Physiological Effects of Low Frequency Vibration
Jürgen Altmann of the Dortmund University of Technology, an expert on sonic weapons, says that there is no reliable evidence for nausea and vomiting caused by infrasound.
Loud concert levels of subwoofer arrays have been cited as causing lung collapse in individuals who are very close to the subwoofer, especially for smokers who are particularly tall and thin.
In September 2009, London student Tom Reid died of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) after complaining that 'loud bass notes' were 'getting to his heart'. The inquest recorded a verdict of natural causes, although some experts commented that the bass could have acted as a trigger.
Air is a very inefficient medium for transferring low frequency vibration from a transducer to the human body. Mechanical connection of the vibration source to the human body, however, provides a potentially dangerous combination. The U.S. space program, worried about the harmful effects of rocket flight on astronauts, ordered vibration tests that used cockpit seats mounted on vibration tables to transfer "brown note" and other frequencies directly to the human subjects. Very high power levels of 160 dB were achieved at frequencies of 2–3 Hz. Test frequencies ranged from 0.5 Hz to 40 Hz. Test subjects suffered motor ataxia, nausea, visual disturbance, degraded task performance and difficulties in communication. These tests are assumed by researchers to be the nucleus of the current urban myth.
Read more about this topic: Brown Note
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