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as with advertising and propaganda, repetition brings con- verts. A collection from over 200 web pages and media sto- ries, detailing supposed harmful effects from wind turbines has been made by Simon Chapman, Professor in Public Health at the University of Sydney, and can be viewed on:
<http://tobacco.health.usyd.edu.au/assets/pdfs/publica- tions/DiseaseListIntro.pdf>
Deignan et al have analysed “fright factors” in Ontario newspapers related to wind turbines and concluded that the newspapers contained articles about wind turbines and health that may produce fear, concern and anxiety for read- ers.(Deignan, Harvey et al. 2013)
Similarly, Chapman considers that the Wind Turbine Syndrome is a “communicated disease”, which is spread by concerns of noise rather than by pathological effects (Chapman 2012). Further, a recent study by Crichton et al has shown, in a laboratory setting, that if participants are concerned about the effects of infrasound upon them, they will display symptoms whenever they believe infrasound to be present, whether the infrasound is actually present or not. (Crichton, Dodd et al. 2013) This emphasises the importance of attitudes to a noise source in reactions to it. Objector groups to wind turbine developments have fostered negative attitudes - attitudes which can lead to distress through the nocebo effect (opposite of placebo). (Faase and Petrie 2013, Witthoft and Rubin 2013). The influence of complainant per- sonality traits has been considered by Taylor et al. who have shown that those with negative traits are more likely to be disturbed and report non-specific symptoms.(Taylor, Eastwick et al. 2013)
Conclusion
The reason why some may be disturbed by the low levels of noise from wind turbines is clearly complex and requires a multidisciplinary approach. Whilst there are instances of genuine noise problems from wind turbines, the emphasis on infrasound and its supposed effects on health, distracts atten- tion from solving these. Objectors to wind turbines, who pro- mote wind turbine infrasound as a problem, are not helping those whom they wish to support.AT
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