*
Yet another weird story in the news. French cattle are reported to be dying early in the presence of wind turbines. The authorities first guess was electrical or magnetic fields causing the problems. Of course that turned up a blank.
They should then have looked at infrasonics. The very low frequencies [VLF] caused by the wind turbine blades. Not only by the wind on the blades themselves but when the blades pass the tower or mast. Wind shadow flutter.
We all know the effect of waving a long stick quickly through the air and producing a deep muffled roar. Now imagine a turbine blade longer than a football pitch! The silent roar goes unnoticed except by larger animals. Elephants and whales are hyper sensitive to VLF. Why not cattle?
Infrasonics readily cause distressing and debilitating symptoms. Which are highly dependent on frequency and mass. Frequency is measured in Hz or cycles per second. The lungs, bowels and even the eyeballs can be readily made to vibrate by low frequency sound if it is powerful enough. Loudness is measured in decibels [dB[C.] Where 'C' is referring to lower frequencies. "Normal" noise is measured in dB[A.] Traffic, factories, trains, building work, etc.
The human chest, bowels and eyeballs are all susceptible to these very low frequency vibrations. So called "sympathetic resonance." Where vibrations are picked up from the air and then amplified by the mass of a particular organ.
Nausea is very commonplace and can be excited by large diesel engines in buses, lorries or trains. Fear or anxiety is another common symptom of specific low frequencies. I have suffered from these symptoms myself when testing my powerful VLF subwoofers over the decades.
Nausea is very commonplace and can be excited by large diesel engines in buses, lorries or trains. Fear or anxiety is another common symptom of specific low frequencies. I have suffered from these symptoms myself when testing my powerful VLF subwoofers over the decades.
Now imagine a larger animal with much heavier organs. They could well be hypersensitive to resonance at frequencies which pass completely unnoticed by mankind. Though it should be said that there are frequent complaints from people living near wind turbines and wind farms. Which lead one to suspect that these complaints are not taken seriously because of the massive, negative publicity it would cause if it were publicly accepted. Wind power would have to be moved offshore to avoid public resistance.
*
