The Pattern of Complaints about Australian Wind Farms Does Not Match the Establishment and Distribution of Turbines: Support for the Psychogenic, ‘Communicated Disease’ Hypothesis

Abstract

Background and ObjectivesWith often florid allegations about health problems arising from wind turbine exposure now widespread, nocebo effects potentially confound any future investigation of turbine health impact. Historical audits of health complaints are therefore important. We test 4 hypotheses relevant to psychogenic explanations of the variable timing and distribution of health and noise complaints about wind farms in Australia.SettingAll Australian wind farms (51 with 1634 turbines) operating 1993–2012.MethodsRecords of complaints about noise or health from residents living near 51 Australian wind farms were obtained from all wind farm companies, and corroborated with complaints in submissions to 3 government public enquiries and news media records and court affidavits. These are expressed as proportions of estimated populations residing within 5 km of wind farms.ResultsThere are large historical and geographical variations in wind farm complaints. 33/51 (64.7%) of Australian wind farms including 18/34 (52.9%) with turbine size >1 MW have never been subject to noise or health complaints. These 33 farms have an estimated 21,633 residents within 5 km and have operated complaint-free for a cumulative 267 years. Western Australia and Tasmania have seen no complaints. 129 individuals across Australia (1 in 254 residents) appear to have ever complained, with 94 (73%) being residents near 6 wind farms targeted by anti wind farm groups. The large majority 116/129(90%) of complainants made their first complaint after 2009 when anti wind farm groups began to add health concerns to their wider opposition. In the preceding years, health or noise complaints were rare despite large and small-turbine wind farms having operated for many years.ConclusionsThe reported historical and geographical variations in complaints are consistent with psychogenic hypotheses that expressed health problems are “communicated diseases” with nocebo effects likely to play an important role in the aetiology of complaints.

Health Effects Related to Wind Turbine Sound, Including Low-Frequency Sound and Infrasound

“…According to Chapman et al [93] and Crichton et al [94], there is a strong psychogenic component in the relation between wind turbine sound and health complaints. This is not unique for wind turbine sound but has been documented for other sources as well, see e.g.…”

Reflections on a 38-year career in public health advocacy: 10 pieces of advice to early career researchers and advocates

“…A preprint of my much-tweeted paper on the nocebo effect and wind farm health complaints 17 is the most downloaded item in the entire University of Sydney eScholarhip repository and featured in a video that has been viewed 4.02 million times: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=O2hO4_UEe-4&feature=youtu.be&a My most retweeted tweet was one I sent after Treasurer Joe Hockey's public remark about wind turbines being an ugly blight on the landscape: twitter.com/SimonChapman6/ status/472132442032054272/photo/1. It has had 2894 retweets, so given the exponential nature of retweets, probably well over a million people have seen it.…”

Assessing Environmental Impacts of Offshore Wind Farms: Lessons Learned and Recommendations for the Future

“…Negative attitudes and worries of individuals about perceived environmental risks have been shown to be associated with adverse health-related symptoms such as headache, nausea, dizziness, agitation, and depression, even in the absence of an identifiable cause (94)(95)(96). Psychogenic factors, such as the circulation of negative information and priming of expectations have been shown to impact self-assessments following exposure to wind turbine noise (6)(7)(8). It is therefore important to consider the role of mass media in influencing public attitudes about wind turbines and how this may alter responses and perceived health impacts of wind turbines in the community.…”

“…Some argue that reported health effects are related wind turbine operational effects [e.g., electromagnetic fields (EMF), shadow flicker from rotor blades, audible noise, low-frequency noise (LFN) and infrasound]; others suggest that when turbines are sited correctly, reported effects are more likely attributable to a number of subjective variables, including nocebo responses, where the etiology of the self-reported effect is in beliefs and expectations rather than a physiologically harmful entity (4)(5)(6)(7)(8). In 2011, Knopper and Ollson (9) published a review that contrasted the human health effects that had been purported to be caused by wind turbines in popular literature sources with what had been reported in the peer-reviewed scientific literature as well as by various government agencies.…”