Noise Pollution

July 4, 2007

The warm temperatures are back, and windows are flying open across the land to let in the breezes. Most of us welcome this seasonal change, except for one thing. The noise.
Let’s give a big hearty congratulations to those living in more rural areas, because they’re the lucky ones. As far as the suburbs and the cities go, the increase in noise levels is directly proportional to the increase in population, and it’s easy to see that that’s on the rise, especially in the cities.
Some of the human-made noises are a result of societal changes in other areas, such as the decrease in manners that’s been becoming more and more evident. A portion of the accompanying mechanical noises are probably a natural (if unwelcome) occurance, as people instinctively look for the easiest ways to do things. A lot of these easy ways involve motors and other not-necessarily-quiet methods. But these shortcuts are also creating a nation of people who are lazier - and more inconsiderate - than ever.

WEED-WHACKERS
Let’s take the average small town house or apartment. On any given day in any suburban neighborhood, you’ll likely be barraged by a variety of sounds, inside and out, that you’d just as soon rather not hear: keening lawnmowers and weed-whackers, car and house stereos so loud you can identify the song in the next house with the windows closed, dogs barking, and people talking to each other as if they were yelling across a crowded room, even though they’re merely strolling along the sidewalk.
Add in a few car alarms and sirens flaring, the loud hums of the neighborhood power station and random air conditioners, the quieter but mosquito-like annoyance of fluorescent lights, an endless parade of construction equipment and garbage trucks, children screaming as if they’re falling down a well, tiny and whiny street-cleaning mini-vehicles, motorcycles and cars with inexplicably amped-up exhaust systems, low-flying aircraft, and, perhaps worst of all, those frustratingly prevalent leaf-blowers that appear to be in great daily-use demand even though a rake can do the same job with more healthful benefits (aka exercise) for the user. Whew. And we haven’t even mentioned one of the most quickly-growing noise polluters out there - those ubiquitous cell phones.

LINES CROSSED
Our cell phones are terrific and useful, great in emergencies, fantastic for keeping up with friends and a boon to making your out-of-the-office workday run more smoothly. But now that there’s a cell phone in nearly everyone’s pocket, all of the courtesy lines have been crossed, meaning people are sharing their conversations (usually loudly) while they’re in restaurants, coffeeshops, and even at the checkout line at the grocery (yes, that person ringing up your purchases is a person - yes, you’re being rude).
You’ll hear hip-hop ringtones on quiet nature trails, gossip between phoning pals in dressing rooms while they’re trying on clothes, that now-familiar Nokia ringtone at the movies, and people loudly setting up the next leg of their travel plans while they’re still on the runway in airplanes.
The word is thought to be taken from the Latin words “noceo” - meaning “I do harm” - and “nausea,” and noise is perhaps one of the most unrecognized pollutants today. It may not be serious to the health of our planet, as so many other larger concerns are, but noise is still, more and more, affecting the quality of human health in slow, insidious ways.
Problems caused by constantly high levels of noise pollution include much more than the nausea you’ll get having to put up with your noisy neighbor for the 10th day in a row - excessive and unwanted noise has been found to cause stress, aggression, hypertension, high blood pressure, sleep loss, distraction and lost productivity, and, in more extreme cases, gradual hearing loss. Surprisingly, noise pollution can also harm wildlife; high noise levels can interfere with the natural cycles of animals, including feeding behavior, breeding rituals, and migration paths.
And the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has recently discovered that even our underwater worlds are becoming noisier places, with research showing that there’s been a tenfold increase in underwater ocean noise since the 1960s, due to an increase in the global shipping trade, a greater number of ships due to population, and the higher speeds and propulsion of individual boats.
Simply put, the excess of noise that we humans so casually make is litter, broadcast into the air.

DECIBEL LEVELS
To put it into perspective, things like normal conversation, birds chirping, telephones ringing, and regular, calm traffic are at what’s considered a “safe” level of 60-80 db (decibels.) A recent article by CNN cites that the risk range for hearing loss begins at around 85 db - and included in this range are motorcycles, lawn mowers, hand drills, and chainsaws.
The actual injury range starts at 120 db, and includes sirens, jet engines at takeoff, and shotgun blasts.
Also to be considered is the length of time you’re forced to listen to the noise. It might seem a little unexpected, but research done by the Mayo Clinic notes that noises that rank lower on the decibel scale but that continue for a longer period of time may be more harmful to your hearing and health than a louder noise that’s an occasional thing.
So can anything be done? Or are we simply bound to seal ourselves into our earplugs or self-controlled, low-volume headphones on a daily basis, blocking out extraneous noise as much as we are able to?
Up until the 1970s, the government was thought to view noise as more of a nuisance than as an actual environmental problem; the U.S. Noise Control Act of 1972 empowered the EPA to determine the limits of noise required to protect public health and welfare. Just a few years later, in the early ‘80s, funding for these efforts were severely cut, making enforcement far more lax.

FEDERAL STANDARDS
Today in the U.S., awareness of noise levels is finally increasing again, and there are now federal standards for aircraft and highway noise. Hybrid vehicles are usually quieter than regular vehicles, another great reason to make them your next vehicle purchase.
Urban and suburban planning is, more and more, taking noise buffers into consideration, and most cities and towns now have some semblance of a noise ordinance. But it’s still a tricky line to tread on a personal level. Most people aren’t aware of their legal right to file a noise complaint - and many simply don’t want to be typecast as the complaining neighbor, the difficult business owner, or the disgruntled restaurant guest. As a result, many people simply put up with the noise around them, which, of course, perpetuates the situation and allows it to grow and grow into the monster that it is today.

ORGANIZING
There are official organizations that exist for the sole purpose of noise pollution reduction and control - Noise Free America (www.noisefree.org), The Citizens Coalition Against Noise Pollution (www.noiseoff.org), The Right to Quiet Society (www.quiet.org), and the NAS (the Noise Abatement Society at www.noiseabatementsociety.com.) It is always good to organize citizens for a common cause, especially one that affects so many people - but what it comes down to, really, is an exchange of common courtesy. If you wouldn’t want to be rudely awakened on a Saturday by your neighbor’s lawn mower at 8 a.m., then don’t play your music loudly on Friday night at 11 p.m. If you’re talking and using your cell phone because you’re not enjoying the movie that you’ve gone to see with your friends - well, think of the last movie that you did enjoy, and how you’d feel if it was interrupted by gabbing people behind you.
And if you’ve got any doubt at all whether or not you’re bothering others with the noise you’re making - well, then, you probably are. “Do unto others” is perhaps one of the best precepts out there, and it’s especially applicable to something like the auditory pollution we’re subjected to as our society grows in population - and in noise.