I did some research on this as part of my undergrad in the early 00's<p>I skimmed the article but it seems to align with the literature back then. The thinking was during our evolution that high volume low frequency sounds would represent a precursor to mortal danger (avalanches, earthquakes, stampedes, thunder, wind) so we were attuned to secreting stress hormones in early response. Unfortunately, much of our urban built-environment is full of (human-made) constant low-frequency sources, although we appear to have adapted to a degree (HVAC systems in buildings, traffic, industrial process plants, airports and air traffic, explosions, concerts).<p>What isn't mentioned here, that I remember finding particularly concerning, was that while we seem to adapt, it's over our own time, as children we secrete more cortisol to low frequency noise than when we are adults... maybe some form of long term CBT I don't know.<p>I have no idea where my old paper is but I remember (and someone with more time might want to check/confirm this) one important study showed cortisol levels of children at schools close to Heathrow compared to out in the UK countryside and how this affected standardised testing. There were limitations, and of course you had to control for a range of factors, socio-economic, teaching staff etc, but there was some measurable negative effect (again no idea if this was repeated/corroborated).<p>The actual research I was doing was into our auditory perception of urban spaces. We took recordings of various urban settings and had participants listen and rate their emotional responses, if it felt "hot" or "cold" (and other adjective pairs), we also had them draw something to represent what they were listening too.<p>Our "findings" were pretty limited for a short undergrad project but it was interesting how we generally appreciate background chatter and live-music and generally fearful and cold from large flat surface reflected sound (empty city plazas).
This is one of the things I struggle with the most in life. I feel like most people don't seem to care about noise pollution and zero care is put into designing living spaces or cities to minimize it. I've moved into apartments and nearly cried because I realized that there was some noise pollution that wasn't apparent when I visited it (e.g. a water boiler that ran constantly at night, road noise during the day, etc) and would have to deal with it for a year.<p>One of the few countries I've been to that takes noise pollution seriously is Switzerland. A beautifully peaceful and quiet country.
Anyone who has ever lived next to someone with a barking dog knows how the spikes of adrenaline at random times of the day and night can raise stress levels significantly.
I don't know what to do about airplanes, but I want to see cities be designed to rely much less on motor vehicles.<p>"Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8</a><p>"The Suburban Traffic Contradiction" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqQw05Mr63E" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqQw05Mr63E</a>
Anecdata but I recently got headphones with noise cancelling and my quality of life shot through the roof. According to my smartwatch, my heart rate is lower and stress levels are down. Unfortunately, I have to take my headphones off to go to sleep and I'm immediately reminded of the shoddy fridge in my apartment, vent noises, and my neighbor who doesn't realize it's 11:30 PM.
This is one of the top reasons for preferring single-family detached housing. I lived in apartments for many years, and when I moved to a house I felt like I could finally relax for the first time in <i>years</i>.<p>For the people advocating for high density housing to alleviate suburban sprawl and all of its environmental problems, I do appreciate the importance of that, but if I can avoid living in an apartment again I am willing to go to almost any amount of trouble to do that.
I moved to Miami in October of last year and holy shit some people have no respect for personal noise emissions. People in Lambos deliberately revving their engines for no reason other than flexing decibel levels, others in motorcycles doing the same thing - it is truly insane. That, combined with airplanes flying into and out of MIA really make it a fundamentally noisy place to live. I imagine it even causes issues with local ecosystems that are equally or even more susceptible to disturbances due to loud sounds.<p>Need to move to North Beach or something away from the crowds... lol
If we in CA could achieve compliance with the already standing laws against loud exhaust to anywhere near the levels we have with, say, plastic straw riddance, the resulting benefit to society would be drastically superior. I can't think of anything with a lower cost/benefit ratio than just the wholesale confiscation and ban of Harleys.
The sharp beeping sound made by trucks backing up, and now also basically any type of construction vehicle when it moves, is in my opinion one of the great examples of a ham-handed solution to addressing a safety issue with no regard for noise pollution. While it is supposed to warn someone in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle, I can after hear these sharp alarm-like sounds over a block away, often inside my apartment with the windows closed, where I obviously am in no danger of this vehicle.<p>If only a bit if thought had been put into the design of this, such as having a directed sound (a physical bell?) that is clearly audible in the immediate vicinity but does not radiate long distances.<p>What is most frustrating to me is that it seems there is no one you can complain to, no one you can point to and say please fix this, as it obviously is based on some regulatory requirement. If only those who design these type of noise-making devices would be required to also consider noise pollution.<p>And don't even get me started on car alarms...
