Turtle, and bats.
WATER
The vibration caused by the construction and operation of wind turbines has been documented. In Ontario, the aquifers in several communities have been affected including North Kent in Chatham-Kent, where contamination of the water after the Kettle Point shale geology was damaged by wind turbine construction. A science panel was created by the Ontario government, which concluded that there was definitely a problem, and that more measurement was needed. As of September 2024, a formal letter to the Ontario government from the Chatham-Kent Council has had no response.
The Ontario Ground Water Association has an excellent article explaining the effects. Read it here.
