Photo credit: Tara Winstead
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Data processing centers for bitcoin mines and artificial intelligence (AI) endanger both health and the environment. There has been a wealth of reporting about noise from bitcoin mines and computer data centers in recent years. Most recently we covered issues surrounding the closure of a bitcoin mine in Norway. The Digitalization Minister said that Norway aims to attract data centers that bolster national infrastructure rather than deplete energy resources. The Minister for Energy actually said that crypto mining “is an example of a type of business we do not want in Norway.”
Most experts think that bitcoin has no real purpose other than to be a financial vehicle for criminals. Bitcoin mines are energy-intensive, as are data centers for AI and otherwise. Two articles in the current issue of Sierra magazine (published by The Sierra Club) note that heat from computers is the inevitable byproduct of cloud computing and AI. This is a local problem in terms of the noise generated by cooling fans, and a climate-change problem in terms of the non-renewable energy power plants required to provide electricity for the computers. The energy requirements are discussed in an article titled “Dark Cloud,” by Andrew Leonard. Water requirements for cooling are discussed in another article by Ashley Stimpson, “Consumed by Data.”
The health aspects are mentioned in a JAMA article titled, “Potential Health Hazards of Cryptocurrency Mining: Protecting Health in a Digital ‘Oil Boom.'” The article is behind a paywall but you may be able to find it in a local hospital or medical school library. To my knowledge, this is the first article in an American general medical journal that mentions the non-auditory health effects of noise. The article mentions annoyance, sleep disturbance, autonomic nervous system dysfunction and hypertension. The UK general medical journal The Lancet published an oft-cited article about the auditory and non-auditory health effect of noise a decade ago. Sleep disruption is especially bad for health.
Technology evolves rapidly, with unknown and unintended side effects that governments are slow to recognize, and even slower to deal with. If enough people share their concerns about bitcoin mines — a “product” with apparently no legitimate role in society, mined in energy-hogging facilities that adversely affect people living nearby — perhaps legislators and regulators will listen.
I’m more ambivalent about AI and cloud computing, but if the facilities supporting these functions are necessary, they should be designed and built with as small an environmental impact as possible, ideally using renewable energy resources. A quieter, cleaner and cooler environment will be a better and healthier place for all.
