Effect of wind turbine noise on workers' sleep disorder: A case study of Manjil Wind Farm in Northern Iran

ABSTRACT

The wind turbine’s sound seems to have a proportional effect on health of people living near to wind farms. This study aimed to investigate the effect of noise emitted from wind turbines on general health, sleep and annoyance among workers of manjil wind farm, Iran.

Materials and methods: A total number of 53 workers took part in this study. Based on the type of job, they were categorized into three groups of maintenance, security and office staff. The persons’ exposure at each job-related group was measured by eight-hour equivalent sound level (LAeq, 8 h). A Noise annoyance scale, Epworth sleepiness scale and 28-item general health questionnaire was used for gathering data from workers. The data were analyzed through Multivariate Analysis of variance (MANOVA) test, Pillai’s Trace test, Paired comparisons analysis and Multivariate regression test were used in the R software.

Results and discussion: The results showed that, response variables (annoyance, sleep disturbance and health) were significantly different between job groups. The results also indicated that sleep disturbance as well as noise exposure had a significant effect on general health. Noise annoyance and distance from wind turbines could significantly explain about 44.5 and 34.2 % of the variance in sleep disturbance and worker’s general health, respectively. General health was significantly different in different age groups while age had no significant impact on sleep disturbance. The results were reverse for distance because it had no significant impact on health, but sleep disturbance was significantly affected.

Conclusions: We came to this conclusion that wind turbines noise can directly impact on annoyance, sleep and health. This type of energy generation can have potential health risks for wind farm workers. However, further research is needed to confirm the results of this study.

Background

Wind energy compared to the other forms of traditional energy generation has fewer health effects and for this reason has positive health benefits [1]. However, compared with the health effects caused by unclean forms of traditional electricity generation, renewable energy generation is related to fewer adverse health effects [2]. Wind turbines generate noise that can be classified into a mechanical noise which is produced from the rotor or gearbox and an aerodynamic noise which is generated by turbulent wind flow near the wind turbine blades [3]. Wind turbine noise has remarkable audible Characteristics such as low frequency noise, amplitude modulation, impulsive and tonal Nature [4]. The adverse health effects of wind turbine noise on people can be categorized into the three groups such as Subjective effects (including annoyance, nuisance and dissatisfaction), Interference with activities (such as speech, sleep and learning) and Physiological effects (such as anxiety, tinnitus or hearing loss) [5]. One of the principal human responses to audible infrasound is an annoyance [5]. In the Pederson study (2007) except for annoyance, there was no direct adverse health effects associated with wind turbine noise. Pedersen showed that sleep problems and feelings of discomfort could be a secondary effect of the noise exposure that was related to noise annoyance [6]. Leventhall [7] concluded that wind turbine noise as a low frequency sound could have adverse effects on person’s health and cause sleep disorder. Noise annoyance can be one of the influencing factors for sleep disorder as they have reciprocal effects on sleep quality [8, 9]. According to the World Health Organization, noise annoyance has detrimental effects on health-related quality of life [10].

Wind Turbine Syndrome (WTS) is the clinical term for the collection of symptoms such as sleep disorders, headaches, tinnitus, nausea, irritability, loss of memory and concentration, nervousness, rapid heart rate, blood pressure, weight changes, abnormal heartbeat rhythms, mood problems, fatigue and depression experienced by many people living close to industrial wind turbines [11]. As a Multivariate approach, Bakker et al. [8] introduced a structural model that presented among exposure to wind turbine noise, psychological health, annoyance and sleep disturbance, as shown in Fig. 1.

Wind turbine noise can affect annoyance, sleep and health, and any disorder in these factors can amplify the sound exposure effects in the people living close to wind turbines. The effect of the noise exposure on the annoyance, sleep disturbance and health of the people living near to wind farms and their mutual effects on each other was studied in various places around the world and there is a comprehensive literature in this area [6–8], but, so far no study has been conducted to investigate these relations among wind farm workers. Due to the higher noise exposure in workers of wind power plant, as well as the long-term noise exposure, their health and sleep are roughly at the risk of adverse effects related to wind turbine noise. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the relation between exposure to the wind turbine noise and annoyance, sleep disturbance and general health of Manjil wind farm workers.