Wind turbine syndrome doesn't exist, say scientists

Low-frequency noise from wind turbines does not make people dizzy, ill or affect their sleep, Australian scientists have reported.

Researchers from the Woodcock Institute of Medical Research, which specialises in studying sleep disorders, monitored 37 volunteers in a sleep laboratory and found that infrasound similar to that produced by wind turbines had no impact on health.

Professor Ron Grunstein, the study's lead researcher, said: “We detected no effect of three days of infrasound exposure on all the health variables that we measure – sleep, blood pressure, balance, hearing, that sort of thing... The study questions the existence of wind turbine syndrome in a medical sense."

The research has been published in US journal 'Environmental Health Perspectives' and was commissioned by Australia's National Health & Medicine Research Council following complaints from people living near wind farms.

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