This is why I left New York City.<p>For some reason, being inside / covid lockdowns did something to my head and now I'm super sensitive to noise. Prior, I lived in Boston for six years generally in very loud (third to fifth floor) apartments with reasonable amounts of street / city noise. Oddly, for a time it actually calmed my ADHD and distracted me enough that I felt I could focus.<p>Initially I was lucky and had a great deal on a 26th floor apt in Hell's Kitchen with decent roommates - something clicked a few years later and I could no longer stand roommate noise (kitchen / dishes / gaming past midnight) and / or late night garbage collection / horns at all hours.<p>I had enough, moved to CO. Have my own space - it's quiet and I get measurably better sleep.<p>Does this make me feel old at 27 - yes. Do I care - no.
Cars, and now when it's warmer, motorcycles. It's incredible how nothing is being done to motherfuckes emitting 10 times the noise of a packed bus. In fact, it's celebrated.<p>How is it fair to allow a single piece of shit to emit orders of magnitude more noise than hundreds of people combined.<p>I complain about it all the time but almost nobody else seems to care. I love motorcycles but I do loathe the majority of riders as they are well beyond inconsiderate. They will do almost anything to emit more noise.
It's hard to take noise pollution seriously when you so much as read the comments here after reading and agreeing with much of the article. Yes I believe living under an airport to be detrimental to anyone's sanity, but yet it devolves quickly into an agoraphobic hand wringing competition going from city sirens, to cars in general, to the neighbors dog barking sporadically. There are prices to pay for living in city centers, suburbs versus living in the woods away from society entirely. We exchange a tranquil peace of living in a shack in Montana vs living in SF/NYC/etc/etc and making more money and all the conveniences that come with living in these cities. What I gather out of a lot of HN comments about noise pollution is a spectrum of desire to be isolated from humans while living in metropolitan areas all the way to being upset that the neighbors kid drives a shitty car or they hate the sounds of animals fighting and barking.
I haven't read the underlying studies but I wonder if this applies to consistent noise or just intermittent sounds, like the airplanes and railway line examples they focus on.<p>Personally I can't sleep in a quiet room, so I put on white noise generator plus usually music or podcasts. I find that subjectively I sleep better with some relaxing sounds. However, it could be possible that my brain isn't properly turning off and I'm just unaware of it.<p>Their possible explanation is that the brain is waking up to process whether a sound is dangerous, which makes sense for intermittent sounds, but you would imagine we're adapted to sleep properly in the presence of semi-intermittent/constant sounds which would be normal in nature.
I just want to throw out that in ear ear plugs, applied correctly, are the reason I can sleep in a multi-person appt in SF. Serious, probably best qol improvement I’ve made
The article is pretty good. I feel like they danced around the issue that it's noise while you're trying to sleep that seems to do most of the damage.<p>Also, just wanted to point out this gem:<p>"Children in loud, loud places like East Oakland are the ones who grow up saying, ‘Can I ax you a question?’"<p>Which someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that that's how that word developed linguistically. It's my understanding that "ask" pronounced "ax" has been around and popped up from time-to-time in a lot of the English-speaking world. It was seen in England pretty far back, but I don't have an exact date or location off the top of my head. I don't think there's any evidence that it's caused by noisy environments.<p>The woman talking about her million dollar house and having to unplug her husband when he menaces their neighbors with his own leaf-blower seems like the sort of person that would be fun to chat with. Just my kind of sense of humor.
This is obvious to those (like me) who get stressed out with excessive noise. Despite having born and brought up in India I could never get used to constant white noise. It stresses me out like crazy.<p>I realised the value of silence the first night in Netherlands. I could physically feel heart go down and mental peace. They take noise levels seriously and it shows!<p>Edit: Details.
As someone with very high noise sensitivity - yes, please more focus on this topic. It's really tough to deal with and "just meditate" etc doesn't cut it as advice.
I recently worked through a bout of stress induced sleep onset insomnia, which my sleep psych suspects was triggered by a series of sleep interruptions over 3 years from horrendous neighbors in the last few years (a party that started at 3 am apparently was what broke the camels back)<p>It took me a month of CBT to break the back of it, and everything is (mostly) back to normal now, but it just blows my mind how insensitive people are to those around them. I just don't understand it.
No one here has mentioned the most horrific noise that has come into existence only a few years ago.<p>I am talking about apps like Facebook, Instagram suddenly playing sound of a video at full blast when it scrolls into view in a feed.<p>God I hate these apps and this thing called smartphone that has taken over our lives.<p>Fuck all this modern shit. We should have never come out of the caves.
This is why airpod pros or similar noise cancelling headphones are worth their weight in gold. After having them in a city environment for more than a week, I realized I'd gladly pay north of $1k for them. If I lose them I will instantly go into a physical Apple store and buy a new pair so I'm not without them for even a day. I can't go back to the normal city noise levels every again. I don't even have music or anything playing most of the time. They also serve the dual purpose of avoiding talking with strangers or panhandlers.
