Wind farm factoids: the VAD non-disease

Many wind farm opponents link the presence of wind farms with a range of diseases and symptoms presented by nearby residents. But when the evidence and research behind these diseases is examined, the anti-wind farm arguments become more than a little shaky, writes Simon Chapman.

On June 18, radio announcer Alan Jones who thinks global warming is "witchcraft" will MC a rally in Canberra of people who don't like wind farms and want their progress stopped.

Many of those attending are utterly convinced that wind farms cause illness in those who live near them.

One of the diseases that is frequently listed in what is now an Old Testament-style list of plagues and pestilences numbering 216 different problems, is "vibroacoustic disease" or VAD.

Like two other weighty-sounding diseases that wind farm opponents bandy about (Wind Turbine Syndrome and Visceral Vibratory Vestibular Disturbance), VAD is not recognised by any serious global health agency and is not included in the International Classification of Diseases.

But if you go hunting in cyberspace for VAD, you will find plenty of spooky material. When we were researching our paper, Google returned 24,700 hits for 'VAD and wind turbines'.

In a research paper of mine published today, I investigated the extent to which VAD and its alleged association with wind turbine exposure has received scientific attention, the quality of that association and how the alleged association gained traction among wind farm opponents. Our extensive search of the scientific literature located 35 research papers on VAD, with precisely - wait for it - none reporting any association between VAD and wind turbines.

Of the 35 papers, 34 had a first author from a single Portuguese research group. Seventy four per cent of citations to these papers were self-citations (where the members of the research team re-cited their own work over and over again). Citing one's own work is acceptable and often important and unavoidable in science. But average self-citation rates in science are around 7 per cent. The "disease" of VAD has received virtually no scientific recognition beyond the group who coined and promoted the concept.

With none of the papers containing any reference to wind turbines, we set out to hunt down the origins of the claim. We found it had been first asserted in a May 2007 press release by the same Lisbon group about a conference paper they were to give three months later in Lyon, France. So what was the evidence they produced?

The Lisbon researchers wrote about a 12-year-old boy who lived (along with many others) near a wind farm. The boy had "memory and attention skill" problems in school and "tiredness" during physical education activities, both common problems in school children. The measured infrasound levels in his house were said to be high. The authors concluded unequivocally that the boy's family "will also develop VAD should they continue to remain in their home."

Their press release stated that their findings "irrefutably demonstrate that wind turbines in the proximity of residential areas produce acoustical environments that can lead to the development of VAD in nearby home-dwellers."

It is impossible to understate the abject quality of this unpublished "study" delivered at a conference. No control group, just one "sick" subject, no apparent medical examination of the boy reported, no consideration given to any other possible cause of his tiredness.

Factoids are questionable or spurious statements presented as facts, but which have no veracity. With some 24,700 mentions in cyberspace, the connection between VAD and wind turbines has gone "viral" and is now commonly included in submissions to governments by anti-wind farms activists. The term "vibroacoustic disease" resonates with a portentousness that may foment nocebo effects among those hearing about it and assuming it to be an established disease classification, acknowledged in medicine.

The cyberspace-megaphoned relationship between VAD and wind turbine exposure is a classic example of a contemporary health factoid, which was here unleashed by a press release containing the claim that on the basis of one uncontrolled case study, the association was "irrefutably demonstrated".

Vibroacoustic disease should be considered a candidate for the archives of "non-diseases". However in this case, this factoid is contributing to a regulatory environment which is severely limiting the siting of wind turbines in Australia and thus lessening the contribution of wind energy to greenhouse gas reductions.

By naming and frequently publicising VAD and a plethora of other questionable "diseases" said to be caused by wind turbines, those concerned to oppose their proliferation have sought to pull what are often extremely common symptoms and diagnoses found in any community such as fatigue, inattention, sleeping problems (some 33 per cent of Australians report insomnia), high blood pressure and mental health problems into memorable, quasi-scientific sounding entities.

Wind turbines have the potential to make further major contributions to renewable energy generation, and thereby to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Health concerns are being used by wind energy opponents to thwart new projects.

Regulatory authorities should take care to critically examine the quality of evidence for claims that wind turbines harm health.

Simon Chapman is Professor in Public Health at the University of Sydney. View his full profile here.
Neither Simon Chapman, nor anyone acting for him, has ever sought or received any research funding, "unrestricted educational grants", hospitality, or shares or any other consideration from any wind energy company or agent acting for them.