Costco Connection - August 2012

health for your

MEDIA BAKERY

Noise pollution has lasting health effects

By Penny Musco

THE WORD “NOISE” is derived from the Latin word nausea, and little wonder: The World Health Organization’s “Guidelines for Community Noise” says noise literally is making us sick. Hearing loss, cardiovascular disease, impaired task performance and sleep disturbances are among its numerous adverse health effects, making noise a pervasive public health problem.

Unfortunately, the cacophony that bombards us daily—from jet planes down to our iPods—often goes unnoticed. “Our nervous system evolved as a way to alert us to threats in the environment, so when we hear sound, our brains interpret it as the possibility of a threat,” explains Costco member Dr. Louis Hagler, whose 2007 report, published in the Southern Medical Journal, summarized scientific studies on the subject. Although our bodies still respond in harmful ways, “we’ve become so surrounded by noise that we basically don’t even recognize it anymore,” he says.

It was the Industrial Revolution that
jump-started the rise in decibel level, main-
tains George Prochnik, author of In Pursuit of
Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of
Noise (Doubleday, 2010). “Manufactured
noise” was introduced, and the invention of
automobiles and aircraft only added to the
din. Eventually, Prochnik says, people tried to
“control noise by making their own noise”—
with blaring car radios, boomboxes, personal
listening devices and even background music
in restaurants. He notes that the result is
“we’ve allowed our public spaces to become
sonic dumping grounds.”

Know your noises

“Noise-caused hearing loss is the most
common preventable hearing loss,” says
Gordon Hughes, a board-certified ear, nose
and throat doctor—a loss that he says is invis-
ible, cumulative and gradual. “It’s like sun:
Skin cancers from sun don’t appear for
decades, and usually the result of noise dam-
age doesn’t appear for decades.”
He gives everyday examples of how the
combination of sound intensity and duration
of contact wreaks havoc on our ears. A hair
dryer, for instance, can reach 120 decibels
(dB). But since it’s usually held away from the
head and for only a few minutes, repeated use
is most likely not a problem (but he does rec-
ommend using the lowest setting). Operating
a power drill, though, at 100 dB, for an hour,
perhaps in a small workspace where sound
reverberates, can lead to trouble. So can the
repetitive racket of lawn mowers and leaf
blowers.

Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

AUGUST 15 IS National Relaxation Day, and a good time to launch your own pursuit of silence.

; Make ear protection available for recreation and home use for the entire family, and teach children good listening habits (www. noisyplanet.nidcd.nih.gov).

; Enhance your aural experience in nature ( www.nature.nps.gov/sound/ enhance.cfm).

; Promote hearing-friendly work-
places ( www.osha.gov/SLTC, search
“hearing conservation”; www.cdc.gov,
search “noise pollution”) and
schools ( quietclassrooms.org).