In the course of my consultancy work I am often asked to assess the impact of low frequency noise from industry following complaints from local residents. Without thinking too hard about this I recall doing so at a chicken processing factory, a waste water treatment plant, an animal feedmill and a power station. There are lots of others. In all cases I rocked up, usually in the middle of the night (when ambient noise from other sources is at its lowest), talked to the complainant and found myself both unable to hear and measure the noise that was being complained of. In these cases when I inspected and surveyed the plant concerned I also found nothing untoward.
We have particular defined objective methodologies for quantifying low frequency noise and in those cases there was nothing there. However, from the resident’s perspective it is without doubt real, disturbing and severely interfering with their quality of life. I recall attending one complainant’s home. She was a yoga teacher, around 60 years of age and anxious. She showed me into her yoga studio, described the sound, how it affects her and makes her feel. She could hear it at that time (her husband and I were both unable to) and then said, to the slight embarrassment of her husband, ‘it’s worse when I’m inverted’. She then clambered onto her yoga rail and hung upside down like a bat and said ‘yes there it is. It’s intolerable’.
I’m not a medic but I do find myself in the difficult and uncomfortable position, having thoroughly investigated these complaints (on behalf of the industrial operators who are usually asked to do so by a regulatory authority- either the local council or the Environment Agency), of having to gently say to those affected that I believe the sound that is being heard is not audible to the majority of the population and that s/he may wish to consider seeking medical advice.
The phenomenon is not new. The Low Frequency Noise Suffers’ Association was formed in 1989. Elizabeth Griggs, the founding secretary of the association and a sufferer herself, said at that time:
Can you imagine trying to sleep, in a room full of low frequency noise, which is nerve shattering, exhausting and destructive of concentration and sleep. … Or to be enjoying a television programme, in the evening after a day’s work but have to turn the volume up to drown the loudness of the low frequency noise.
In the first two years of a living nightmare, at two o’clock one morning with my head cradled in my arms, I felt like ending the torture by jumping out of the window….
To be told by the powers that be that it is not intrusive. Ears are still an indispensable tool in assessing the subjective effect of any noise. Would it be moral for a doctor to tell the patient that they have no pain?
Powerful stuff indeed.
Since 1989 there have been numerous studies into low frequency noise- its production, propagation and perception. A number have indicated that up to 80% of complaints cannot be resolved by scientific means with the noise source not detectable or measurable and hence the cause of the disturbance a mystery. Defra sponsored a research programme to address the issues. This included an assessment methodology which was produced on their behalf by the University of Salford in 2011. They also funded a therapeutic approach to addressing the impact of the noise which included a serious of sessions lead by a psychotherapist to improve the quality of life of the suffers. A programme of cognitive behavioural therapy was also specially developed.
I’m not aware if The Low Frequency Noise Suffers Association continues to exist in the same guise, however, there are numerous support groups on social media and over the decades and years the phenomenon has gained increasing focus and attention and has colloquially become known as ‘The Hum’. Wikipedia describes it as follows:
The Hum is a name often given to widespread reports of a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming, rumbling, or droning noise not audible to all people. Hums have been reported all over the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. They are sometimes named according to the locality where the problem has been particularly publicized, such as the “Taos Hum” in New Mexico and the “Windsor Hum” in Ontario.
The Hum does not appear to be a single phenomenon. Different causes have been attributed, including local mechanical sources, often from industrial plants, as well as manifestations of tinnitus or other biological auditory effects.
We live in an age of instantaneous information and communication and, therefore, speculation about potential sources of the noise run wild. In addition to industrial noise sources, UFOs, noise resonating through the water mains, 5G transmission masts and wind turbines all get the blame (note significant research has been undertaken into the emission of low frequency noise from wind turbines and have all proven to be inconclusive).
My favourite explanation, however, was provided on my home turf in Southampton back in 2013. Residents in Hythe, which is a small town less than 3 km as the crow flies from the centre of Southampton, complained of a mysterious low-frequency hum which ‘pulsated through homes’ causing sleep disturbance. It was so severe that some residents even relocated. As the local, and then national, press took hold of the story it grew and grew with more people from further afield commenting that they could also hear it.
Hythe is close to several power stations, a large chemical works and oil refinery and the Port of Southampton. In my (professional) opinion it is very likely that the noise was created by one of these sources but an investigation undertaken by environmental health officers drew a blank. If a local industrial source was the culprit, the laws of physics simply wouldn’t allow that sound to be audible at a distance of 10+ km away where some people were complaining from. Those individuals were either hearing noise from a different source or (tragically) their auditory systems were playing hopscotch with them.
The international scientific community, however, came to the ‘rescue’ and hypothesised that the sound might be caused by mating fish and specifically the male Midshipman which are known to emit a ‘deep resonating tone’ when they get down to it with Mrs Midshipman.
Seriously? Sound can travel for thousands of miles in water but the losses occurring during the transfer between water and air and over the long distances reported through the air would have been enormous. This was a very fishy tale indeed and frankly of no value to those poor individuals who were genuinely affected.
And so the hum persists. It is a global phenomenon. For those suffering it is real and debilitating and can seriously affect quality of life. In my experience, the studies undertaken in the 1990s and early part of this century which indicate around 20- 30% of cases can be explained seem about right and it’s appropriate that all complaints are investigated. The remainder, however, are almost certainly best treated by medical means. Sadly, in our ever present information age stories of wind turbines, UFOs and bonking fish might provide a comfort blanket of cause for those affected but this does then mean that they might not seek out the proper help that they would so badly benefit from.
Reuben Peckham
20 November 2022 at 01:06
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16 January 2023 at 17:59
Thanks for the article. 29/12/2021 is a day I’ll never forget. I woke that morning feeling incredibly ill with the worst flu like illness I’ve ever experienced, it lasted for 5 days. The significance of that day however was the ‘Hum’ noise which appeared at the same time. It was an incredibly loud low frequency hum which filled the house day and night. That noise is still very apparent over a year later in my home and only slightly audible at night outside near the house. I can walk a mile a way and not hear it. Soon as I’m home its permanently there. I’m having to mask it with a white noise machine. I’m wondering if it’s the large offshore wind farm in Liverpool bay? Or some kind of radar technology from the near by RAF base? It’s a lot like the ‘frey effect’, if I was to try and describe it. Like a persistent pulsed generator noise which changes octave higher then lower the higher. Feels like your body is vibrating. The government is doing nothing to investigate the phenomenon. I’m thinking personally it’s a form of Havana syndrom technology being used on civilians. But its almost impossible to prove.
17 September 2024 at 22:24
Thanks so much for this post! Unfortunately I’m in the case, living in a quiet village few kms away from the city of Cherbourg, France. One night, 2 weeks ago, I was disturbed and woke up by exactly the same kind of noise in my sleep and ever since it vibrates in my ears and whole body 24 hours per day 7 days a week when at home.
It’s rather frustrating, doesn’t go away with earplugs and up till now no one else can hear it! Only me, when at home. At work, for example, no problem. I think It must be some bloody industrial shit round the corner or even several kms away, maybe.
Doing my research I found out a ventilator of a Superette some 800m away that could be responsible, but then I have no feedback from other neighbours on the subject. I feel really desperate.
I can fall asleep, but my dreams take place in noisy environments like planes, boats or highways…! And if I wake up this ‘hum’ is always there.
Happy to have found some proof that other people share the same experience and I’m not a weird oversensitive madman.
Hope to find a solution that will stop this nightmare, this torture.
Thanks again.
Nicolas Cherbourg France