The Health Crisis of a Texas Bitcoin Town
time.com
time.com
That's some new low they're reaching.
I really hope their operations become a target of sabotage and attacks. I hope the residents realise failure of cooling can solve some of their problems...
-An 81 year old has vertigo and high blood pressure
-A cancer patient has a headache
-A 64 year old man had a blood clot
Noise complaints are a fair concern for bitcoin mining but most miners are actively monitoring this and finding alternative solutions (look at riots large immersion facility and gigas hydro boxes).
Also, how does one deduce that mining is the only cause for these health issues. Any questions about lifestyle, past health concerns?
Time has become a joke.
>hypertension, heart palpitations, chest pain, vertigo, tinnitus, migraines, panic attacks. At least 10 people went to urgent care or the emergency room with these symptoms.
No one is blaming bitcoin mining, it's a single company that doesn't adhere to the noise standards is the problem.
Why?
On-brand
Are land use restrictions like zoning good or not? In most large cities, people are enserfed by their home purchases, if they can even afford one altogether. A minimal amount of zoning is one thing, but we're talking height and volume limits, byzantine red tape, and countless other intentional impediments.
Here's two somewhat-similar listings from Houston (no zoning):
https://www.redfin.com/TX/Houston/4119-Chasewick-Cir-77014/h...
And Austin (zoning and plenty of other land use restrictions):
https://www.redfin.com/TX/Austin/3613-Windsor-Rd-78703/home/...
I only spent 15 seconds looking these up, and obviously demand is different because of different neighborhoods, job markets, and whatnot - but restrictive land use laws generally account for 90% of the remaining price difference these days.
Before the housing pyramid scheme began in the early 1970s, the median house used to cost a couple years' worth of the median income in most places. In Houston this is still the case.
The difference is that the rush hour doesn't last 24h and is not a monotonous sound. The traffic is both naturally limited at night and there are extra restrictions on heavy traffic. The buildings right next to the big streets also typically account for this, both explicitly (noise insulation) and implicitly (larger buildings, more neutral isolation from the vibrations).
From the same study:
> At these estimated noise levels, approxi- mately 5% of the population would be exposed to road traffic noise above the IHD risk threshold of 55 dB
> Rosenkranz pulls out her phone and clocks 72 decibels on a sound meter app—the same level that she records in Indigo’s bedroom in the dead of night. In early 2023, her daughter began waking up, yelling and holding her ears.
> Shirley sticks his recorder out the window and the numbers on it flicker up and down as the roar washes over it. Eventually, the recorder caps out at 91 decibels, which the CDC estimates as roughly in between the output of a lawnmower and a chainsaw.
> New York City, for instance, has a noise code which officially caps restaurant music and air conditioning at 42 decibels (as measured within a nearby residence).
At peak times, if you're living beside a major motorway or similar, you might see 70db. In most places, if you're allowed build housing beside such a thing at all, you'll be required to have triple-glazing and other noise-abatement stuff. Other than that, anywhere else in a city is going to be considerably quieter.