Jan de Laat is a distinguished audiologist and a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Prof. De Laat has caused controversy by asserting that the noise of modern wind turbines can interfere with people’s sleep patterns and cause heart problems.
The following video reports on an attempt to interview Prof. De Laat. His university intervened and forbade him from speaking to the interviewer.
Many thanks to Gary Fouse for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling. Below is the text of a tweet that accompanied the video, also translated by Gary Fouse:
Jan de Laat, a prestigious scientist with the Leiden University Medical Center, is critical of the government’s windmill policy. He makes a connection between heart problems and the sound of windmills. We want to interview him, but he is prohibited from speaking.
Video transcript:
| 00:01 | So when the wind turbines are put in places where you cannot sleep well at night, | |
| 00:05 | then the result is at a given moment — because the long-term exposure — | |
| 00:08 | every night again — results in eventual health problems. | |
| 00:13 | After he publicly made a direct connection between heart problems and the sound of windmills | |
| 00:20 | the windmill industry complained to his employer, says De Laat. | |
| 00:25 | That did not prevent him from agreeing to an interview with us. | |
| 00:28 | Just one day before the recordings, he received, according to his own words, | |
| 00:33 | a prohibition on speaking imposed by the university. | |
| 00:36 | They strongly discouraged him from speaking with us. | |
| 00:40 | We called a spokesperson. | |
| 00:43 | We have been told that there has been pressure by the windmill industry | |
| 00:48 | on the University of Leiden, in which there is a complaint about Jan de Laat. | |
| 00:52 | And that is part of the reason we cannot speak with him. | |
| 00:57 | I’ll check into it and call you back. | |
| 01:02 | Ten minutes later, the Leiden University Medical Center calls back. | |
| 01:05 | Again, we stick to the same advice at this time, yes… |
All I can say is that yes – as impressive as they are, being close to a large windmill running at full power pumps adrenaline into my veins. Certainly not a nice “noise” to be sleeping under, like a constant swooshing of a swinging sword.
However – I find it interesting how many “causes of heart problems” are being discovered these, “post pandemic” days. It’s intriquing.