Kelly Alexander believed that windpower would be a good energy source. He was told the machines were not noisy. No one told him about the blade flicker that shines even through closed blinds or the low frequency noise that penetrates his home with doors and windows tightly closed and storm windows installed. Recently, the turbine owner visited Kelly and asked what he could do to help the situation. He said, “Stop lying about these turbines. Tell people the truth.”

Thank you for your enquiry about wind farm noise. I should probably explain my background and interest in wind farms. I have been a noise and acoustic consultant for more than 30 years and most of my current work is dealing with the assessment of environmental noise as it affects residential properties. I work equally for those potentially creating noise and those affected by it. I have been a supporter of wind energy and other forms of renewable energy for some 35 years. I have carried out noise assessments for both “sides” in planning applications for wind farms and adopt the same method of assessment whoever employs me.

Noise measurements were conducted at eight locations in the vicinity of the Lincoln wind turbines during four different seasons over the course of a year

This WHO document on the Guidelines for Community Noise is the outcome of the WHO- expert task force meeting held in London, United Kingdom, in April 1999. It bases on the document entitled “Community Noise” that was prepared for the World Health Organization and published in 1995 by the Stockholm University and Karolinska Institute.

The document critically reviews the adverse effects of community noise, including interference with communication, noise-induced hearing loss, annoyance responses, and effects on sleep, the cardiovascular and psychophysiological systems, performance, productivity, and social behavior. Noise measures or indices based only on energy summation are not enough for the characterization of most noise environments. This is particularly true when concerned with health assessment and predictions. It is equally important to measure and display the maximum values of the noise fluctuations, preferably combined with a measure of the number of noise events, and to assess whether the noise includes a large proportion of low frequency components.

This document has been prepared by Terry Matilsky, Professor of Physics at Rutgers University. For almost 40 years, he has been funded by NASA and other federal agencies to do data analysis from various scientific satellites; to examine what information tells us about a phenomena, and draw rational and solid, scientific conclusions from them.