Public Health Impacts - Stop Bad Data Centers

Data Center Accountability and Citizen Protection Act (HB983, OH)

Excludes data centers from a privacy provision for businesses receiving financial incentives. Requires a citizen vote of any town within 5 miles before approval of a data center or data center expansion. Details including noise, light and power generation to be made public before votes. Directs director of environmental protection to establish air emission and…

I am not scared of AI. I am scared of us.

AI-Specific Risk Analysis, Community & Social Impacts, Economic Impacts, Public Health Impacts

Noise and mental health: evidence, mechanisms, and consequences

This peer-reviewed review examines how environmental noise exposure — particularly from traffic sources — affects mental health, synthesizing evidence that links chronic noise to depression, anxiety, elevated suicide risk, and behavioral problems in children and adolescents. The authors detail biological mechanisms including neuroinflammation, cerebral oxidative stress, and HPA axis activation triggered by noise-induced stress. Advocates…

Community & Social Impacts, Public Health Impacts

Policies for Data Centers, 2026

This Sierra Club policy brief outlines four categories of state-level guardrails to mitigate data center impacts: ratepayer protections through large load tariffs and cross-subsidy prevention, clean energy accountability via RPS enforcement and on-site renewable mandates, reform of tax and utility incentives, and public health protections addressing cumulative air emissions from backup diesel generators. The document…

Community & Social Impacts, Economic Impacts, Environmental Impacts, Grid & Infrastructure Impacts, Public Health Impacts

PJM Emergency Energy Generation Order Request for Eastern U.S. Heatwave Will Increase Health-Harming Air Pollution – Center for Progressive Reform

Center for Progressive Reform's Bryan Dunning breaks down PJM's request to let "large loads" — largely data centers — run polluting Tier 2 diesel backup generators without normal EPA or state permit limits during the early-July 2026 heatwave. He notes this would be the third such backup-generation emergency order in 2026 alone, driven largely by…

Community & Social Impacts, Environmental Impacts, Grid & Infrastructure Impacts, Public Health Impacts

AI Data Centers Trigger Third Federal Grid Emergency, Sending Bills Up and Air Quality Down

Community & Social Impacts, Economic Impacts, Environmental Impacts, Grid & Infrastructure Impacts, Public Health Impacts

Thornton Acoustics & Vibrations are Professional Noise and Vibration Control Engineers and Expert Acoustical Consultants

Thornton Acoustics & Vibrations is a professional engineering firm specializing exclusively in acoustics, vibrations, noise measurement, and noise control throughout North America. With over 1,500 completed projects since 1972, the firm offers expert witness and forensic engineering services, community noise and environmental impact assessments, and HVAC/mechanical system noise control — capabilities directly applicable to evaluating…

Community & Social Impacts, Public Health Impacts

Fission for Algorithms: The Undermining of Nuclear Regulation in Service of AI – AI Now Institute

AI companies seek five to 50 gigawatts of nuclear power for data centers, driving three fast-tracking paths: weakening radiation safety standards like LNT and ALARA, using large language models to generate nuclear licensing documents and promoting unproven Small Modular Reactors on infeasible timelines. Analyzes how each raises public radiation exposure and proliferation risks.

Grid & Infrastructure Impacts, Public Health Impacts

‘A muzzle on elected officials’: NDAs ‘cloak’ Louisiana’s biggest business developments | WWNO

Economic Impacts, Environmental Impacts, Public Health Impacts

Localized Air Pollution Impacts from Data Centers in Northern Virginia

In Northern Virginia, collective emissions from more than 100 data center backup generators rival output from the region's largest power plants. VCU researchers map CO, NOx and PM 2.5 at the census-block level, finding pollution concentrations correlate with lower income and education levels. Permitted totals would far exceed any other regional source.

Community & Social Impacts, Environmental Impacts, Environmental Justice, Public Health Impacts

Impact Type: Public Health Impacts