Wind Turbines -- An Aid to Sleep?

Our nation is impacted by a little known public health epidemic.  Upwards of 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep or wakefulness disorders or about 22% of our country’s residents per the national Centers for Disease Control and the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research Statistics.   See http://tinyurl.com/turbine-sleep or http://tinyurl.com/turbine-sleep2.

Chronic sleep disorders cause health impairments such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, and obesity as well as reduced quality of life and productivity.  Such disorders can be caused by a wide range of physical, psychological and specific disease related factors, including injuries, chronic diseases, mental illnesses, poor quality of life and well-being, increased health care costs, and lost work productivity.  It is well documented that sleep deprivation can have a wide range of impacts on health

The most recent charge by some very few of Falmouth’s residents who live in the vicinity of the utility-scale wind turbines in our town concerns sleep deprivation purportedly caused by those turbines.   Twenty-four property owners of the 199 properties within ½ mile of the turbines have complained about the turbines for a range of issues such as: (1) audible noise; (2) infrasound; (3) flicker; (4) tinnitus; (5) dental problems; (6) weight gain; (7) sleep loss; (8) vertigo; (9) loss of concentration; etc., all of which can also be attributable to other prevalent ailments  or conditions from Lyme Disease and work difficulties to interpersonal relationships. 

As noted above, about 24 property owners within a half mile of the turbines have complained about them which amount to about 12% of those in that area.  This includes all complaints including the period when all three turbines operated full time.  If all of these claimed to have unhealthy sleep-related behaviors due to the turbines – though not all have claimed such – that would still amount to about half of the national average for sleep disorders.

The family with school-age children at 123 Ambleside Drive – 1,250 feet from Wind 2 and 1,750 feet from Wind 1 or one of the homes nearest to the Town’s turbines – has characterized the sound of the turbines in their home, when they can actually hear them, as being equivalent to that of a clothes dryer and that turbine sound does not disturb them.  Watch http://tinyurl.com/turbine-neighbors-speak. 

As the hum and gentle vibration of clothes dryers are known to soothe infants to sleep and at least 88% of those living within a half mile of the turbines have no apparent sleep problems or exacerbated sleep disorders compared to 77% nationally, could it also be that many of the people in that area, who otherwise would have restless nights, were actually being lulled to sleep by the turbines? 

Rather than curtailing municipal turbine operation based on alleged sleep complaints, it seems that it would be in the interest of our whole community’s health for many reasons to return them to full time operation.  Possibly, with even more turbines, the better it would be overall for our Town; however, a variance from the new wind energy system bylaw would be needed to allow more utility-scale turbines of the same sleep-inducing sound characteristics to be established.

Also, a January 9, 2014 report on an independent, peer-reviewed study that focused on impacts to property values in the vicinity of wind turbines in Massachusetts conducted by the University of Connecticut and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory sponsored by the state’s Clean Energy Center found virtually no impacts on property values, though a slight increase (plus 0.5%) over other factors considered in the report.  More than 122,000 actual home sales were reviewed under the study, including properties in the vicinity of Falmouth’s municipal, utility-scale turbines at its wastewater treatment facility.  For the full Massachusetts study, see -- http://images.masscec.com/uploads/attachments/2014/01/Relationship%20bet....

This Massachusetts study is consistent with the LBNL national study of home sales in the vicinity of wind turbines that evaluated 50,000 property sales in 27 counties in nine states, including properties with ½ mile of turbines, that showed no impact on value.  See http://emp.lbl.gov/sites/all/files/lbnl-6362e.pdf

 Perhaps this factor of secure real estate value has also contributed to the good nights’ sleep enjoyed by neighbors to the turbines.

This blog was first published as a letter-to-the-editor of the Falmouth Enterprise on January 10, 2014 and is posted here with permission.  Comment was added at the blog’s end on the new study on wind turbines and property values in Massachusetts.