This post is a following up of the recently published posts “Noise Pollution” and “Noise Pollution and Health“, concerning the noise pollution created by “E-CO energi” in the mountain village in Norway, where I live. As promised I publish here an update with the info that is there now. I will do this in points, as an overview, not to get lost in too many details.

.

A. The investigation of 2012

1. The local medical officer answered my email on February 22, 2016, and admitted he had forgotten the case. There should have been promised updates from the E-CO representative, the engineer who lives in the village here. The representative did not follow up the request, neither his promise.
2. The local medical officer sent me all the needed email correspondence around the case in the same email.
3. The local medical officer sent me all the documents which show how they worked, with who, where, and the decibels of the noise.
4. After I found somebody to translate the Norwegian texts there were the following notes:

.

B. The results of the Hjelp 24-investigation 

1. The investigation, the official research, took place in 2012, via Hjelp24, named today Stamina Group.
2. Stamina Health (formerly Hjelp24 BHT) is a publicly approved and nationwide occupational health service. “We emphasize occupational health with long-term relationships with our customers, highly skilled and professional scope. We deliver within Lifestyle, Working, Systematic HSE work and preventing sickness absence.”
3. Pay attention to the fact that this organisation is focused on health and work, not health in common, generally spoken. Also people who do not “work” (payed), are humans and have the right for silence to be able to sleep.
4. The results were shown in a report that only mentioned some numbers for just five families, living within some hundreds of meters next to the power station, on the same side of the road. There are several points that I found on the website of the Miljødirektoratet that are missing in the report of Hjelp24. Miljødirektoratet has mentioned them all on this page: Chapter 5. Noise – mapping, action plans and limit values for existing enterprises
5. Because of point number 4 I may conclude that the investigation as it took place is not valuable, and not any trustworthy conclusion can be attached to it. Most important point that is missing is that there is not made a difference in measuring during three different parts of a 24 hours day. Miljødirektoratet mentions a. from 07:00 till 17:00, b. from 17:00 to 23:00 and c. from 23:00 till 07:00. The noise here goes on day and night, on the same level, what means that the decibels in the night sound even stronger when all traffic and other human activity have stopped. There are several other important points missing though. Also the results of what is going on in the power station itself, so that can be discovered when and why the noise takes place. The investigation is poor, not professional. Reason for me to contact the Miljødirektoratet. I am waiting for their answer on my email.They have sent a confirmation with a reference number. Photo: view on the power station, taken from the kitchen window in the house where I live.

E-CO power station, seen from the kitchen window

C. The answer of the leading engineer of E-CO in the village with noise pollution

1. As the local medical officer promised: he has sent an email to the leading engineer X, to ask for his reaction on the points I mentioned.
2. Engineer X. answered that the levels of decibels were okay according to what is legally allowed. Reason not to keep in a contact.
3. It is fair to conclude that the responsible engineer shows lack of interest in people.
4. This engineer lives next to the station, and should hear it, because even the not so well hearing owner of the house hears it, and irritates him. It is psychological terror. If the responsible engineer does not hear what we hear, something must have been damaged in his ears, by the power station of E-CO energi or something else. There might also be other reasons. Economical reasons, for instance.

.

D. A new interview with the locals who were in the research of 2012

1. The local medical officer of Hol Kommune promised me in an email to interview the people who have been in the research of 2012 to learn more about their recent experiences with the actual noise pollution (støy).
2. They were promised to get the results, but nobody got them, and are still waiting.
3. Me, as the one who started mentioning the noise, am the first who got them.
4. I was not asked, neither the owner, in 2012, to take part in it, though the house where I live, is probably more under noise attack than any other. Because of its place related to the power station, and the pipes, who create the resonance of the turbines, and send it towards the other side, where I live, towards the mountains.
5. These mountains echo the noise to everywhere, kilometers ahead, forward, beyond the borders of the village, into the forests, to the animals who live (? do they, are they still there, how is it with the biodiversity here since the noise pollution started?) Nothing can be found back in the Hjelp24 investigation.
6. I have asked to be in the new interviews, together with the owner of the house.

.

E. Who are responsible

Mistakes have been made. By all who were and are in the investigation, and therefore all are responsible. Even the citizens, because of their just waiting, from 2012, till now, and not taking steps for questions about the results, and because of the noise pollution that, though it has been a bit down for a while, is back. The frequencies of the noise are increasing. Even during the night.

Were those, who made the investigation, the officials, including engineer X, E-CO energi, waiting for questions or protests, and if nobody would have started, nothing would have been in the publicity, as it is now, via me? This looks as if one was trying to sweep all under the carpet.

Comment of a local: “It is not only here in the village, in Hol Kommune. The same noise pollution complaints come from several places in Norway with E-CO power stations. E-CO has created a discussion stopper with the words: “All is according to the rules, we cannot do more. With other words: people, you will have to live with it.”

This underlines my suspicion that E-CO knew exactly who to ask for the investigation. But: there are rules that E-CO does not work with, and is undermining the law, with trying to escape via the character of the Norwegians: to be the kind one, not making too much discussion-pollution. I learned that solutions cannot be solved by ignoring them. This is about justice. Human rights. We, the locals of Hol Kommune, living nearby E-CO energi, are imprisoned in an unhealthy system, that misleads the public opinion with websites that refer to ecology, environment, pretending to follow up existing rules, via vague reports, empty phrases, expensive words, the big audience is impressed, and believes all, but the reality proves another interest: E-COnomy.

I fight via my posts for the human rights to live without psychological terror. Rights to take responsibility for public health. The diseases, related with noise pollution may never be ignored. Noise pollution is related with :

.

F. Next

Waiting now for what will happen. I moved from the bad side of the house to the other side, to be able to sleep without ear plugs. But even there, with the windows a bit open for fresh air, I hear E-CO. Even there!! My senses might be more perceptive than from anybody else, but as written: the owner of the house has damaged ears, but hears it anyway. My next post will be “Senses”.

.

Additional information:

• Noise exposure and public health

1. TNO Prevention and Health, Leiden, The Netherlands;
2. Department of Health Risk Analysis and Toxicology, Universiteit Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands

• Greeniacs: Noise pollution
• Wiki: Health effects from noise (with important references)

.

Overview of related posts

• Noise Pollution (23 February 2016)
• Noise pollution and Health (28 February 2016)
• Research for Noise Pollution (09 March 2016)
• E-CO energi and “støy” (10 March 2016)