Infraäänen havaitsemisherkkyys ei ole yhteydessä tuulivoimaloihin liitettyihin oireisiin

Tavoitteet: Osa tuulivoimaloiden lähellä asuvista selittää oireitaan tuulivoimaloiden tuottamalla infraäänellä. Tämän tutkimuksen ensisijainen tavoite oli selvittää, ovatko nämä yksilöt herkkiä havaitsemaan tuulivoimalainfraääntä ja siten mahdollisesti alttiita infraäänen aiheuttamille oireille. Tutkimuksen toissijainen tavoite oli selvittää, aiheuttaako lumeinfraäänialtistus stressiä, mikä tukisi oireiden syyksi ehdotettua nosebovaikutusta. Menetelmät: Tutkimuksessa toteutettiin sarja laboratoriokokeita. Oireilevan ryhmän koehenkilöt (n = 11) selittivät oireitaan tuulivoimaloilla, kun taas oireettoman kontrolliryhmän koehenkilöt (n = 13) eivät. Kahden intervallin sama–eri pakkovalintatehtävää käytettiin arvioimaan, pystytäänkö todenmukainen tuulivoimalamelu erottamaan (d’) tuulivoimalamelusta, josta on poistettu infraääni (≤ 20 Hz) tai matalataajuinen ääni (≤ 100 Hz). Koehenkilöt myös sokkoaltistettiin tuulivoimalainfraäänelle 7.5 minuutin ajan. Lopuksi koehenkilöille esitettiin lumeinfraääntä kokeessa, joka ei sisältänyt ääniärsykkeitä. Koehenkilöiden reagoivuutta tuulivoimalainfraääneen ja lumeinfraääneen arvioitiin mittaamalla koehenkilöiden koettu stressitaso ja ihon sähkönjohtavuus. Tulokset: Koehenkilöiden ei havaittu erottavan toisistaan todenmukaista tuulivoimalamelua ja tuulivoimalamelua ilman infraääntä. Koehenkilöiden ei myöskään havaittu reagoivan tuulivoimalainfraääneen sokkoaltistuskokeessa. Koehenkilöt kykenivät erottamaan toisistaan todenmukaisen tuulivoimalamelun ja tuulivoimalamelun ilman matalataajuista ääntä. Ryhmien välisiä eroja ei löydetty. Lumeinfraäänialtistus ei aiheuttanut stressiä kummassakaan ryhmässä. Oireilevien ryhmä raportoi yleisesti suurempaa koettua stressiä sekä enemmän ennestään koettuja oireita kuin oireettomien ryhmä. Johtopäätökset: Tutkimustulokset eivät viittaa siihen, että tuulivoimaloilla selitettyjä oireita kokevat olisivat herkkiä havaitsemaan tuulivoimaloiden infraääntä. Oireilevat eivät välttämättä myöskään yhdistä oireitaan tuulivoimaloiden infraääneen niin vahvasti, että lumeinfraääni aiheuttaisi heissä nosebovasteen. Oireilevan ryhmän raportoima korkeampi stressitaso ja suurempi ennestään koettujen oireiden määrä viittaavat siihen, että oireiden syyn väärintulkinta saattaa selittää oireiden liittämistä tuulivoimaloihin. Kuultavissa olevasta matalataajuisesta tuulivoimalamelusta häiriintyminen saattaa myös vaikuttaa oireille annettuihin selityksiin.Objectives: Some individuals who live near wind farms have reported symptoms which they attribute to wind turbine infrasound (WTIS). The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether these individuals are perceptually sensitive to WTIS and thus possibly susceptible to WTIS-induced symptoms. A secondary aim was to investigate whether sham WTIS elicits stress, thus providing support for a nocebo explanation of symptom attributions. Methods: A series of laboratory experiments was conducted with participants who attributed experienced symptoms to wind turbines (symptomatic group, n = 11) and controls who did not (asymptomatic group, n = 13). Discrimination ability (d’) for wind turbine noise with and without infrasound (≤ 20 Hz) and low-frequency sound (≤ 100 Hz) was estimated with a two-interval same–different forced-choice task. Participants were also blindly exposed to WTIS for 7.5 minutes. Finally, participants underwent a sham infrasound exposure experiment without acoustic stimuli. Participants’ perceived stress level and electrodermal activity were measured to evaluate participants’ reactivity to WTIS and sham infrasound. Results: Participants were not found to discriminate wind turbine noise with infrasound from wind turbine noise without infrasound or to react to WTIS exposure. Participants could discriminate wind turbine noise with low-frequency sound from wind turbine noise without low-frequency sound. No differences were observed between groups. Sham infrasound did not elicit stress in either group. The symptomatic group generally reported greater levels of perceived stress and more pre-existing symptoms than the asymptomatic group. Conclusions: The results do not suggest an association between symptoms attributed to wind turbines and perceptual sensitivity to WTIS. Sham infrasound did not increase stress, and so symptomatic individuals may not associate symptoms with WTIS strongly enough for a nocebo response to occur. The greater reports of stress and pre-existing symptoms in the symptomatic group imply that symptoms might be misattributed to WTIS. Disturbance caused by audible low-frequency wind turbine noise might also influence symptom attributions

