Noise Pollution: The Not-So-Silent Killer

As the world gets louder, quiet places disappear & we can no longer escape noise and its damaging effects.

Every year my family gathers in Las Vegas, Nevada where my grandparents reside. We spend time on the strip, gawking at extravagant displays of glamour and glitz. But when we tire of the bright lights and loud crowds, which we do, my father and I head to a place called Ice Box Canyon. It’s in the middle of a beautiful hiking area and, as soon as we get away from the main trails, dead silent. We stop in our tracks — the silence filling our ears — and just appreciate how the absence of sound makes our bodies feel.

Rock and roll ain’t noise pollution, but traffic noise, whirring transformers, and constant conversation are.

Since the 1972 Noise Control Act, the federal government has been protecting the American people from the danger of noise pollution. In it, they professed that too much noise is bad for our health and welfare. It also established some federal regulations for noise emissions for products and plans to research noise control.

But the enforcement of noise control itself is up to states and cities. They create the ordinances that tell us when, where, and how much sound is considered too much or “excessive”. But the language of these ordinances is subjective and enforcement is convoluted.

Citizens have little control over the noise they encounter. Their options are to interact with the local government’s complex complaint process (you cannot complain about a barking dog in the same place you can complain about traffic noise and both noise levels are difficult to measure) or take matters into their own hands and soundproof their home. The second option leaves them stranded in a quiet island of their own making, if the soundproofing works at all.

“Quiet places,” says the acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton, “have been on the road to extinction at a rate that far exceeds the extinction of species.” — Why Everything Is Getting Louder, The Atlantic

In the article Why Everything Is Getting Louder, they describe a Texas man who called the police to put an end to the music blasting through his walls at 2 am. When they were unsuccessful at quieting the noise, the man took matters into his own hands and shot his neighbor three times. That’s not the only neighborly acoustic incident that ended in murder…in Texas. Sad stories like this happen all over. Unwanted sounds do something to our minds.

Have you heard of the Quiet Space Detectives? Probably not, because I just made that up to describe those using Hush City, a new (and real) crowd-sourcing app to hunt for low decibel areas in loud cities. Imagine small crowds of people rushing through the streets of New York City. You’d think of a new play opening or a train about to leave, but they are rushing to catch relative silence.

“The idea behind Hush City is that users can log on to find out where to seek refuge from the blare of urban living…it can read like a treasure map, with the prize being sweet relief of the city’s sonic assault.” — My Quixotic Quest for Quiet in New York City, City Lab

It’s no wonder that New Yorkers are running around searching for quiet islands in their city. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) standard for daytime noise is 55 decibels. New York midtown traffic averages 85 decibels, and popular restaurants average 96 decibels, with averages rising in lower income areas. WHO has proven the dangers of noise pollution and deemed it a public health risk (beyond shooting your neighbor). Apps like Hush City, help people find pockets of quiet to calm the nerves in a chaotic, noisy world. And our world is getting noisier. Because of population in cities, the way we use data, and the way we consume, our planet is humming with constant conversation, cooling centers, and delivery trucks.

Most of our built world wasn’t made for the sounds of today. If you live in a home that was built in 1970 or earlier, the materials may not be up to the task of reducing the noise pollution of the modern world. More historic homes have less chance of preventing noise pollution from entering their walls. So, not only are we living with this noise humming around us all day, but we are carrying it into our homes.

“Environmental noise exposure is responsible for a range of health effects, including increased risk of ischaemic heart disease as well as sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment among children, annoyance, stress-related mental health risks, and tinnitus.” — World Health Organization

Noise is killing us. But when we think of health trends, we don’t think of a noise cleanse. “5 ways to Reduce Noise Pollution in Your Home” is not a headline likely to flash on your screen. We are watching what we eat and breathe, but we feel like we don’t have control over the sounds in our environment. It’s just invisible garbage that we must consume. Or so we think.

You can reduce noise pollution by soundproofing your personal space. If you’re a homeowner, there are noise pollution solutions you can incorporate into a home remodel. This includes adding insulation to your walls, incorporating area rugs, and sound-absorbing paint. Even installing a new fence or planting trees help with absorbing noise. If you don’t own your home, add acoustic panels that will at least absorb some of the noise that gets through. Get noise-cancelling headphones to wear out and at home. If noise inside your home is bothering you, turn off electronic devices when not in use (except your fridge, you will regret that).

A tranquil space for yourself is invaluable, but this is a communal problem and should be solved collectively. Apps like Hush City bring quiet seekers together. Take your concerns to your community — first to your friends, then to noise review boards, then to city development meetings. Our built space greatly impacts the noise we hear, and planning city projects in a way that prevents noise pollution is a matter of community health and welfare. Soundproofing old buildings so they can be workspaces saves neighbors from construction noise and considers the comfort of the workers. Put pressure on local government to improve noise ordinances and be more proactive at enforcing them. Policy needs to keep up with the changing environment — some ordinances haven’t been updated for 30 years.

Solitude should not be the only place we avoid the dangers of noise pollution. Taking off your headphones and interacting with the world should not be scary. Noise has driven neighbors to murder. Perhaps isolation isn’t the answer, but working together as a community to prevent noise pollution through strategic design and updating noise ordinances. Bring quiet back into community spaces — the noise revolution is a quiet one.