May 22, 2002 4 min read

KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) – 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.

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.

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, 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.

In 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.

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 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.”