The weirdness of Kokomo: The Kokomo Hum

It started as a low hum, barely noticeable. But within months, the endless throbbing was like a corkscrew twisting into Diane Anton's temple.
The walls of her home vibrated. Her bed shook. Bouts of nausea, short-term memory loss and hand tremors followed.
"The noise was so penetrating and invasive," she said. "It was just not getting better."
So Anton quit her job, abandoned her $180,000 house and fled. She was the first person driven out of the city by what's come to be known as "the Kokomo hum." But she may not be the last. Let’s take a closer look into this odd case…

As many as 90 people in this industrial, central Indiana city of about 47,000 have complained about a low-frequency hum over the past three years, City Attorney Ken Ferries said. While most residents don't hear a thing, beyond the typical sounds of the city's factories and busy roads, the City Council approved a $100,000 study of the mysterious noise, often described as the constant idle of tractor trailer's diesel engine.
"We decided, rather than sit on or duffs and talk about it, let's try to do something," Ferries said. The city intends to request proposals for the study by the end of the month. Those who suffer the hum, and have had years to educate themselves about low-frequency sound, say it's about time. Many who can hear it complain that it has made the physically ill, not to mention that it has nearly driven them crazy.
They point to evidence, grounded in science, that exposure to consistent low-frequency noise can cause vibroacoustic disease. It has symptoms that mirror the ailments those in Kokomo are complaining about -- nausea, headaches and dizziness, just to name a few.
Unidentified sounds that bother a handful of people have popped up in communities around the world, but because so few are affected, the issue hasn't received much attention. Some examples include; Taos, N.M., a small town in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, some residents were bothered by a mysterious noise in the early 1990s. They, too, described the sound as a diesel truck idling in the distance, and said it caused sleeplessness, dizziness and a host of other symptoms. Also On the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, people have long complained of health problems caused by low-frequency sound coming from a U.S. Navy bombing range. The Navy has discounted those claims, and continues bombing in the area.
Some in Kokomo claim the city government knows the noise comes from an industrial source but believe officials are in cahoots with local industry and refuse to make companies fix the problem.
Others view a wider conspiracy, that the federal government is well aware of low-frequency sound problems but ignores them to appease large corporations.
"It's just like every other major environmental issue. It all comes down to money," Anton said.
Ferries, the city attorney, said such claims are ridiculous. Kokomo's investment in research shows officials are taking it seriously, he said.
Kathie Sickles, who lives near Kokomo, spends most of her free time trying to educate people about the hum. She packages research papers and other sound studies in bright-colored plastic folders and hands them out to City Council members. She makes flyers for the public, "SOUND POLLUTION CAN HURT YOU," filled with Internet addresses and lists of symptoms associated with exposure to low-frequency sound.
"People need to know this is going on," said Sickles, who formed a group called Our Environment. "People are getting sick and nothing's being done."
Angelo Campanella, an acoustical engineer hired by Anton, detected low frequency sound in her neighborhood, but said further research would be needed to clearly determine a source.
Campanella said he was not able to hear the sound Anton described, but believed "others may be more sensitive to it."
Most Kokomo residents aren't, however. Jeff Smith, owner of Jeff's Barber Shop, said aside from some coverage of the issue in the Kokomo Tribune, which urged an investigation in a front-page editorial, he doesn't hear much about the hum.
"As far as I know, I don't think it exists," Smith said. "I can't say I've ever heard it."

UPDATE: The source of the highly annoying Kokomo, Indiana hum, that has been making some people sick since 1999, has now been identified. An acoustics consulting firm says two industrial fans are sources of a mysterious sound.
Jim Cowan of Acentech, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was hired by the town to make a 10-month study of the hum. He finally traced it to low-frequency and infrasonic tones coming from local industries, and narrowed it down to a cooling tower fan on the roof of Kokomo's DaimlerChrysler Casting Plant and an air compressor fan at Haynes International.
Both companies have agreed to silence their fans. Haynes International has installed a muffler, and DaimlerChrysler is working on the problem.
The hum did not exceed 60 decibels, and sound researchers say negative health effects from low-frequency sounds start at 90 decibels. But residents who reported sleeplessness, chronic fatigue, headaches and nausea blamed it on the hum. Cowan says, "None of these people are crazy. Nothing is being made up."

Well there you have it. The weirdness of Kokomo now has been traced to some old fans. It is interesting that these low frequency sounds were able to cause illness at disable folks, I guess it is no wonder the US (and probably other) military want this phenomenon made into useful weapons. What a weird world we live in.

I'm Average Joe
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