  The attenuation of phonon modes of the DNA is due to the exchange of water
molecules adsorbed by a molecule of DNA and the bulk solvent. Using Maxwell's
mechanism of relaxation and a simple lattice model of the DNA, we show that the
attenuation tends to a constant value for phonon frequencies larger than the
inverse residence time of water molecules. We come to the conclusion that in
the THz range the attenuation could be small enough to allow the propagation of
the phonon modes.
