TITLE:
Environmental Noise Pollution: Has Public Health Become too Utilitarian?
AUTHORS:
Alun Evans
KEYWORDS:
Environmental Noise Pollution, Wind Farms, Infrasound, Health Impacts, Public Health, Utilitarianism, Collateral Damage, Precautionary Principle
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.5 No.5,
May
12,
2017
ABSTRACT: Environmental noise pollution is an ever-increasing problem.
The various sources: Aircraft, Road Traffic and Wind Farms are reviewed, but the
latter source, because of the intrusive, impulsive and incessant nature of the sound
emitted, is the major focus of this review. Wind turbines produce a range of sound
but it is the Infrasound and low frequency noise which deserves special attention.
Infrasound is considered to be below the range of human hearing so it is not measured
in routine noise assessments in the wind farm planning process. There is, however,
evidence that many can register it and a sizeable minority is sensitive,
or becomes sensitised to it. The actual route of transmission still requires elucidation.
The net effect of the entire range of noise produced is interference with sleep
and sleep deprivation. Sleep, far from being a luxury is vitally important to health
and insufficient sleep, in the long term, is
associated with a spectrum of diseases, particularly Cardiovascular. The
physiological benefits of sleep are reviewed, as is the range of diseases which
the sleep-deprived are predisposed to. Governments, anxious to meet Green targets
and often receiving most of their advice on health matters from the wind industry,
must commission independent studies so that the Health and Human Rights of their
rural citizens is not infringed. Public Health, in particular, must remember its
roots in Utilitarianism which condoned the acceptance of some Collateral Damage provided that the greatest happiness of the greatest
number was ensured. The degree of Collateral Damage caused by wind farms should be totally unacceptable to
Public Health which must, like good government, fully exercise the Precautionary Principle. The types of study which should be considered are discussed. Indeed, the
father of Utilitarian Philosophy, Jeremy Bentham, urged that government policy should
be fully evaluated.