RECOGNIZING HEALTH IMPACT OF WIND ENERGY

The Director and Senior Officer of Finland’s Department for Promotion of Welfare and Health - Ministry of Social Affairs and Health weigh in.  A pro-active evaluation should be the norm, rather than the exception.

"There is not very much knowledge of the health hazards caused by wind power yet. This does not mean, however, that there would not be any hazards, or that there would be no need to take them into consideration in planning and construction. Although there is little knowledge of the direct health effects caused by wind power, people living in the proximity of wind power plants have complained that their noise disturbs their sleep in the night time.

There are guideline values for indoor noise for the assessment of its health hazard. The guideline values have been applied for a long time, and we have long experience of them in hazard assessment.The view on the allowed level of noise hazard is relatively clear. We know about the properties of the noise caused by wind power that this noise is felt to be more disturbing than for instance noise of the same level from road, air or rail traffic."

Conclusion excerpt -

"The actors promoting wind power construction should understand that no economic or political objectives should be placed above the requirements for individuals’ health and wellbeing, and that people’s worries cannot be removed by justifying wind power construction by climate policy or economic objectives – rather the opposite. The worries can only be removed by well-done impact assessments and well implemented projects in connection with which the nearby residents have been genuinely heard and their worries have been taken into consideration. The next few years will show if there is desire to understand this matter and how wind power construction will succeed or not."

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