Why Noise Pollution Is Slowly Killing Us All
Woman with closed eyes covering her ears in the street while vehicles are passing by fast in the background. Stressful and frustrating.
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Given the growing cacophony of noise pollution here on planet Earth, maybe it’s a good thing that in space no one can hear you scream, as the “Alien” film franchise so aptly points out. It’s not just undersea noise negatively affecting our planet’s marine life. Noise is also affecting terrestrial wildlife reserves and natural parks.
And on a day-to-day basis, human-generated noise is literally endangering both the mental and physical health of a large swath of the global population.
It’s a point repeatedly made clear in “Clamor: How Noise Took Over The World And How We Can Take It Back,” by science journalist Chris Berdik. The author provides us with a comprehensive and well-crafted narrative of the history of noise pollution as well as what hope we have in countering this threat.
As anyone who’s experienced the din of a busy airport, freeway or even Manhattan at rush hour can attest, noise linked to transportation can be overwhelming.
In fact, a 2020 report by the European Environment Agency linked noise from transportation and other sources to some 48,000 new cases of heart disease and 12,000 premature deaths across the European continent every year, Berdik writes.
As For The U.S.?
According to the American Public Health Association, noise could be putting the health of more than 100 million Americans at risk, Berdik writes.
And there’s little escape at the office. Open concept office designs have only made the problem worse.
By 2017, at least 70 percent of American offices were open plan in design despite mounting evidence that the racket it produced drove employees crazy and hampered their job performance, writes Berdik. But regardless of office type, thousands of workers have found links between self-reported workplace noise and more days spent sick at home, Berdik notes.
Noise pollution also negatively affects wildlife.
As Berdik points out, biologists at California Polytechnic State University spent several years studying the effects of noise on the flora and fauna of Rattlesnake Canyon in northwest New Mexico which hosts a plethora of natural gas wells, Berdik writes.
The researchers found that the natural gas wells that also had noisy compression stations drove away two bird species, the Woodhouse Scrub Jay and Mountain Bluebirds, Berdik notes. Both species are key seed distributors for the canyon’s primary tree species — the Pinyon Pine and the Utah Juniper, Berdik notes.
Unnecessary Noise
And all too often, we generate insane amounts of noise for no good reason.
As I can personally attest, in the mid-1980s Manhattan restauranteurs started thinking diners would prefer to eat in restaurants that offered all the acoustics of a busy industrial warehouse. Open kitchens, high ceilings and cement floors wreaked havoc on decibel levels. But it was a pattern that was repeated nationwide and still pervades most urban restaurants.
Urban cafes are also some of the worst offenders.
In addition to the noise their machines make while whipping up lattes and frappuccinos, their usual floor design is such that the acoustics are horrific. In addition, there’s the constant drone of music at ridiculously high levels. That’s strange, since most people are usually there to work on their laptops or check their phones in relative tranquility.
Sadly, public libraries are no longer refuges of quiet as they are now functioning as de facto community centers. In the U.S., at least, people who want to work in peace and relative quiet must pay for that privilege at woefully overpriced co-working establishments.
Soundscape Design
Despite Berdik’s plea for soundscapes designed for public spaces, I say why introduce more sound when less sound would do?
Let me remind you of the healing powers of silence.
There’s nothing like pulling a vehicle over to the side of a two-lane blacktop and stepping out into the complete silence of a desert landscape. And anyone who’s had the privilege of skiing in an empty high mountain pass can also attest to the peaceful crunch of snow beneath one’s feet.
Can natural sounds counter noise pollution?
It’s a point that Berdik makes repeatedly in his book. As he notes, a 2022 study by environmental neuroscientists at Berlin’s Max Planck Institute found that only six minutes of recorded birdsong reduced measures of depression and anxiety in listeners.
In contrast, people subjected to recorded traffic noise came to feel more depressed, writes Berdik.
There has been a myriad of noise mitigation strategies put forth over the last few decades. But I’m not as sanguine as Berdik about ways to win the war on noise pollution. It’s both insidious and a blatant threat to our collective sanity.
But what’s perhaps most distressing about this problem is that it’s woefully underappreciated and in comparison to other pressing environmental issues rarely gets much attention. Yet in his book, Berdkik reminds us of what’s at stake.
The Bottom Line?
“Clamor” is an important work that deserves to be read and used as a springboard for serious discourse about this burgeoning problem that cuts across almost every aspect of global society.
Quiet is indeed vital, and it’s disappearing; sonic tranquility is fast becoming a luxury product for those who can afford it, Berdik writes.