Article contentHistory shows us that for the past century or so the ventilation fans in our coal mining communities have never resulted in documented complaints about harmful sound waves annoying, or causing physical or mental harm to, the tens of thousands of residents living near the mines. History also shows us that when the Donkin Mine was operated by the Cape Breton Development Corporation (DEVCO), from the mid 1980s to 1992, the people of the Donkin-Morien area made no complaints about low frequency fan noise. For the eight years that Xstrata operated Donkin Mine, in maintenance mode only, there is no evidence that the mine ventilation fans produced any health-harming noise.