Imagine moving into your dream home and living a life you love. However, a few months later, you start experiencing debilitating headaches and struggle to fall asleep.
A lot of things can cause that to happen, but it may have to do with your environment. If you moved near a wind turbine farm, you may want to contact a wind turbine injury lawyer for help.
Read on to learn about the symptoms of wind turbine syndrome to determine if you have it and need legal help.
Headaches
One of the symptoms of wind turbine syndrome is headaches. Now, many things can cause you to develop a headache, from stress to hunger to a lack of sleep.
Unfortunately, loud noises can make headaches feel worse. The excess noise could lead to stress, which could then cause you to have headaches.
While not all wind turbines are loud, some can be, especially if you live very close to a wind farm. So even if the wind turbine doesn’t cause your headaches, it could aggravate them.
Sleep Problems
Of course, the loud noises that wind turbines cause can also lead to issues sleeping. You may have to toss and turn for a bit longer than you’re used to before you fall asleep.
Maybe you wake up more often due to the noise of the wind farm. Now, noise can also be a problem due to the city of Houston, Texas, and have nothing to do with wind turbines.
Any noise can disturb your sleep, but if you live close to a wind farm, it may be the cause. Some people have even claimed that the wind turbines cause sleep terrors, though there’s not much scientific evidence of that.
Memory and Concentration Problems
One study found that excessive noise can have a negative effect on things like your short-term memory as well as reading and writing. In children, this can affect their cognitive development.
Of course, many things can cause excessive noise, but one of those things is a wind turbine. If the turbine is loud enough for you to hear it, you might have trouble focusing on certain tasks.
You could also struggle to recall information later on. That can be a big problem when it comes to studying for a major test, but it’s also an issue if you need to remember something for work, for example.
Mood Problems
Certain sounds can also negatively affect your mood and make you more anxious or irritable. Going back to headaches, some people experience light and sound sensitivity.
If that happens to you, the sound from a wind turbine might make you feel worse. People with anxiety disorders and other mental health conditions can also experience mood changes with sounds.
Your mood can make it much easier or harder to go about your day. If you feel more anxious, you might struggle to complete certain tasks, and you can snap at people if you feel more irritable than usual.
Dizziness
Your body maintains balance based on the vestibular system within the ears. If the wind farm causes enough damage to your hearing, that could also affect your ability to stay upright.
You might start to feel dizzy, and you may even be more likely to fall than normal. That can make it harder to walk even around your home, and you may struggle to focus while driving.
Now, some sounds can help you balance, especially if you can’t see as well due to darkness. However, if you can’t hear very well already, you may feel dizzier due to noise pollution from a wind turbine.
Nausea
Of course, dizziness may come with a bit of nausea. Nausea can also accompany other symptoms, such as headaches, both of which could have wind farms as the culprit.
Some people also experience cochlear or vestibular hyperacusis. The vestibular type can make you dizzy and nauseous when you hear particular sounds.
Wind turbines might not cause that condition, but they could aggravate it and cause symptoms that you don’t experience elsewhere.
Tinnitus
Tinnitus is a ringing in the ear, but you can also hear other noises, such as buzzing or humming. However, the sounds you hear are coming from your ear, not your environment, so other people can’t hear them.
Exposure to loud noises can cause tinnitus, and it can happen from one time or multiple events. An explosion may also cause you to develop tinnitus.
For some people, tinnitus comes and goes, but it can be constant for other people. Like many of the other symptoms of wind turbine syndrome, tinnitus has many other causes, so there’s no guarantee that a wind turbine caused it.
What Causes Wind Turbine Syndrome?
As wind turbines operate, they may cause low levels of sound, usually around the lower limit of human hearing, which is 20 Hz. Some turbines can even produce infrasound, which is sound below the level that we can hear.
The blades and the other parts of a turbine can cause distinct sounds that lead to certain symptoms. However, the moving blades can also affect the air pressure and cause problems.
If you live near a wind farm or work on one, you hear the wind turbines. Over time, you may develop symptoms associated with that unnecessary noise exposure.
Some scientists have done a few studies on wind turbine syndrome. For better or worse, the studies have all been relatively small, so experts have yet to conclude if this condition is real.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t experience a wind turbine injury. If you think you have this syndrome, a wind turbine injury lawyer can help you get the compensation you deserve.
How to Determine If You Have Wind Turbine Syndrome
Before hiring a lawyer, you should figure out if wind turbine syndrome is causing your symptoms. Unfortunately, many other conditions can manifest in similar ways.
Of course, headaches are a condition for many people. Mental health conditions that affect your mood are also becoming more common.
Consider the following steps to make sure wind turbine syndrome is what you’re dealing with.
Try Blocking the Sound
When you’re at home, try different techniques to block out sound. Even if you can’t pick out wind turbines specifically, the vibrations from the infrasound could affect you.
You may want to use noise-canceling earphones or headphones when listening to music or even when you sit in silence. If you own your home, you can also update the insulation to something that’s better at blocking sound.
Give it a few weeks or months to start noticing changes. If your symptoms get better, wind turbine syndrome could be the cause.
See Your Doctor
If you’ve been experiencing any significant symptoms, you should visit your doctor. They’ll ask you when the symptoms started and when they’re at their worst.
Before your appointment, you can start a journal of your symptoms, which can give your doctor more insight. Your doctor may also decide to run tests to rule out other conditions that cause your symptoms.
If they think you have something else, such as a traumatic brain injury, they can prescribe medications to help. Those may do the trick, but if they don’t, you can keep tracking your symptoms for a future visit.
Take a Vacation
If you can afford to leave home, do so for at least a week or two. Visit somewhere far away from wind farms, and monitor your symptoms during your trip.
When you return home, consider if the symptoms come back right away. Now, this isn’t perfect because you also need to account for any changes in the climate that could also affect your symptoms.
However, maybe you just move to a different part of Houston, Texas, for a month or so. If you feel better, the wind turbine may be the issue causing you to feel bad.
Be sure to log your symptoms and when they stop and start. Consider the weather and other noise exposure that you experience on your trip as well to help determine if wind turbines are the specific cause.
Move Away
Maybe you can’t afford to take a vacation but you can afford to move somewhere new. Give that a try, such as staying with extended family until you find a place of your own.
Assuming you move somewhere far from wind turbines, you can monitor how you’re feeling. It may take time for your symptoms to go away, so don’t give up after a few days.
If the move seems to help your symptoms, you may want to make it a permanent choice. That way, you can start to feel better, and you don’t have to worry about taking medication for something you know how to prevent.
Hire a Wind Turbine Injury Lawyer
Wind farms can provide renewable energy to the community. Sadly, they can also come with the potential to cause wind turbine syndrome.
While experts don’t agree if it’s real, the symptoms can be very distressing. If you determine the wind turbine is causing your issues, you can move somewhere safe and contact a wind turbine injury lawyer to hold the wind farm accountable.
Are you ready to get justice for your wind turbine injury? Contact us to schedule a consultation today.