Resource Documents: Noise (612 items)
Also see NWW press release on noise
Documents presented here are not the product of nor are they necessarily endorsed by National Wind Watch. These resource documents are provided to assist anyone wishing to research the issue of industrial wind power and the impacts of its development. The information should be evaluated by each reader to come to their own conclusions about the many areas of debate.
Blight for Naught: Wind Turbines and the Rationalized Desecration of Nature
Author: False Progress
Go to original: “Blight for Naught: Wind Turbines and the Rationalized Desecration of Nature”
Low-frequency outdoor–indoor noise level difference for wind turbine assessment
Author: Thorsson, Pontus; Persson Waye, Kerstin; Smith, Michael; Ögren, Mikael; Pedersen, Eja; and Forssén Jens
Abstract: To increase the understanding of wind turbine noise on sleep, human physiological reactions need to be studied in a controlled laboratory setting. The paper presents an outdoor–indoor noise level difference as a function of frequency, applicable to creating wind turbine indoor sounds with the outdoor sounds as input. For this, a combination of measurement data and modeling results has been used. The suggested data are provided in a table.
Fig. 3. Plotted indoor spectra together with the used outdoor spectrum. The finally used spectrum is the one called “Indoor WiTNES.” Included in the graph are the corresponding indoor spectra when applying the Lindkvist and Møller data.
Pontus Thorsson, Division of Applied Acoustics, Chalmers University of Technology and Akustikverkstan AB, Lidköping, Sweden
Kerstin Persson Waye, Michael Smith, and Mikael Ögren, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Eja Pedersen, Environmental Psychology, Department of Architecture and Built Environment, LTH, Lund University, Sweden
Jens Forssén, Division of Applied Acoustics, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden
Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 143 (3), March 2018
Download original document: “Low-frequency outdoor–indoor noise level difference for wind turbine assessment”
Development of the WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region: An Introduction
Author: Jarosińska, Dorota; Héroux, Marie-Ève; et al.
Abstract: Following the Parma Declaration on Environment and Health adopted at the Fifth Ministerial Conference (2010), the Ministers and representatives of Member States in the WHO European Region requested theWorld Health Organization (WHO) to develop updated guidelines on environmental noise, and called upon all stakeholders to reduce children’s exposure to noise, including that from personal electronic devices. The WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region will provide evidence-based policy guidance to Member States on protecting human health from noise originating from transportation (road traffic, railway and aircraft), wind turbine noise, and leisure noise in settings where people spend the majority of their time. Compared to previous WHO guidelines on noise, the most significant developments include: consideration of new evidence associating environmental noise exposure with health outcomes, such as annoyance, cardiovascular effects, obesity and metabolic effects (such as diabetes), cognitive impairment, sleep disturbance, hearing impairment and tinnitus, adverse birth outcomes, quality of life, mental health, and wellbeing; inclusion of new noise sources to reflect the current noise environment; and the use of a standardized framework (grading of recommendations, assessment, development, and evaluations: GRADE) to assess evidence and develop recommendations. The recommendations in the guidelines are underpinned by systematic reviews of evidence on several health outcomes related to environmental noise as well as evidence on interventions to reduce noise exposure and/or health outcomes. The overall body of evidence is published in this Special Issue.
… Seven systematic reviews of evidence were commissioned by WHO to assess the relationship between environmental noise and the following health outcomes: (1) annoyance; (2) cardiovascular and metabolic effects; (3) cognitive impairment; (4) effects on sleep; (5) hearing impairment and tinnitus; (6) adverse birth outcomes; and (7) quality of life, mental health, and wellbeing. An eighth systematic review was commissioned to assess the effectiveness of environmental noise interventions in reducing exposure and associated impacts on health. The reviews separately assess the environmental noise coming from the following sources, for each relevant health outcome: road traffic, railway, aircraft, wind turbines, and leisure.
Dorota Jarosińska, Marie-Ève Héroux, Poonum Wilkhu, James Creswick, Jördis Wothge, and Elizabet Paunović, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, European Centre for Environment and Health, Bonn, Germany
Jos Verbeek, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Cochrane Work, Kuopio
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018, 15, 813
doi: 10.3390/ijerph15040813
Download original document: “Development of the WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region: An Introduction”
Effects of Different Spectral Shapes and Amplitude Modulation of Broadband Noise on Annoyance Reactions in a Controlled Listening Experiment
Author: Schäffer, Beat; et al.
Abstract: Environmental noise from transportation or industrial infrastructure typically has a broad frequency range. Different sources may have disparate acoustical characteristics, which may in turn affect noise annoyance. However, knowledge of the relative contribution of the different acoustical characteristics of broadband noise to annoyance is still scarce. In this study, the subjectively perceived short-term (acute) annoyance reactions to different broadband sounds (namely, realistic outdoor wind turbine and artificial, generic sounds) at 40 dBA were investigated in a controlled laboratory listening experiment. Combined with the factorial design of the experiment, the sounds allowed for separation of the effects of three acoustical characteristics on annoyance, namely, spectral shape, depth of periodic amplitude modulation (AM), and occurrence (or absence) of random AM. Fifty-two participants rated their annoyance with the sounds. Annoyance increased with increasing energy content in the low-frequency range as well as with depth of periodic AM, and was higher in situations with random AM than without. Similar annoyance changes would be evoked by sound pressure level changes of up to 8 dB. The results suggest that besides standard sound pressure level metrics, other acoustical characteristics of (broadband) noise should also be considered in environmental impact assessments, e.g., in the context of wind turbine installations.
Beat Schäffer, Reto Pieren, Empa, Laboratory for Acoustics/Noise Control, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf
Sabine J. Schlittmeie, HSD Hochschule Döpfer—University of Applied Sciences, Köln, and TU Kaiserslautern, Germany
Mark Brink, Federal Office for the Environment, Bern, Switzerland
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018, 15, 1029
doi: 10.3390/ijerph15051029
Download original document: “Effects of Different Spectral Shapes and Amplitude Modulation of Broadband Noise on Annoyance Reactions in a Controlled Listening Experiment”
