PART 9 ~~ Resource Sovereignty Series ~ Industrial Noise ~ Always a Problem for Humanity ~ Factories, Workshops ~ Farms Festooned Close to Residential Areas!
Graham, you're onto a real issue, and you're right on one key point: standard A-weighted (dB(A)) limits are a poor way to judge this kind of noise, because they deliberately down-weight low-frequency energy, so a data centre can sit inside its dB(A) limit while the hum is still intrusive indoors. Where the piece goes wrong is the framing around infrasound. True infrasound sits below about 20 Hz; but the drone people actually describe near these sites, the "refrigerator" hum off the cooling plant, fans and transformers, lives mostly in the low-frequency band above that, roughly 50–200 Hz, as it is based on the grid frequency harmonics. That is audible, and it is entirely measurable. The problem isn't that the instruments can't detect it; it's that dB(A) under-represents it. Measured properly, with C-weighting (an LC–LA gap above about 15–20 dB is a reliable red flag), one-third-octave band analysis, an indoor low-frequency assessment and a tonal penalty, low-frequency noise can be characterised, conditioned and enforced at the planning stage. The fix is a better metric and better technology, not the conclusion that it can't be measured or regulated.
Oh, how refreshing!!! ~ somebody who comprehends Sound.
I am a sonographer ~ working in medical imaging with Ultrasound for the past 35 years.
We had court cases in Australia, where the Wind Farm management completely ruled out any detrimental Infrasound human effects. The Good News = They Lost!!
Here is one of my reports ~~ this is Part 1 of a 2 Part Series;
From what I remember of that case, it was a ruling that it was possible, not definitive. I’ve read hundreds of papers on low frequency noise for my masters and upcoming PhD studies, including all of those Wind farm studies done here in Australia on infrasound. Most were commissioned. I’m sorry, the most robust data is that nothing <35hz causes physiological harm. I’m happy to be proven wrong, but my research supervisor has drilled the difference between inference and evidence into me.
Yeah but that’s all low-frequency, not infrasound.
Yes, I know about the 88% reduction in cetacean sightings around ships and seismic studies. I included it in my white paper. The seismic studies are infrasound and brutal. They can spread for 1000s of kms.
Graham, you're onto a real issue, and you're right on one key point: standard A-weighted (dB(A)) limits are a poor way to judge this kind of noise, because they deliberately down-weight low-frequency energy, so a data centre can sit inside its dB(A) limit while the hum is still intrusive indoors. Where the piece goes wrong is the framing around infrasound. True infrasound sits below about 20 Hz; but the drone people actually describe near these sites, the "refrigerator" hum off the cooling plant, fans and transformers, lives mostly in the low-frequency band above that, roughly 50–200 Hz, as it is based on the grid frequency harmonics. That is audible, and it is entirely measurable. The problem isn't that the instruments can't detect it; it's that dB(A) under-represents it. Measured properly, with C-weighting (an LC–LA gap above about 15–20 dB is a reliable red flag), one-third-octave band analysis, an indoor low-frequency assessment and a tonal penalty, low-frequency noise can be characterised, conditioned and enforced at the planning stage. The fix is a better metric and better technology, not the conclusion that it can't be measured or regulated.
Oh, how refreshing!!! ~ somebody who comprehends Sound.
I am a sonographer ~ working in medical imaging with Ultrasound for the past 35 years.
We had court cases in Australia, where the Wind Farm management completely ruled out any detrimental Infrasound human effects. The Good News = They Lost!!
Here is one of my reports ~~ this is Part 1 of a 2 Part Series;
https://grahamrbates.substack.com/p/the-trouble-with-wind-farms?r=1eozzo&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
From what I remember of that case, it was a ruling that it was possible, not definitive. I’ve read hundreds of papers on low frequency noise for my masters and upcoming PhD studies, including all of those Wind farm studies done here in Australia on infrasound. Most were commissioned. I’m sorry, the most robust data is that nothing <35hz causes physiological harm. I’m happy to be proven wrong, but my research supervisor has drilled the difference between inference and evidence into me.
Exactly George ~ my old PhD mate up here tells me the same ~ «correlation is not causation.»
Did you read in my reports about the Pygmy Killer Whales that were stranded near Taipei - Taiwan? They did forensic analysis, to find out why.
They put the through a CT or MRI machine & discovered that their acoustic systems were destroyed. Full story is inside my 2 reports somewhere.
I would do it now, but I have an appointment soon.
The infrasound emitted by the AI Data Centres is another problem…
Yeah but that’s all low-frequency, not infrasound.
Yes, I know about the 88% reduction in cetacean sightings around ships and seismic studies. I included it in my white paper. The seismic studies are infrasound and brutal. They can spread for 1000s of kms.