Infrasound With Large Peak to Trough Blade Pass Harmonics in Two Houses Between Three Large Wind Turbine Farms - WTFS on the Northwest Coast of Norway and Two Single Health Cases and a Health Survey Near the WTF in Tysvær, Norway
Steven Crozier
ABSTRACT
The handling of sound pollution was to be transferred from the county governors in Norway to the municipalities in 2020. As chief medical officer on the small island of Frøya, pop. 5.500, that was to become my responsibility. The decision was made in late 2018 to complete the planned WTF with 14 Vestas V136 turbines on Frøya. This brought on many local protests, one being the claim that infrasound from WTFs cause health problems. This seemed somewhat absurd to me, how could any low frequency, non-audible air pressure waves cause havoc on humans and animals?
I decided to look into the available information on any health issues around WTFs. A steep learning curve ensued and resulted in the procurement of the Atkinson & Rapley SAM Scribe II equipment for making null point recordings in homes near the planned WTF on Frøya, before it came into commission in 2021 [1].
In late 2019 I was contacted by concerned citizens on the neighbouring island of Hitra, where Norway’s first full scale WTF Hitra 1 with 24 Siemens SWT 2.3 CS turbines with 5.800m² sweep areas had been in commission since 2004 [2]. It wasn’t until the Hitra 2 WTF, with 26 Vestas V117 turbines with twice the sweep area 10.745m², started their production in the autumn of 2019 that health issues arose [3]. Simultaneous 2 channel sound recordings were made in the bedrooms and outside of two houses on Hitra in December 2019 and in February 2021. Both houses are located ten kilometres to the northwest and to the north, northwest of Hitra 1&2 WTFs.
Sound measurements and the health issues of the residents are presented.
Norway’s second health survey of residents near Tysvær WTF performed in 2023 is touched.
Public health’s approach to infrasound from WTFs, a coda on infrasound effects in human and animal physiology at a cellular level and a short discussion on infrasound monitoring and setting limits in homes.
