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Inside the 'Nightmare' Health Crisis of a Texas Bitcoin Town (time.com)

submitted 4 months ago by StevenSaus@midwest.social to c/technology@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/14304762

Over the course of several months in 2024, TIME spoke to more than 40 people in the Granbury area who reported a medical ailment that they believe is connected to the arrival of the Bitcoin mine: 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. The development of large-scale Bitcoin mines and data centers is quite new, and most of them are housed in extremely remote places. There have been no major medical studies on the impacts of living near one. But there is an increasing body of scientific studies linking prolonged exposure to noise pollution with cardiovascular damage.

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[–] dhork@lemmy.world 27 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)

Data centers are normally built with good security, and solid walls that keeps the roar of the fans inside. It seems like this mining outfit took the cheap road, and just set up shipping containers with servers inside them instead of building an actual building.

Still, these people shouldn't be mad at the bitcoiners, they should be mad at the state laws that allow these machines to be as loud as they are with no real penalty. Maybe they should write their State Legislature and tell them the bitcoin mines are killing innocent child processes in broad daylight, since abortion is all they seem to care about.

[–] Ioughttamow@kbin.run 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

They should be mad at both?

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

But this has nothing to do with bitcoin, other than the pop-up datacenter's purpose is to mine it. They could have popped up a datacenter for any other purpose, and it would have the same issues.

OTOH, the State can solve this today, either by instituting regulations or allowing the county to. Heck, just putting walls and a ceiling around the thing will help. But the mining outfit, like any good Capitalist, will not spend a dime unless it is forced to, and this state thinks regulations are a tool of the devil herself.

[–] Ioughttamow@kbin.run 2 points 4 months ago

I think it’s fair to be mad at the data center. Whether that nuisance is legal or not, and the lawmakers as well

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