Wind turbine related risk perception
Description
Wind turbines have been recognized as a source of environmental hazards since the visual or auditory stimulus they created were defined. The causality between wind turbines and perceived health risks, noise annoyance and general health outcomes of the residents living around a wind farm has received considerable attention. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the risk perception and the associated factors of those living near the wind farms in three rural residential areas. Additionally it is also aimed to investigate the relationship between the exposure to wind turbine noise and self-reported health symptoms. A cross-sectional study was carried out via a face to face questionnaire by 282 subjects. There were two dependent variables which were wind turbine related risk perception and health symptoms. The association between risk perception due to wind turbine and related factors such as noise, annoyance and socio-demographics was analyzed. Outdoor A-weighted sound pressure levels were calculated for each respondent who were also asked to report health symptoms.