Quiet, Please! How Noise Pollution Could Send You to the Hospital

By Ursula Sautter and Mary Desmond Pinkowish , Ode. Posted July 15, 2008.

A leaf blower, snow blower, lawn mower and two huge dogs -- Peter D'Epiro can describe in excruciating detail how his neighbor's lawn equipment and pets ruined summer afternoons and dinner parties for him and his wife for more than a decade in Ridgewood, New Jersey. But he'd rather not. "I can barely think about that situation without rushing for the Valium or the IV gin drip," he says.

With rising emotion, D'Epiro recalls how the neighbor began "warming up his rider mower, converting our idyllic backyard -- birds, squirrels, crabgrass -- into the sonic equivalent of La Guardia or Heathrow. Yes, he had a large yard, but the job could have been accomplished in 30 minutes, whereas he took, oh, say, six or seven hours on Saturday, often followed by another half-dozen on Sunday." D'Epiro goes on to describe how he and his wife, usually mild-mannered, exceedingly polite people, were reduced to screaming, fist-shaking and cursing in the face of these acoustic offenses.

Noise brings out the worst in human beings -- noisy people have been injured and even killed by their neighbors -- but neighbors are just one source of noise in a world that's increasingly cacophonous. Neighborhoods can turn into battlegrounds when clubs, restaurants, automobile sound systems and parties are acoustically unrestrained. The roadway clamor made by cars and trucks, the oppressive roar of low-flying aircraft, the rumble of commuter trains and the screeching of subway cars compound the challenges of daily life in the city or suburbs. Construction work generates lots of noise, and lots of noise complaints to civil authorities. Indoor sources include ventilation systems, office machines, home appliances, TVs and computer games.

Noise isn't just a nuisance; it's positively bad for us. We've known for decades that super-loud noise can deafen us. But damaged hearing is just the beginning. A jet flying overhead or a snoring bedmate can increase blood pressure and heart rate even when we don't stir from our slumber. Stress hormones surge into the bloodstream. Doctors worry that this chain of events creates health problems when it happens all night long, every night of the week. The ability of children to learn is compromised by noise. Noise may worsen some mental illnesses, and even people without previous mental health issues can become downright crazy when exposed to loud noise.

"We have lost our rights to enjoy our own property without the intrusion of noise," says Ted Rueter, founder and director of Noise Free America, a grassroots outfit dedicated to fighting noise pollution. "Noise is a form of trespassing."

For Les Bloomberg, executive director of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse (NPC), the whole idea of what constitutes noise needs to change. "The old definition of noise was 'unwanted sound,'" he says. "But we define noise as any sound that impacts or harms the health of people. This definition is more consistent with definitions of other forms of pollution, including air pollution."

Global warming notwithstanding, environmental pollution is easing. In most developed countries, the air and water are cleaner than they were 30 years ago. Noise pollution, in contrast, is getting worse. Now people are getting mad as hell -- and they aren't going to take it anymore.

Complaints about noise pollution are mounting, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In Europe, 40 percent of the population is exposed to daytime road noise exceeding 55 decibels (dBA), and 20 percent of people spend their days listening to noise that exceeds 65 dBA. According to the American Speech-Language Association, 60 dBA is about the noise level generated by a typical dishwasher. So imagine sitting next to a running dishwasher all day.

WHO data also show that 30 percent of Europeans are forced to sleep in environments with noise that exceeds 55 dBA every night, a level known to disrupt sleep. The European Federation for Transport and Environment estimates that 44 percent of Europeans, more than 200 million people, are exposed to health-threatening noise levels.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that to prevent hearing loss, people should be exposed to no more than 70 decibels of environmental noise in a 24-hour period. But the EPA acknowledges that noise exceeding 55 decibels outdoors and 45 decibels indoors interferes with work and conversation and annoys people. And that annoyance is becoming more pronounced. Of those who participated in the U.S. Census in 2000, nearly one-third complained of noise. More than 10 percent rated the noise as bothersome, and of these, 40 percent said they wanted to move because of noise.

The WHO reports that transportation -- road, rail and air traffic -- is the major source of noise pollution. Things haven't changed much in the past few thousand years. The ancient Romans suffered so much from the noise made by iron-wheeled wagons driven over stone pavements that they enacted laws to regulate the use of these vehicles. This is a continuing legacy in the city of Rome. Virtually every review of Rome's hotels makes note of the amount of traffic and road noise guests can expect.

"It is important to differentiate between effects like hearing loss and stress effects like high blood pressure, because two different sound sources are concerned," says Wolfgang Babisch, senior research officer at the German Federal Environmental Agency in Berlin. "On the one hand, there is industrial noise and leisure-activity noise -- things such as rock concerts, discos and iPod use -- that can cause various degrees of hearing loss and/or tinnitus [a persistent ringing in the ears]. Studies have shown, for instance, that noise levels of more than 100 decibels are absolutely normal on today's dance floors, and young people often complain of hearing problems as a result. On the other hand, there is the so-called environmental noise caused by road or aircraft traffic. Since the sound level is lower in these instances, there are usually no adverse effects on hearing. But they can affect the whole organism by triggering stress responses."

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Mary Desmond Pinkowish is a health writer living the quiet life in Larchmont, New York.

Ursula Sautter is a freelance journalist living in Bonn, Germany.

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