TADEAS: letmy research by claude
Analysis: "Separating Myth from Fact on Wind Turbine Noise"
In the context of climate disinformation
The Document
This was a lecture delivered on October 8, 2025, in Copenhagen by Professor Ken Mattsson of Uppsala University's Department of Information Technology (not acoustics or health sciences). It was organized by Landsforeningen Naboer til Kæmpevindmøller (LNtK) — the Danish "National Association of Neighbors to Giant Wind Turbines," an anti-onshore-wind advocacy group founded in 2009. The seminar took place during Denmark's EU Presidency and has been promoted by anti-wind organizations across Europe.
The Underlying Research — What's Legitimate, What's Not
The credible part: Mattsson's core academic work is in computational mathematics — specifically, finite difference methods for solving partial differential equations (SBP-SAT methods). He has been working in this field for over 25 years. His tool
SoundSim360 uses these numerical methods to simulate sound propagation in 3D, accounting for atmospheric conditions and terrain. The peer-reviewed paper ("Efficient finite difference modeling of infrasound propagation in realistic 3D domains: Validation with wind turbine measurements") was published in
Applied Acoustics on ScienceDirect. The mathematical modeling methodology itself appears to be sound, and the paper was co-authored with colleagues from Uppsala and other Swedish institutions.
Where the credibility gets strained: Mattsson's research demonstrates that infrasound from modern (larger) wind turbines propagates further than older, simpler models predicted. That is a narrow technical finding about
sound propagation modeling. However, in the Copenhagen lecture and in media interviews, Mattsson makes a much larger leap — implying that this infrasound poses serious health risks. Statements like "Sound power levels stated by manufacturers are one of the biggest lies" cross from science into advocacy.
Crucially,
Mattsson is not a health researcher, epidemiologist, or acoustician specializing in human health effects. He is a computational mathematician. His expertise qualifies him to say infrasound travels further than previously modeled; it does not qualify him to draw health conclusions.
Research Funding
Based on what Mattsson himself has stated publicly:
He received funding from
FORMAS (the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development — a legitimate government research funder) to develop tools for wind farm and traffic noise simulation. The commercialization of SoundSim360 is being supported by
UU Invest AB (Uppsala University's investment company) and
UU Innovation, which won the VentureChallenge 2024 award. His earlier work on sound propagation was done partly at
FOI (the Swedish Defence Research Agency).
There is
no evidence of fossil fuel industry funding for the core research. The funding sources appear to be standard Swedish public research funding and university innovation support. However, the commercial angle is important — Mattsson and Eriksson are actively trying to commercialize SoundSim360, which creates a financial incentive to demonstrate that existing noise models are inadequate (thereby creating a market for their superior tool).
The Disinformation Ecosystem Around It
This is where things get really concerning. The research itself sits at the center of a well-documented disinformation amplification chain:
1. vindkraftsupplysningen.se — The website that published the most detailed English-language account of Mattsson's Copenhagen lecture. According to a ruling by the Swedish media ombudsman (Medieombudsmannen), vindkraftsupplysningen.se's bank account was linked to
Kent Ekeroth, a Sweden Democrats (SD) politician known for the "iron pipe scandal." Ekeroth, together with the site's contact person Madeleine Staaf Kura, produced anti-wind power films for
Samnytt (an SD-adjacent outlet) that featured climate skeptics and people connected to the nuclear industry, claiming wind turbines emit microplastics and harmful infrasound. Source:
Medieombudsmannen ruling
2. Epoch Times — The Uppsala University news page itself lists epochtimes.se as one of the sources covering the story. Epoch Times Germany has run ads claiming wind turbines produce "nefarious health effects" and quoted advisors from the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK's leading climate denial group. The Epoch Times is a far-right international media outlet affiliated with the Falun Gong movement that has promoted conspiracy theories including QAnon, anti-vaccine misinformation, and climate science denial. Sources:
DeSmog investigation,
Global Witness investigation
3. Wind Concerns and similar anti-wind sites have amplified the findings, pairing Mattsson's work with the discredited research of Mariana Alves-Pereira and the concept of "Wind Turbine Syndrome" — a condition not recognized by the WHO or any major health authority.
4. The EU Petition — While the European Parliament's PETI committee did hear the petition (September 25, 2025), this is a
petitions committee that hears citizen concerns. Being heard there does not constitute scientific endorsement. The Commission committed to a written response within three months.
What the Scientific Consensus Actually Says
The overwhelming weight of evidence points in a very different direction from what the anti-wind movement claims:
A 2023
double-blind randomized crossover study published in
Environmental Health Perspectives exposed 37 adults to simulated wind turbine infrasound for 72-hour periods and found no effects on sleep quality or dozens of other psychological, behavioral, and physiological endpoints. The lead researcher stated: "We couldn't find any sign of any effects which would be consistent with infrasound causing the hypothesized wind turbine syndrome." Source:
Environmental Health Perspectives
A
2021 review commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, updating evidence through mid-2020, concluded that annoyance was the most important consequence of wind turbine sound, with sound levels being the primary factor. Source:
PMC / Int J Environ Res Public Health
Multiple systematic reviews found no evidence of a specific health effect from the low-frequency or infrasound component of wind turbine noise. Source:
Acoustics Australia / Springer
No included study in the major systematic reviews directly investigated health effects from infrasound exposure specifically, though the subject has been widely debated. Source:
PLOS One systematic review
The
WHO (2018) found only low-quality or no evidence of health impacts from wind turbine noise beyond annoyance.
Summary Assessment
Mattsson's math/modeling: Legitimate computational science from a credible university.
The infrasound propagation finding: Plausible — larger turbines likely do produce more infrasound that travels further than older models predicted.
Health claims derived from it: Not supported by Mattsson's expertise or the broader scientific literature.
The document/lecture: Mixes legitimate modeling research with unsupported health implications, delivered through an anti-wind advocacy platform.
Research funding: Appears to be public Swedish funding (FORMAS), not fossil fuel money, though commercialization incentives exist.
Amplification ecosystem: Heavily amplified by documented climate disinformation networks (SD-linked sites, Epoch Times, anti-wind advocacy groups).
Bottom line: The core research on sound propagation modeling is not "climate disinformation" per se — it is a legitimate (if narrow) technical finding. But the way it is being framed, presented, and amplified is very much part of the anti-renewable-energy disinformation ecosystem. The leap from "infrasound travels further than old models predicted" to "wind turbines are making people sick and must be stopped" is not supported by the scientific evidence, and the document's delivery through anti-wind advocacy channels and amplification by known disinformation outlets like the Epoch Times should be major red flags.
Key Sources
Uppsala University IT Department news article
Ken Mattsson — Uppsala University staff profile
UU Invest — SoundSim360 VentureChallenge 2024 profile
Medieombudsmannen ruling on vindkraftsupplysningen.se and SD links
DeSmog — Epoch Times climate denial advertising in Europe
Global Witness — Epoch Times climate disinformation on Meta
Marshall et al. (2023) — double-blind infrasound study, Environmental Health Perspectives
van den Berg et al. (2021) — Health effects of wind turbine sound: an update
Schmidt & Klokker (2014) — Systematic review, PLOS One
EDMO — Wind turbine disinformation narratives in Europe