Health effects of wind turbines: a review of the literature between 2010-2020.

Although wind power is more acceptable in terms of its environmental impact, possible risks to human health are still being discussed. The aim of this study is to systematically evaluate the methodology and the outcomes of the articles that investigate the health effects of wind turbines on humans. Combinations of keywords were entered into the PubMed database. The search resulted in a total of 141 hits, 22 were included. It had been noticed that the most common problems in those living around the wind turbines are noise annoyance(n=18), risk perception and attitude towards wind turbines(n=11), general health symptoms and quality of life(n=11), sleep disturbance(n=10), annoyance(n=7) and shadow flicker effect(n=4). General annoyance is adversely affected by the noise level and sensitivity to noise. We can conclude that the knowledge of and attitude towards wind turbines can turn into annoyance and symptoms if the audio-visual effects of turbines limit daily life activities.