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Health-Informed Computing: Estimating and Addressing the Public Health Impact of Data Centers
U.S. data centers are projected to push public health costs past $20 billion by 2028, tied to roughly 600,000 asthma cases and 1,300 deaths from generator and power-plant emissions. Researchers use EPA's COBRA model to trace the toll to specific counties, then propose Health-Informed Computing to factor those costs into siting and resource decisions.
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Environmental Noise Pollution in the United States: Developing an Effective Public Health Response – PMC
This article from the National Library of Medicine explains that an estimated 104 million people in the United States faced noise levels above 70 decibels in 2013, risking hearing loss and heart disease. It traces chronic exposure of these noise levels lead to sleep disruption, elevated blood pressure and cardiovascular strain. It weighs federal regulation,…
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Environmental sustainability of data centres: A need for a multi-impact and life cycle approach
Current data centre sustainability efforts focus narrowly on operational energy use, overlooking environmental damage from raw material extraction, equipment manufacturing and e-waste. Life Cycle Assessment captures impacts across all stages — including toxicity, mineral depletion and water consumption — that single-metric approaches like Power Usage Effectiveness miss.
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Google Data Centers in Chesterfield, Virginia
Google Data Centers in Chesterfield, Virginia tracks three proposed Google data center campuses—Peanut, Skye, and Loch—and brings together information on their locations, land purchases, water use, permitting, tax agreements, local approvals, wetlands impacts, and community concerns. A major theme is transparency, documenting information gaps, redacted agreements, an NDA between Google and county officials, and permit…
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Global data center expansion and human health: A call for empirical research – ScienceDirect
A recent model projects U.S. data centers will cause nearly 1,300 deaths annually by 2030, with health costs topping $20 billion. Diesel generators push noise past 96 decibels and emit pollutants tied to respiratory and cardiovascular disease, while some regions draw up to 57 percent of cooling water from potable supplies.
Exposing AI Data Center Threats and Harms