The American and Canadian wind energy associations published a study last month that argues there is no medical basis for health complaints associated with wind turbines. The 85-page study prepared by seven scientists hired by the American Wind Energy Association and the Canadian Wind Energy Association concludes that wind turbines don’t have psychological effects.

The report said:

• "There is no evidence that the audible or sub-audible sounds emitted by wind turbines have any direct adverse physiological effects.

• "The ground-borne vibrations from wind turbines are too weak to be detected by, or to affect, humans.

• "The sounds emitted by wind turbines are not unique. There is no reason to believe, based on the levels and frequencies of the sounds and the panel’s experience with sound exposures in occupational settings, that the sounds from wind turbines could plausibly have direct adverse health consequences."

Critics argue rightly that it is hard to expect seven people picked by wind energy groups to write a report slamming wind energy. The report authors, however, did find one issue with wind turbines: they’re irritating swishing noise. The authors write: "An annoyance factor to wind turbine sounds undoubtedly exists, to which there is a great deal of individual variability. Stress has multiple causes and is additive. Associated stress from annoyance, exacerbated by the rhetoric, fears, and negative publicity generated by the wind turbine controversy, may contribute to the reported symptoms described by some people living near rural wind turbines."

In other words, they’re saying the pain could be in your head. I walked by wind turbines – at a distance of a few hundred metres and I heard nothing. Considering that in Ontario a wind turbine has to be 500 metres from a house, I have a hard time imagining how there could be health issues. Perhaps there will be new and independent research that knows better but it’s difficult not to agree that some of these issues are psychosomatic: real pain and illness caused by obsessive worry and imagining the possibilities of illness as people look out their kitchen windows and see blades the length of a football field rotating in the wind.

Sound far fetched? ABC’s 20/20 anchor John Stossel once accused World Wrestling Federation wrestler 280-pound Dr. D of being a fake. The wrestler boxed Stossel on the ear, knocking him over and then asked Stossel if that was fake. Stossel sued and the wrestling federation’s insurance company’s physician told Stossel he had a "jurosomatic" illness, meaning he was hanging on to his pain because it was to his financial benefit. Stossel was furious but later admitted the pain went away after the lawsuit was settled. "My pain was both real and debilitating, but it sure dissipated quickly once I stopped obsessing about my lawsuit," he said.

Psychosomatic illness is not uncommon. About two months ago, my own doctor sent me to a specialist concerning my stomach after an annual check up. I began to imagine some of the serious possibilities and for about a month I felt stomach pains until I was assured my problem was minor.

In his book Give Me a Break, Stossel quotes British psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple who argues that in-your-head illnesses are most common when someone gets a benefit from imagining pain, such as in lawsuits. Dalrymple says "the general rule is this: If you pay people to suffer, they will suffer." Dalrymple argues that the so-called victim "formerly healthy, rapidly succumbs to every kind of unprovable ailment: headache, loss of concentration, dizziness, depression, lack of energy, indifference to pleasure, anxiety." Psychosomatic issues are treatable. Some physicians will work with patients to train them to stop thinking about their pain, so they can get on with their lives.

On the other side of the turbine coin, a new book by a California physician, Wind Turbine Syndrome, documents 10 families (38 people) with symptoms that appear when they are close to turbines and disappear when they are away from them.

Symptoms include "sleep disturbance and deprivation, headache, tinnitus (ringing in ears), ear pressure, dizziness, vertigo (spinning dizziness), nausea, visual blurring, tachycardia (fast heart rate), irritability, problems with concentration and memory, and panic episodes associated with sensations of movement or quivering inside the body that arise while awake or asleep."

Closer to home, retired orthopedic surgeon Robert McMurty, a former assistant deputy minister with Health Canada, is fighting one wind project in eastern Ontario. He conducted his own survey of people living near wind turbines in western Ontario and found that of 76 people who responded, 53 reported at least one health complaint. The complaints included: headaches, heart palpitations, hearing problems, stress, anxiety and depression.

Beginning to see a pattern here? The problem lies in the fact that health issues are difficult to prove one way or the other and each case must be judged on its own merit. About the only thing certain when it comes to wind turbines is that protestors don’t like the looks of them.

I’ve yet to hear a complaint from someone who is profiting from a wind turbine on his land.