The Falmouth Board of Health held a special meeting to gather written and oral testimony from neighbors of three wind turbines in town who are experiencing health issues.  Seventy people attended the meeting, with about 30 having prepared written testimony about their personal health after the turbines became operational, as requested by the board, which the Board will submit to the Massachusetts Department of Health.  While one resident who lives 3000 feet from a turbine testified that he had noticed no ill effects, most of those attending shared specific symptoms and incidents.  Many of these related to sleep disruption and resulting headaches or lack of concentration, including Mark Cool, an air traffic controller who had the first near-accident incident in his career after losing sleep due to the turbines.  Some spoke of physical sensations, a “pressure” that they suspect is triggered inaudible infrasound (though may be caused by air pressure pulses in down-wind turbine wakes).  Most of those in attendence seemed to agree with Diane Funfar, who said, “turn these tortuous machines off.”

Two local papers carried coverage of the Board of Health meeting, and one local TV station aired a video report.

One of the two town-owned turbines has been shut down after it was found out of compliance with state noise standards on quiet nights, and is being tested to see if it is in compliance during the day; the other town-owned turbine is currently running only in the daytime while efforts are underway to find a local consensus on how to proceed. Seventy neighbors in forty households want them shut down completely while the consensus process is underway, and recently chose not to participate in the initial planning of the consensus process, which is set to get underway in June.