Enough Already, The Noise Is Killing Me!

September 13th, 2009

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Few of us who read the news on a regular basis remain unaware of the effects that air pollution can have on our health. In general, the media has done a good job in reporting this information. Our governments have also lead efforts for a number of years to get smoke stacks cleaned and to enforce vehicle testing to ensure that the higher levels of harmful gases and particles that result from burning fuel inefficiently are recognized and corrected.

In contrast, a form of pollution for which we have heard far less is noise pollution. In the past, less publicity and government action on this topic was to be expected given the smaller number of people that it affected and the less-than-complete knowledge that we have had up until recently. However, now that research is starting to understand the significance that noise pollution can have on our health, it is important that we push our governments to enact appropriate regulation to minimize the health effects.

By far the most frequent source of noise pollution that many of us will face is noise from traffic. With roughly 90% of those in Britain and Australia and roughly 80% of those in Canada and the US living in cities, the majority of the population is constantly experiencing some level of background noise from automobiles. While some areas of the suburbs are often very quiet and staying inside in a well insulated house can reduce exposure, many people living in the busier areas of cities have few options in reducing the personal exposure to noise pollution. As well, many of the low frequency sounds from traffic can travel though most building materials to reach our bodies.

So what does noise pollution do to our bodies?

According to research published in the Environmental Health Journal by researchers at Lund University Hospital, high levels of noise can have a number of effects on the bodies of even people who are relatively young or middle aged. Some of these effects include hypertension or high blood pressure as well as changes in heart rate and levels of stress hormones in the blood. Based on this research, noise at levels above 60 decibels can cause these effects. When you consider that 60 decibels is the level of normal conversation or of a dishwasher running, it is not what most of call loud noise that is having these effects.

Specifically from the research, the scientists found that noise levels above 60 decibels increased the risk of high blood pressure by 25% while levels above 64 decibels increased the risk by 90%. Both of these noise levels are within the range of normal conversation and a running dishwasher mentioned previously. The researchers do not yet know, but theorize that the noise causes increased stress levels and interruptions in sleep that lead to the high blood pressure.

This finding is important because high blood pressure can result in heart attack, stroke, eye damage, kidney failure, and congestive heart failure.

While some may be skeptical, the Lund University research is not the only new information on the subject. Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden released a report earlier this year that analyzed several years of heart attack data from the early 1990s. They found that those with exposure to only 50 decibels of traffic noise had a 40% increase in risk of heart attack. Now 50 decibels is only about the noise level of average rainfall so it would seem that our systems are very sensitive to levels of background noise.

Imagine then the results that scientists found in a study of people living with aircraft noise around Heathrow airport. The research effort, led by Imperial College London, monitored the sleep of these people living moderately close to the airport and determined that levels as low as 35 decibels ‘noticeably’ increased blood pressure even without the patients changing their level of consciousness. The overall findings of the study were that an increase of only a very small 10 decibels in noise volume resulted in a 14% increase in risk of high blood pressure. This demonstrates that we are indeed very sensitive to higher levels of noise.

With urban populations still growing as people move from the country to the city and the numbers of people exposed to higher levels of noise increasing, the importance of reigning in noise pollution is also increasing. As much as 40% of the population of the EU is exposed to average noise levels in excess of 55 decibels. For these people, the health risks imposed by noise pollution are not negligible. Like other forms of environmental pollution, we need to do our best to reduce the production of the pollution and get our governments to enforce regulation.

In case you think you can move to the country to get away from it all, consider that low frequency noise wind farms may soon follow you as we slowly ramp up wind production. While you may get in a few years of better sleep by moving away, its just never easy to avoid these problems.

Do you experience noise pollution on an all-to-regular basis? Do you think it is making you ill? Have you taken any special action to avoid the effects?

Related Links

http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/dispPage.jsp?cw_page=media_21nov2006_e

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tY7GTuivONTNuoceJKe-qTg

http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/disorders/noise.htm

http://www.rcaanews.org/noiselev.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8247217.stm

http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?l=en&d=130&a=69349&newsdep=130

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_13-2-2008-10-14-29

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