Eric Zwerling

“If [datacenters] are designed and properly built, they can be relatively quiet. On the other hand, if there is no consideration to the sound emissions from the facility, the facility can have impacts that are virtually catastrophic to the people nearby.”

Eric Zwerling · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-28

Zwerling said properly designed datacenters can be quiet but facilities that ignore sound emissions can have catastrophic impacts on nearby residents.

“My personal opinion – not that of Rutgers and the center, [is] the permissible sound levels for sources such as this need to be re-evaluated according to the correct state of knowledge on the impact.”

Eric Zwerling · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-28

Zwerling expressed his personal opinion, distinct from Rutgers, that permissible sound levels need re-evaluation based on current research.

“It’s 50 years since then – there’s been a lot more research on the impacts of low frequency,”

Eric Zwerling · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-28

Zwerling noted that significantly more research on the impacts of low-frequency sound has been conducted in the 50 years since federal noise regulation began.