An Assessment of Infrasound and other Possible Causes of the Adverse Effects of Windfarms
Tharpaland International Retreat Centre
Parkgate, Dumfries DG1 3LY
Introduction
In March 2003, following news of a proposal to build a massive wind farm close to Tharpaland International Retreat Centre1 in the Forest of Ae, Tharpaland set about assessing the wider implications this would have on the Centres ability to provide suitable conditions for meditative retreat, if the windfarm was approved. To this end, Tharpaland decided to study the possible impact a windfarm might have on meditative retreaters, in particular. Studies were then carried out at three Scottish windfarms: Hagshaw Hill, Beinn An Tuirc, and Deucheran. The results of these studies are presented in ‘The Effects of Windfarms on Meditative Retreaters: A Human Impact Assessment’ (Tharpaland, 2003b).
Although the original studies were concerned with the impact of a windfarm on meditative retreaters alone, surprisingly the negative and adverse effects noted have serious implications for the health of the general population at large. Therefore, a follow-up analysis of the data, to explore the possible causes of these effects, was carried out.
The first section of this report presents a list of possible causes, followed by a brief analysis of ‘visual impact’ and ‘auditory impact’ in particular. However, a further analysis of the various health effects in the 3 windfarm studies (Tharpaland, 2003b), suggests a more subtle cause may be responsible. Therefore the rest of this report then concentrates on low frequency noise in general and infrasound in particular, as the main probable cause of these effects.
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