Canadian Wind Energy Association

wind turbine noise on sleep and health. Noise Health 2012; 12: 237-243 The October 29, 2012 edition of the journal Noise & Health includes the following paper: Nissenbaum MA, Aramini JJ, Hanning CD. Effects of industrial wind turbine noise on sleep and health. Noise Health 2012; 12: 237-243 The purpose of the Nissenbaum et al. work was to undertake an epidemiology study to investigate the relationship between reported adverse health effects and wind turbines among residents of two rural communities: Mars Hill and Vinalhaven, Maine, USA. Participants living 375 to 1400 m and 3.3 to 6.6 km were given questionnaires to obtain data about sleep quality (using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index- PSQI), daytime sleepiness (using the Epworth Sleepiness Score- ESS) and general physical and mental health (using the SF36v2 health survey). Overall the authors reported that when compared to people living further away than 1.4 km from wind turbines, those people living within 1.4 km of wind turbines had worse sleep, were sleepier during the day and had worse mental health scores. Based on these findings the author’s concluded that: “…the noise emissions of IWTs disturbed the sleep and caused daytime sleepiness an