Health effects of low frequency noise and infrasound from wind farms: results from an independent collective expertise in France

Philippe Lepoutre (1) , Paul Avan (2) , Anthony Cadene (3) , David Ecotiere (4) , Anne Sophie Evrard (5) , Frédérique Moati (6) , Esko Topilla (7)

1 Autorité de contrôle des nuisances aéroportuaires (Acnusa)
2 Neuro-Dol - Neuro-Dol
3 ANSES - Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail
4 UMRAE - Unité Mixte de Recherche en Acoustique Environnementale
5 UMRESTTE UMR T9405 - Unité Mixte de Recherche Epidémiologique et de Surveillance Transport Travail Environnement
6 Faculté de médecine
7 Finnish Institute of Occupational Health

Several complaints were expressed by some residents of French wind farms, putting forward infrasound and low frequency noise (ILFN) as a potential source of annoyance. Since available information on this subject are multiple and often contradictory, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) was mandated by the French Ministry of Environment to conduct an independent collective expertise on the evaluation of the health effects related to ILFN from wind farms. The objective was first to produce a complete review on auditory and non auditory health effects due to WTN, focusing on ILFN ; then, to collect experimental ILFN data from some wind farms in order to compare with data from the literature ; and finally to propose some improvements in the process of wind farm assessment or of impact studies, concerning ILFN. This paper presents the main results and conclusions of this expertise.

Mots clés: WIND FARMS; INFRASOUND; LOW FREQUENCY NOISE; HEALTH EFFECT

Mots clés: EOLIENNE; BRUIT; SANTE

Domaines: Santé publique et épidémiologie

Philippe Lepoutre, Paul Avan, Anthony Cadene, David Ecotiere, Anne Sophie Evrard, et al.. Health effects of low frequency noise and infrasound from wind farms: results from an independent collective expertise in France. 12th ICBEN Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem, Jun 2017, ZURICH, Switzerland. 9 p. ⟨hal-01635752⟩