“Annoyance was further associated with lowered sleep quality and negative emotions. This, together with reduced restoration possibilities may adversely affect health.” [1]

In a Canadian Wind Energy Association and American Wind Energy Association sponsored report it is acknowledged that wind turbine noise may cause annoyance, stress and sleep disturbance.[2]

One of the authors of the report W. David Colby, M.D. reinforced this position regarding wind turbines by stating

“We’re not denying that there are people annoyed and that maybe some of them are getting stressed out enough about being annoyed that they’re getting sick.”[3]

Another author of the report Geoff Leventhall acknowledges possible symptoms of noise annoyance include insomnia, headache, pressure in the ears or head, dizziness, nausea, eye strain, fatigue, distraction, nose bleeds, feeling vibration, muscle spasms, palpitations, skin burning, stress, and tension.[4]

The Chief Medical Officer of Health of Ontario and Agency for Health Protection and Promotion concur in that they acknowledge wind turbines may cause annoyance, stress and sleep disturbance. [5],[6]

The word annoyance may mean many things to many people however in clinical terms annoyance is considered a risk to human health.

Health Canada states

“The most common effect of community noise is annoyance, which is considered an adverse health effect by the World Health Organization.”[8]

Furthermore World Health Organizations states specifically about noise induced annoyance

“The range of health effects of noise is wide. They include pain and hearing fatigue, hearing impairment including tinnitus, annoyance…”[9]

“Sleep disturbance and annoyance are the first effects of night noise and can lead to mental disorders. The effects of noise can even trigger premature illness and death.”[10]

“There is sufficient and reliable data to derive exposure-response relationships between noise and annoyance. Exposure-response curves exist for road, aircraft and railway noise and exposure to multiple sources.” [11]

One of three peer reviewed studies that have documented high annoyance in exposure-responses to wind turbine noise concludes

 “…wind turbine sound is relatively annoying, more so than equally loud sound from aircraft or road traffic… Sound should therefore receive more attention in the planning of wind farms, and (more) sound mitigation measures must be considered [12]

[13]
 

The cause of the high annoyance is explained in that

“Sound generated by wind turbines has particular characteristics and it creates a different type of nuisance compared to usual urban, industrial, or commercial noise. The interaction of the blades with air turbulences around the towers creates low frequency and infrasound components, which modulate the broadband noise and create fluctuations of sound level. The lower frequency fluctuation of the noise is described as ‘swishing’ or ‘whooshing’ sound, creating an additional disturbance due to the periodic and rhythmic characteristic.”[14]

The wind industry is less clear on this issue. On one hand the wind industry believes that

“There is nothing unique about the sounds and vibrations emitted by wind turbines.” [15]

At the same time they acknowledge

“A major cause of concern about wind turbine sound is its fluctuating nature. Some may find this sound annoying, a reaction that depends primarily on personal characteristics as opposed to the intensity of the sound level.”[16]

“The low frequency sound emitted by spinning wind turbines could possibly be annoying to some…”[17]

It must be remembered that peer reviewed studies have repetitively demonstrated that wind turbine noise is associated with high annoyance levels.

Annoyance levels may also be increased by the visual impacts of wind turbine including shadow flicker (casting of moving shadows on the ground as wind turbine blades rotate).[18],[19],[20]