Mining almost ruined my health

Haven't been around here much lately, and that's because I've been dealing with some health problems that just won't quit. Turns out, the source of my issues might be right at home. Since 2022, I've been mining Ethereum using a bunch of GPUs, and when ETH mining ended, I switched to another platform and convert what I mine back to BTC. My setup is over 1GH with an S19 ASIC miner connected to viabtc, but I had this rig set up in my room while the ASIC was down in a basement-like storage area. I couldn't connect them due to heat concerns. I've noticed I've been feeling really weak. Getting out of bed in the morning is a struggle, and I can't even lift a bucket of water like I used to. I've had cramps, headaches, nausea, and dizziness. I went to the hospital, and the doctor told me to get some blood tests. One of the first questions he asked was if I worked in a coal factory, and it struck me that my mining rigs might be the culprit. I had to spill everything to him, and he prescribed some meds while advising me to stay away from my rigs. After weeks of battling fatigue and dizziness, I'm finally starting to feel better, but I ended up building another block just to have my own space. If you're thinking of sleeping in the same room as your miners, keep it to a minimum and manage the heat. I can't help but think that if I had stopped at my first 400MH rig, I may have avoided all this. BTC is important, but don't forget to take care of yourself.

Sorry to hear that. I appreciate the warning, although i doubt it'll last time since i recall another forum member got similar health problem due to heat of mining rig.

The title of your topic immediately caught my attention. At first, I assumed it was about an incident, perhaps a fire or explosion in your mining setup. But what actually happened to you is truly a wakeup call and a serious warning to all miners out there who build their setups near their beds or spend extended periods close to their mining devices. Honestly, I never imagined that this kind of exposure could interfere with the human body and potentially lead to illness or health risks. I would really like to understand more about how this might affect the body. What’s the worst that could happen if someone doesn't maintain a safe distance, or someone who never thought about the reason behind his sickness? What kinds of health issues or diseases could it potentially cause?

There are some health-related issues that could arise from having a dozen electronics running 24/7 in the place where you sleep. Most of these problems happen when there's inadequate ventilation in the room, or due to volatile organic compounds emitted from dust burning off hot GPUs or melting plastic. Depending on the size of your setup, I’d say it's generally safe to host a small rig in your room as long as you keep it dust-free and well-ventilated. Obviously, with a mining rig running in your room, dust can become a serious issue — it’s basically a dust collector, which can be risky if not handled properly. So again, the main points are keeping things dust-free and making sure there's good airflow. ASICs are a different story. You get the same shit I mentioned above, plus noise pollution. That constant low-frequency hummmmmm from those small fans can really get into your head.

I like mining, but I don't like it enough to sleep with it

Your advice is welcome and taken this is a lesson to everyone on the forum because most of the electronics and even smart phones that we use contain lead, another elements that are harmful to our health so too much explore to them is dangerous to our health infact only our android hones that we use has a great effect on our health because it emits reactive particles when when we are making calls dues to sound waves so we all should learn make take very good care of ourselves. But the signs and symptoms that you mentioned may be due to other illnesses so it proper that you monitor your health and see your doctor regularly because it can be a different sickness that you may be having because one thing about health is that different sickness can be having the same symptoms

From OP's story, I'd assume he's done that already. He mentioned blood test and so on, so it's very likely that the main reasons have been identified. Not to mention the symptoms disappear after he started to build a room for his sleep and take medicine. Anyway, hope you get better soon, OP.

Are you sure it was the heat ?  Could be also constant fan noise and exposition to electric field.

Volatile organic compounds is what I would say is the culprit here. Weakness almost always ends up bring something to with the heart, lungs or blood. VOC are well known to cause issues in all three of them. Definitely staying away from the site of mining will begin the first step - reducing the exposure. Another reason could be less deep sleep from the sound once again reduce the exposure.

Have you, in the meantime, also had COVID? Those sound like some of their long-term side effects.

Hope you are recovered now. Did you test radiation coming out of your rig? I am not scientist, but still its really weird. I was planing on creating a rig with second hand GPUs, but the high cost electricity make me drop my plan.

Here is a thread back in 2014 of a user who complained about his mining room causing him sore throat which some responded to be as a result of dry air. The signs he mentioned shows he had a cardiovascular disease for inhaling PCB air from the mining rig. The symptoms of such a diseases are Fatique, Dizziness, shortness of breath etc. Perhaps I got to know of PCB from the thread link I shared above, continuous inhaling of PCB air causes all forms of sicknesses including hypertension, and dyslipidemia - imbalance of blood lipid. It also increases the risk of metabolic disorder caused by insulin resistance and the most dangerous about inhaling this air is that it causes a higher rate of carcinogenic risk in the body, which contributes to cancer. Spending lesser hours in a room filled with mining rigs is the best approach to avoid these illnesses, as the air could accumulate in the body for too many years.   Go through this research for further understanding of PCB and its harmfulness to the human body: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9657815/

I've been checked out and I am fine, I no longer have those problems in my system anymore, how did you find this very weird? You want to explain this better? Maybe all you need is to pretend like you are in my shoe to understand, my rigs were emitting heat and it doesn't bother me, keep sleeping in the same room as my rig, at first I don't notice anything but after I added more rig I started feeling strange. There is nothing weird about this, it's clearly not healthy to keep mining rigs close to your bed where you sleep at night and all day along, it nearly destroyed all my metabolism.

PCB's (Polychlorinated Biphenyls) are not the cause. Per the link shared above So, there is zero chance of them being present in a miner. Because of that fact - why even bring it up? That said, in an enclosed area the heated dust which contains mold, pollen, spores and other things that accumulates on the heatsinks certainly *CAN* cause health issues.

I never knew that one could get this kind of health challenge from being in the same room as their mining rig. First sorry about it. I'm glad you now know better. Also, thank you for letting us know about this. At least now I know better and I would keep it in mind both for myself and for advice for anyone who plans to do this as well. Lastly, if you can, limit going to the rig for now. If there's someone that can do it in your place that would be great.

1GH of Ethereum hashrate and S19 Asic miner is a very small amount of equipment to be near it constantly. 1 I had more than 1GH and sometimes I did not approach the video cards for more than 3 months, but watched remotely.

Please read further don't just stop were you concluded, the ban of PCB in 2004 didn't eliminate it completely. Between in present day most electronics still have it in them. I brought it up so people could read till the end not just rush to respond.

I did read the whole thing and yes many devices built before 2004 may have PCB's but miners did not exist until around 2010 so I stand by my statement. I've been involved in the design of electronic devices from initial concept through their production since the early 1970's and remember very well the transition to replacing PCB's in components. Unlike some restricted/banned materials such as lead there are no edge cases (usually military and aerospace applications) that allow their use. In the USA the last edge cases were stopped around 1985. I can safely assure you that NO electronics built anywhere in the world after 2004 have any at all. As for them still being in the environment - of course they are and it will take at least several more decades before they are greatly reduced. Thing is, that has nothing to do with this case.

Not only that, shut every electronic device off when you are about to sleep. I mean everything. Don’t let anything even be on standby. Put your phone in some other room and either shut it off or put it on flight mode. Why? While computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones might not be as harmful as ASiC miners, but they still radiate energy, transmitting signals etc. These devices mess your sleep patterns up and in the long run it messes your body clock up. You may not notice anything when you are a youngster but these stuff get more important as you get older.

I think that you need to take into account the particularities of your health first. The personnel who service the mining farms sleep in rooms with a lot of noise. Lots of radio wave radiation from cell towers, television towers and others.