Killer Noise: The Growing Clamor About a Global Menace
by Sara Tucker
The world is experiencing a noise pandemic, one that is literally killing birds, whales, and yes, people. And it is getting worse every year.
Traffic is the big culprit. Car alarms, lawnmowers, radios, and construction equipment add to the din, fraying nerves and raising tempers in places as far-flung as Paris, Buenos Aires, and Cairo.
Human noise has spilled over into the oceans, where marine mammals are under auditory siege from seagoing vessels, seismic surveys, and military sonar.
In Japan, the "way of silence" venerated by Zen scholars has fallen victim to a plague of loudspeakers, says longtime Japan observer Ronald E. Yates. A national fondness for the PA system has resulted in a bombardment of "announcements, sales pitches, warnings, reminders, and commentaries--all from loudspeakers which have been placed strategically just about everywhere humans might eat, sleep, work or roam."
The loudest city in America is said to be San Francisco, where "noise from traffic is putting nearly 1 in 6 San Francisco residents at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure and other stress-related illnesses."
Too much noise "can literally suck the life out of you," Salon reports. "Recent studies reveal that noise can be harmful to human health, just like water or air pollution, damaging not only hearing and sleep but raising our blood pressure to dangerous levels. According to the World Health Organization, noise pollution is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths a year."
How do we cope?
We turn up the volume. The residents of Cairo, where a 2007 study by the Egyptian National Research Centre found that the average noise during waking hours is a bit louder than a freight train 15 feet away, residents "shout to be heard, and shrug because they say there is nothing they can do but join in, honking, banging, screaming." Meanwhile, New Scientist reports, birds in Berlin sing "up to 14 decibels louder than their forest counterparts, achieving volumes of up to 95 decibels--enough to send humans reaching for ear protection." Robins "have taken to singing at night to avoid the daytime din," a habit that was once attributed to light pollution; more recent analysis has determined that "daytime noise has a much stronger effect."
Whales, lacking such recourse, simply die.
To find out how to measure your own exposure to environmental noise click here. And for a peep at the quietest place on earth, click here.
Further reading:
* Sons de Mar Listen to the ocean's roar (highly recommended)
* City Songbirds Are Changing Their Tune (New Scientist, March 2008)
* World's Quietest Places (ForbesTraveler.com) The Muir Woods, the Gobi Desert, and other soothing places
* Lower the Volume! (Parade, 2006) How to prevent noise-induced hearing loss, which affects as many as 10 million Americans
* San Francisco Traffic Noise Risks Health of 1 in 6 (San Francisco Chronicle, October 2008)
* A City Where You Can't Hear Yourself Scream (New York Times, April 2008)
* NoiseOff.org Web site of the Coalition Against Noise Pollution
* World Health Organization Web pages on noise and health
* Noisiest Nation in the World? (Eyes on Japan)
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