Wind Turbines and Health: A Critical Review of the Scientific Literature

OBJECTIVE:This review examines the literature related to health effects of wind turbines. METHODS:We reviewed literature related to sound measurements near turbines, epidemiological and experimental studies, and factors associated with annoyance. RESULTS:(1) Infrasound sound near wind turbines does...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of occupational and environmental medicine 2014-11, Vol.56 (11), p.e108-e130
Main Authors: McCunney, Robert J., Mundt, Kenneth A., Colby, W. David, Dobie, Robert, Kaliski, Kenneth, Blais, Mark
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitude
Auditory Threshold
Environmental Exposure - adverse effects
Epidemiology
Health risk assessment
Humans
Measurement techniques
Noise
Noise - adverse effects
Original Article
Personality
Power Plants - instrumentation
Sound - adverse effects
Sound Spectrography
Turbines
Wind
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Summary:OBJECTIVE:This review examines the literature related to health effects of wind turbines. METHODS:We reviewed literature related to sound measurements near turbines, epidemiological and experimental studies, and factors associated with annoyance. RESULTS:(1) Infrasound sound near wind turbines does not exceed audibility thresholds. (2) Epidemiological studies have shown associations between living near wind turbines and annoyance. (3) Infrasound and low-frequency sound do not present unique health risks. (4) Annoyance seems more strongly related to individual characteristics than noise from turbines. DISCUSSION:Further areas of inquiry include enhanced noise characterization, analysis of predicted noise values contrasted with measured levels postinstallation, longitudinal assessments of health pre- and postinstallation, experimental studies in which subjects are “blinded” to the presence or absence of infrasound, and enhanced measurement techniques to evaluate annoyance.
ISSN:1076-2752
1536-5948
DOI:10.1097/JOM.0000000000000313