WIND MUST BUILD RIGHT

Wind energy's ripple effects; Once I learned how turbines can affect people, I had to speak up.
Gary Carlson, November 8, 2010 (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

"I just returned from a meeting of my county planning committee, where we debated the pros and cons of our neighbor's proposal to put up two 400-foot wind turbines, with the closest about 1,300 feet from our property line…

"I am an integrative physician who mainly works with patients suffering chronic problems. Often, they have seen many traditional doctors who have not been able to help them; they come to me as a last resort. They have "functional problems" -- irritable bowel syndrome, chronic headaches, fibromyalgia. Often their doctors "can't find anything wrong" with X-rays, blood tests or biopsies. But nonetheless these people are sick. Many of them are very sensitive to environmental stimuli, probably as an adaptive reaction to their chronic problems."

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"…I also fancy myself an environmentalist. We placed a geothermal heat pump in our house 12 years ago…I regularly walk the 6-mile round trip to work to save on CO2 emissions. So six weeks ago when we heard about the plan to put up these turbines, I was a little ambivalent. My brother, who lives nearby, didn't like it. I have always liked wind power, and though I didn't really want such large structures in my morning sky, I kind of let it go.

"Then I got hit over the head. I was reading the New York Times and came upon an article about multiple lawsuits against wind farms all over the United States because of health concerns…Three hours of intense Internet research later, I was shocked…I know environmental sensitivity…I have discovered the dark medical underbelly of industrial-sized turbines…"

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"…They produce a lot of infrasonic and low-frequency noise…[I]t can make you sick…[S]ome experts suggest that 15 percent of people living within one-half to one mile of one of these turbines will develop some sort of symptom. Sleep disturbance is the most common problem. If you are old, or young, tend to get carsick easily, or have a chronic medical disease, you are at higher risk. Some are affected so severely that they have to move.

"Minnesota's wind turbine setbacks are ridiculously outdated, although the Public Utilities Commission is trying to catch up. Some European countries have listened to their citizens and have moved setbacks to between half a mile and a mile. We listen to the big wind energy companies and are stuck around 500 feet…[W]e can have wind turbines, but don't place them closer then one-half mile from residences, or these people, especially vulnerable people, will get sick…"