Wind Turbine Syndrome Video Is Awesome & Hilarious

May 11th, 2013 by Zachary Shahan

Below is new video created as part of a crowdfunding campaign called Energy Democracy TV (post on that coming soon). It’s hilarious, imho, and completely awesome. More text about the video from one of its creators, Craig Morris, is available at Renewables International.

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Tags: funny, funny videos, no post, videos, wind turbine syndrome, wind turbine syndrome video, wind turbines health, wind turbines make me sick

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

BV

Whilst this video is in no way scientific it does not claim to be. It’s just a very honest observation and quite frankly the girl in the video is absolutely correct. The probelm we have is that the opponents of wind turbines have developed the myth of the wind turbine syndrom which is a disease quite common with people who talk a lot about it. The issue with this disease is that it is not real (and this has been scientifically proven) and only appears when you don’t like turbines, talk about it, engage in the hysteria created by the anti-wind farm campaigners and then all in a sudden hear the grass grow! What a great video and what a courageous girl – good on you!
Bob_Wallace

In the Italian Taranto, Apulia, the bite of a locally common type of wolf spider, named “tarantula” after the region,] was popularly believed to be highly poisonous and to lead to a hysterical condition known as tarantism. The stated belief in the 16th and 17th centuries were that the victims needed to engage in a frenzied dance to prevent death of the disease using very rhythmic music. This became known as the Tarantella.

(Wiki)

Perhaps we need a “We’re a-skeered of them whirly things” dance.
http://www.ledsales.com.au/ Mr T

Working for a non-profit that promotes renewables, I favour wind turbines over most other generation types, but making blanket statements like “there is no problem” shows a lack of understanding of potential issues.

The problem with turbines that supposedly causes WTS is the infrasound from the blades, and in particular as the blades swing past the tower on days of high wind. The high pressure zone on the back of the blade can generate a pressure wave from the turbine that is not audible but can still affect anyone within range.

Now, while I haven’t experienced this myself, I have never been close enough to a turbine for a long period on a windy day, so I can’t say either way.

This video is just crap, to be blunt (and is neither funny or awesome, unless you are a tad intellectually limited), it shows someone measuring audible sound with a tablet app, for pity’s sake, hardly a high quality sound meter. The accuracy of this would depend on the dynamic range of the tablet’s microphone, which would be limited at best and probably goes nowhere near infrasound frequencies. Further, the measurements were clearly being done on a day of light winds and so were not representative of noise that could potentially come from the turbines in higher wind speeds. So putting any sway in this video just shows a complete lack of technical understanding.

The fact is that a wind turbine could theoretically produce infrasound pressure waves of large magnatude, waves you would never hear but some people would feel and could possibly be affected by. It’s simply bogus to make a blanket statement that WTS doesn’t exist, is psychosomatic, etc etc.

So, claiming that WTS is imagined with “evidence” such as in this video is simply giving anti-wind turbine crowd more ammunition to refute that claim as it shows a complete lack of understanding of scientific method and the issue involved.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  Put your concerns to rest.
  
  There is a body of research using very high quality sound gear. Issue studied, nothing to it.
  
  Additional FUD not needed.
  - http://www.ledsales.com.au/ Mr T
    
    Yep, have seen some of that research, and I have also seen video of a SPL meter recording continuous regular high pressure spikes in the home of a WTS sufferer when no audible sound was detectable. The facts are that a high pressure zone IS present at the back of a turbine blade. That zone is disrupted as the blade goes past the tower, creating the potential for infrasound generation. So, it’s impossible to say that no turbine produces infrasound unless all turbine types and sizes have been tested under all conditions, something that isn’t even remotely likely to be done.
    
    So, making a statement that it’s impossible when all possible causes have not been tested again shows a lack of technical understanding.
    - Bob_Wallace
      
      Low frequency sounds from turbines has been recorded and studied.
      
      The recorded noise level is less than what is produced by normal traffic.
      
      Your concern is noted….
    - Naome
      
      This is an argument from ignorance, a logical fallacy.
      
      The proponents of Wind Turbine syndrome have invented something that cannot neither be proven nor disproven.
      
      Conveniently, no known methodology can measure the effects on humans subjected to infrasound – as infrasound by definition cannot be detected by the human ear. It is no surprise that the most vocal opponents of Wind Turbines suffer mostly from NIMBY vision.
      
      Staking a claim on something that cannot be shown to exist isn’t Science, and is deserves scorn.
Amber

Love the video, it made me smile. Thanks Zachary.
Jessee McBroom

Thanks for the chuckles Zack. This is a funny vid.
http://www.energyquicksand.com/ Edward Kerr

About the only drawback to wind energy is the occasional death of a bird that gets hit by a blade. If it takes 6 seconds for on rotation of the blades the tips are going around 60MPH. Getting hit with anything going that fast can be serious. However, if we keep burning fossil fuels, in time, all the birds will be dead. Make your choice!
- Bob_Wallace
  
  Coal kills more birds per GWh than does wind.
  - http://www.energyquicksand.com/ Edward Kerr
    
    Bob and you too busdriver78,
    Thanks for making my points for me. :-}
- bussdriver78
  
  Me, I don’t see why I should care either way – I’m not giving up the windows in my house or at the office when they kill far more birds… Wind is clearly the lesser evil even if you believe the BS propaganda about birds. I would rather have a wind tower near the house than a coal or nuclear plant. Nobody wants anything in their backyard – while more people can bitch about distributed wind power – the impacts it has are are negligible. If my property value goes down – tough, that is reality. My neighborhood could become high crime someday and that would do it too. When the 1st black family moved in there was an actual petition against it! (property value again, I doubt most were racist. my neighbor…now he was a racist.)
  - Bob_Wallace
    
    Good points. Big reality dose….
Ronald Brak

Very good. It won’t convince those that think wind turbines emit undetectable health affecting magic, but it is a good video to show people who try to claim that noise is some sort of serious problem.
- http://www.facebook.com/matthew.t.peffly Matthew Todd Peffly
  
  I thought the claim was it was the “sound” vibration you couldn’t hear (below human hearing range) that was the problem. But since there is no science behind the claim the people pushing don’t know the terms to use.
http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/ Neil Blanchard

I loved this video – it counters the FUD merchants very effectively.

Neil