Alves-Pereira, M. Castelo Branco, N. Scientific Arguments Against Vibroacoustic Disease
Inter-Noise 2007, 28-31 August, 2007. Istanbul Turkey
Mariana Alves-Pereira, Nuno A.A.Castelo Branco
For the past 27 years, the multi-disciplinary scientific team, led by author NCB, has been investigating the effects of Infrasound and Low Frequency Noise (ILFN, <500 Hz) on biological tissue, in human and animal models. The clinical pathology caused by excessive exposure to ILFN is called vibroacoustic disease (VAD). Despite the considerable amount of data collected to date, the debilitating effects of VAD are not yet acknowledged by the vast majority of the medical and scientific communities.
Consequently, individuals exposed to ILFN are not afforded any protection against this physical agent of disease. This report will deconstruct the most common scientific arguments employed by mainstream scientists against the acknowledgement of VAD as a unique clinical entity.
Both the physical understanding of acoustics and the mechanical understanding of biological systems are sine qua non conditions for comprehending the interaction of acoustical phenomena with biological tissue. Among several others, common arguments include 1) “what you can’t hear won’t hurt you”; 2) it is not biologically possible to have collagen growth without a concomitant inflammatory process; and 3) no abnormalities are detected with the majority of routine medical diagnostic tests.
These issues involve key concepts that are required for understanding VAD as a pathological entity.