Infrasound Does Not Explain Symptoms Related to Wind Turbines

Some individuals have reported various symptoms that they have intuitively associated with infrasound from wind turbines. Scientific evidence on the potential association or studies focusing directly on the health effects of wind turbine infrasound are lacking. This research project aimed at assessing whether wind turbine infrasound has harmful effects on human health. A questionnaire study, sound measurements, and provocation experiments were conducted. In the questionnaire study, symptoms intuitively associated with wind turbine infrasound were relatively common within 2.5 km from the closest wind turbine and symptom spectrum was broad. Many of the symptomatic respondents associated their symptoms also with vibration or electromagnetic field from wind turbines. In measurements, infrasound levels were similar to the levels occurring typically in urban environments. The captured sound samples with the highest infrasound levels and amplitude modulation values were used in the double blinded provocation experiments. The participants who had previously reported wind turbine infrasound related symptoms were not able to perceive infrasound in the noise samples and did not find samples with infrasound more annoying than those without previous wind turbine infrasound related symptoms. Further, wind turbine infrasound exposure did not cause physiological responses in either participant group.This publication is part of the implementation of the Government Plan for Analysis, Assessment and Research (tietokayttoon.fi). The content is the responsibility of the producers of the information and does not necessarily represent the view of the Government

Annoyance, perception, and physiological effects of wind turbine infrasound

Even though some individuals subjectively associate various symptoms with infrasound, there are very few systematic studies on the contribution of infrasound to the perception, annoyance, and physiological reactions elicited by wind turbine sound. In this study, sound samples were selected among long-term measurement data from wind power plant and residential areas, both indoors and outdoors, and used in laboratory experiments. In the experiments, the detectability and annoyance of both inaudible and audible characteristics of wind turbine noise were determined, as well as autonomic nervous system responses: heart rate, heart rate variability, and skin conductance response. The participants were divided into two groups based on whether they reported experiencing wind turbine infrasound related symptoms or not. The participants did not detect infrasonic contents of wind turbine noise. The presence of infrasound had no influence on the reported annoyance nor the measured autonomic nervous system responses. No differences were observed between the two groups. These findings suggest that the levels of infrasound in the current study did not affect perception and annoyance or autonomic nervous system responses, even though the experimental conditions corresponded acoustically to real wind power plant areas.Peer reviewe

A Possible Alignment Between the Orbits of Planetary Systems and their Visual Binary Companions

Astronomers do not have a complete picture of the effects of wide-binary companions (semimajor axes greater than 100 AU) on the formation and evolution of exoplanets. We investigate these effects using new data from Gaia EDR3 and the TESS mission to characterize wide-binary systems with transiting exoplanets. We identify a sample of 67 systems of transiting exoplanet candidates (with well-determined, edge-on orbital inclinations) that reside in wide visual binary systems. We derive limits on orbital parameters for the wide-binary systems and measure the minimum difference in orbital inclination between the binary and planet orbits. We determine that there is statistically significant difference in the inclination distribution of wide-binary systems with transiting planets compared to a control sample, with the probability that the two distributions are the same being 0.0037. This implies that there is an overabundance of planets in binary systems whose orbits are aligned with those of the binary. The overabundance of aligned systems appears to primarily have semimajor axes less than 700 AU. We investigate some effects that could cause the alignment and conclude that a torque caused by a misaligned binary companion on the protoplanetary disk is the most promising explanation.Comment: 30 pages, 19 figures, 2 csv files included in Arxiv source; accepted for publication in A