{"id":448,"date":"2008-08-02T14:58:56","date_gmt":"2008-08-02T18:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/static\/?p=448"},"modified":"2012-02-02T08:25:02","modified_gmt":"2012-02-02T13:25:02","slug":"neighbors-claim-wind-turbine-makes-them-ill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/2008\/neighbors-claim-wind-turbine-makes-them-ill\/","title":{"rendered":""Neighbors Claim Wind Turbine Makes Them Ill." (Texas)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nDebbie\u00a0& Lance Behrens (Photo \u00a9 WFAA-TV)<\/span><\/p>\n

—reprinted from WFAA-TV (Dallas\/Ft. Worth, Texas)<\/a>, written by Janet St. James<\/a>, 7-29-08<\/p>\n

SAGINAW, Texas—T. Boone Pickens says they’re the wave of the future. But a wind turbine meant to generate electricity for one Saginaw family has sparked a huge headache for their neighbors.<\/p>\n

“It makes a terrible ‘air raid’ noise,” said Debbie Behrens, talking about the high-pitched whine made by the turbine. “It’s driving me crazy.”<\/p>\n

What’s worse—Debbie and her son Lance both say that the high-pitched hum is now causing physical problems.<\/p>\n

“You occasionally have the dizziness,” Lance explained, “The ringing in the ears; I’ve never experienced the ringing in the ears.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It turns out there is a documented health condition associated with the noise generated by some windmills called “Wind Turbine Syndrome.”<\/p>\n

Symptoms include headaches, dizziness, nausea and ringing in the ears, known as tinnitus.<\/p>\n

Dr. Lee Wilson of the UT Dallas Callier Center says the noise from most turbines isn’t loud enough to cause actual loss, but constant sound can cause other problems.<\/p>\n

“Any kind of thing like that has the potential to affect those kinds of feelings,” Dr. Wilson said. “And they’re real. I mean you’re really sick, nauseated, but it may be a result of some anxiety that’s related to what you’re hearing rather than the actual sound.”<\/p>\n

Because there aren’t many windmills around, Dr. Wilson hasn’t yet seen any cases.<\/p>\n

And not every turbine makes that whine.<\/p>\n

For example, the giant mills near Sweetwater make a quiet thump as they spin.<\/p>\n

Doctors say some people are more sensitive to constant sound than others.<\/p>\n

Debbie Behrens and her son Lance say they’ve suffered since a neighbor installed a wind turbine.<\/p>\n

The people who installed the small, residential turbine in Saginaw aren’t bothered at all.<\/p>\n

But the Behrens believe without attention and—potentially—regulation, wind turbine noise could become a major problem in neighborhoods as the country switches to more eco-friendly energy sources.<\/p>\n

Some science shows turbines should be at least a mile away from homes.<\/p>\n

The turbine that stands 50 yards from the Behren’s back door is loud enough to make them want to move.<\/p>\n

“My life savings is in this house,” said Debbie, “but, I would not live with that going here for the rest of my life, no.”<\/p>\n

E-mail <\/span>jstjames@wfaa.com<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(Be sure to remove the period that appears when you click on this email address—a period appears between “st” and “james.”)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News story about Debbie & Lance Behrens, Texas, and their experience with a domestic turbine next door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[166],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}