Wind turbines

can harm humans

Exploring why some contemplate to

vacate/abandon their homes

WECC Meeting

Carmen Krogh, BScPharm

April 29, 2021
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 Setting the stage

 Snapshot of some of the vacated/abandoned homes

research findings

 Wrap-up

 All slides referenced

 Emphasis sometimes added to original quotes
highlighting key points

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Wind turbines can harm humans

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2011: Wind turbines can harm humans

 “This case has successfully shown that the debate

should not be simplified to one about whether wind
turbines can cause harm to humans. The
evidence presented to the Tribunal demonstrates
that they can, if facilities are placed too close to
residents. The debate has now evolved to one of
degree.”
 Case Nos.: 10-121/10-122 Erickson v. Director, Ministry of the Environment
Environmental Review Tribunal (2011), Decision, p 207

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Personal disclosure

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Krogh: personal disclosure
 Retired pharmacist
 Volunteer since October 2008

 Published author/co-author - peer reviewed

articles/conference papers)

 Member of the Board – Magentica Research

Group
 Volunteers
 Research partially funded by private
contribution 6
2009: Escaping wind turbine LFN [1, 2, 3]
– 5 shut down at night

Financial settlement with wind energy developer 2009 [3]

(non disclosure)
• 1. Community funded noise study
• 2. Developer noise study
• 3. Freedom of Information
With kind permission B. Ashbee, Ontario 7
2009: A cluster of affected families

 With kind permission: Ripley, Ontario families

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Vacated/abandoned homes study

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Purpose was to:

 explore why families living within 10 km from industrial

wind energy facilities contemplated to vacate/abandon their
homes or remain in their homes;

 gain an understanding of the outcomes of housing decisions;

and

 propose a theory.

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Use of methodologies - can be combined
 Qualitative research:
 uses interview/narrative/conversational approaches – uses words
 themes and significance are driven by the participants
 used by social scientists to explore social issues and considers beliefs,
values, experiences / gathers insights on topics that are not well
understood
 typically uses a small sample size for in-depth exploration

 Quantitative research:
 uses objective measurements - often uses numbers
 tends to determine the issues and what measures to use to research
these
 typically relies on statistical and numerical/mathematical methods and
considers statistical significance
 typically requires a large sample size

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Method: Qualitative (Grounded Theory)
approach

 Ethics reviewed
 Informed consent
 Invitations circulated to community members/individuals
 Semi-structured questionnaire collected demographics
 Age - 18 years old and over
 Proficient in English language
 Most interviews conducted in homes by trained interviewers
 Audio to text conversion
 Data coded and analysed by NVivo Pro software (v.12.6)
 Iterative process until saturation (no new information acquired)

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Initiating question
 For those who had previously left:

Can you discuss the events that led you to decide to

vacate your home?

 For those who were contemplating to leave:

Can you discuss the events that led you to think about
vacating your home?

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Distribution of participants

 67 neighbors living within 10 km (6.2 miles)

 28 had left
 31 were contemplating to leave
 4 pre-emptively left before turbines initiated operations
 4 decided to remain (2 would re-evaluate if affected/2 had
a preference to live rurally)
 Temporarily/intermittently left during day and/or
night to alleviate symptoms
 24 of the 28 (previously left)
 12 of the 31 (thinking to do so)

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Iterative process: saturation at 67
participants

 No new insights or new dimensions to categories

were identified.

 All 67 participants were motivated by the proximity of a

wind energy facility within 10 km of their homes and the
participants’ observations of the occurrence or potential
risk of adverse health effects.

 Some temporarily left during the day and/or night to

alleviate their adverse effects.

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Publication status and references to
above 6 slides
 Krogh, C.M., McMurtry, R.Y., Dumbrille, A., Hughes, D. and Gillis, L. (2020)
Preliminary Results: Exploring Why Some Families Living in Proximity to Wind
Turbine Facilities Contemplate Vacating Their Homes—A Community-Based Study.
Open Access Library Journal, 7: e6118. https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1106118

 Krogh, C.M., McMurtry, R.Y., Johnson, B.W., Dumbrille, A., Alves-Pereira, M.L.,
Punch, J.I., Hughes, D., Rogers, L., Rand, R.W., James, R., Ambrose, S.E., and Gillis, L.
Wind Turbines: Why Some Families Living in Proximity to Wind Energy Facilities
Contemplate Vacating Their Homes: An Overview of Findings. Open Access Library
Journal Vol.7 No.6,  June 28, 2020. DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1106443

 Krogh, C.M., McMurtry, R.Y., Johnson, W.B., Dumbrille, A., Alves-Pereira, M., Punch,
J.L., Hughes, D., Rogers, L., Rand, R.W., James, R., Ambrose, S.E. and Gillis, L. (2021)
Grounded Theory as an Analytical Tool to Explore Housing Decisions Related to Living
in the Vicinity of Industrial Wind Turbines. Open Access Library Journal, 8, 1-22.
10.4236/oalib.1107233.https://scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?
paperid=108027https://www.scirp.org/pdf/oalibj_2021032516361728.pdf

 4th article in process

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Data coding

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Data coding: the 5 Elements and their
relationship to the analysed data
 Element 1 is the “central phenomenon”
 Element 2 are the “causal conditions that contributed
to the phenomenon”
 Element 3 is the “context in which the phenomenon is
embedded”
 Element 4 are the “actions and interactions taken by
people in response to the phenomenon”
 Element 5 are the “consequences of those actions and
interactions taken in Element 4”
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Reference for the 5 elements
 Proposed by: Rose S., Spinks N. and Canhoto A.I. (2015). Chapter 6:
Management Research: Applying the principles© 2015. Figure 2 Coding
paradigm (adapted from Corbin and Strauss 1990. Strauss and Corbin 1998,
Corbin and Strauss 2008)

 Published in: Krogh, C.M., McMurtry, R.Y., Johnson, W.B., Dumbrille,

A., Alves-Pereira, M., Punch, J.L., Hughes, D., Rogers, L., Rand, R.W.,
James, R., Ambrose, S.E. and Gillis, L. (2021) Grounded Theory as an
Analytical Tool to Explore Housing Decisions Related to Living in the
Vicinity of Industrial Wind Turbines. Open Access Library Journal, 8, 1-
22. doi:
10.4236/oalib.1107233.https://scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?
paperid=108027https://www.scirp.org/pdf/oalibj_2021032516361728.pdf

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Element 1: all 67 of the 67 research
participants commented that the central
phenomenon was IWTs near their homes

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Element 2: all 67 of the 67 participants
commented on occurrences of, or a potential
risk of, adverse health effects

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Element 3: context included becoming
informed and taking action

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Element 4: participant-actions and
- interactions

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Element 5: the consequences and
aftermath

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Reference for previous slide

 Krogh, C.M., McMurtry, R.Y., Johnson, W.B., Dumbrille,

A., Alves-Pereira, M., Punch, J.L., Hughes, D., Rogers, L.,
Rand, R.W., James, R., Ambrose, S.E. and Gillis, L. (2021)
Grounded Theory as an Analytical Tool to Explore Housing
Decisions Related to Living in the Vicinity of Industrial
Wind Turbines. Open Access Library Journal, 8, 1-22. doi:
10.4236/oalib.1107233.https://scirp.org/journal/paperinform
ation.aspx?
paperid=108027https://www.scirp.org/pdf/oalibj_202103251
6361728.pdf

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 Wrap-up
A few observations and
acknowledgements

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Thank you

carmen.krogh@gmail.com

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