[TaraP]

Ping.. 'Cover-up' So what is the cause? Various features of modern life have been blamed - gas pipes, power lines, mobile phone masts, wind farms, nuclear waste, even low-frequency submarine communications. The internet is abuzz with rumour and speculation. There are dark mutterings about secret military activity, alien contact and government cover-ups. The hum even featured in an episode of the sci-fi drama "The X-Files". Such conspiracy theories are understandable, but unhelpful, according to Dr David Baguley, who's head of audiology at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. He estimates that in about a third of cases there is some environmental source that can be tracked down and dealt with. "It may be a fridge or an industrial fan or a piece of heavy machinery at a nearby factory that is causing the disturbance and can be switched off," he says. Most of the time, however, there is no external noise that can be recorded or identified. "People do come up with some strongly constructed, sometimes strange theories," says Dr Baguley

[TaraP]

Bad vibrations

The hum is a phenomenon that has been reported in towns and cities across the world from Vancouver in Canada to Auckland in New Zealand.

In Britain, the most famous example was the so-called “Bristol hum” that made headlines in the late 1970s. One newspaper asked readers in the city: “Have you heard the Hum?” Almost 800 people said they had.

The problem persisted for years. Residents complained of sleep loss, headaches, sickness and nosebleeds. Experts eventually found traffic and factories were to blame.

There have been other cases in Cheshire, Cornwall, Gloucestershire, London, Shropshire, Suffolk and Wiltshire.

A low-pitched drone known as the “Largs hum” has troubled the coastal town of Largs in Strathclyde for more than two decades.

At least one suicide in the UK has been linked with the hum.

[Star Traveler]

I’ve got ringing in my ears... does that count?

I’ve had it for about 30 years. Some days it’s worse and others better, but it never goes away. I’ve just gotten used to it.

Heck, you can get used to anything, I think. If you heard drums all the time, you would get used to that. I used to live in a place where the train would go by at around 5 AM every day and lay on its horn when crossing the main street. After a while, I never heard it any more... LOL..

I almost have to ask why anyone would write some article about this. I can’t see any reason, from what was in the article, to be any more concerned about this than someone having a mole, or a limp or whatever other ailment.

I mean, it’s almost like me getting a newspaper article written about me, because I got a cold last week. What’s the big deal? ... LOL...

[Star Traveler]

Oh, and another thing..., when I was a kid I used to be able to hear the high-pitched whine of the TV, when it was on. But, I can’t hear that anymore, over the ringing in my ears...

[kalee]

The hum we often hear is an industrial fan at a factory a few miles from our house. Very annoying, especially at nights when you would like to have the window open in the bedroom.

[Quix]

Interesting.

Thanks.