Makes me wonder what kind of society would grow in a designated low-noise city. Electric cars only, no dogs, no lawnmowers, no amplified music after 9pm... no kids? Probably a society rife with purity spirals.
New York’s war on noise over the last 100 years:<p><a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/07/13/nyregion/nyc-noise-timeline.html" rel="nofollow">https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013...</a>
This is a good report that specify how to measure the link between noise and heart/health:
<a href="https://www.rivm.nl/bibliotheek/rapporten/2018-0121.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.rivm.nl/bibliotheek/rapporten/2018-0121.pdf</a><p>EU now require every large train, road and air traffic change to use this guide.<p>Short version:
1) Gather data from health records on the number of people that can be affected by noise by the change
2) Use this is the calculations for the new noise levels for the alternatives proposed
3) This calculations have to be made public, and you have to stay under certain noise levels
I live on a very busy road that sees >15,000 vehicles/day, including 18 wheelers, dump trucks, busses, tankers etc. It is noisy (nevermind the air pollution) from 5:30 AM to 10:30 PM and I don't think local officials really appreciate it. I'd like to capture data, I'd even pay for it, but all of the "sound level" measuring devices are all junky and don't give accurate readings and don't store the data really well. I'm happy to pay for the right device or even better some certified service that can take measurements and create reports but I'm lost here. Any advice?
Why do we still have the beep, beep, beep when trucks back up? We have backup cameras now. Everyone within half a mile is continually alerted that there's a truck backing up or a piece of construction equipment moving.
Relatedly, I was surprised that the noise radar that went up in Paris a couple of months ago didn't get more attention.<p>see:<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/world/europe/france-street-noise.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/world/europe/france-stree...</a><p>and<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/paris-inaugurates-its-first-noise-radar-bid-quieten-its-streets-2022-02-14/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/paris-inaugurates-its-f...</a>
> One of the few countries I've been to that takes noise pollution seriously is Switzerland<p>Not in my experience. From my rented flat overlooking Geneva, when I was working there as a consultant, I used to get the (happy) screams of the kids in the school next door, the thump of heavy metal from the next flat, the whine of aircraft coming in to the airport and the clank of rubbish going down the waste disposal system.<p>All in all, I would rate it noisier than my flat in Wood Green, North London.
there's a muscle called the tensor tympani
the way I learned conscious control was through yawning.
this muscle can be strengthened then can protect from hearing damage.
I'm not in a super quite place - apartment building so we will still hear neighbors occasionally - dragging chairs, kids running back and forth (nothing unreasonable).<p>One that that's helped a lot for us is white noise, good earplugs, and eye cover. Since adopting this 4+ yrs ago I've not even thought about the neighborhood at night.<p>I do wonder if white noise can be considered a stressor, but personally I believe I've had a lot better sleep.
I spent a year working on an automatic volume control product[^1], but this smells of correlation...noise ~ heart damage? The most polluted and stressful places are also the noisiest. And what causes the noise? Burning of jet fuel and hydrocarbons. Leaf blowers are also some of the dirtiest burning engines ever invented.<p>[^1]: <a href="https://wallfly.webflow.io/" rel="nofollow">https://wallfly.webflow.io/</a>
From my own observations, I have the feeling that noise is not very good to me. In the sense that it increases my blood pressure significantly and also puts stress on me. Is it possible to verify that somehow? Like are there devices that measure blood pressure and/or stress hormones frequent and accurate enough to see the effect?
Logically, shouldn't there also be a study taking a look at heart problems and blood pressure levels in people with congenital deafness?<p>We would then be able to separate the effect of noise vs. life stress. Surely, for any study about stress, socioeconomic status should also be a factor.
I live in one of the loudest areas in the planet. I'm not exaggerating when I say without my noise cancelling headphones I would barely be able to do my job. It is also one of the main reasons I don't see myself working on site again.
Sometimes I put on noise canceling headphones when I go out to the street to block traffic noise as it increases my heart rate. I’m also mocked for it.<p>When I need to sleep near a road with traffic I can only with ear wax. The worst are motorcycles.
One of the things I felt caused enormous stress when I was in jail was the ceaseless incredible intensity of the noise. The noise was so loud most of the time that with the TV set to 100% volume it still could not be heard from 1 foot away with your hands cupped behind your ears to focus the sound (a common jail technique to watch TV). I always wondered what damage it was doing, beyond the obvious damage to my hearing.<p>[try setting your TV to 100% volume, put on the news, and sit a foot away and think how loud the surrounding noise has to be for you not to be able to hear the TV at all]
I've always wondered why there's not more R&D going into making power tools quieter, and I wonder if a "sound tax" on products could incentivize it. When selling any item that makes noise, where the noise isn't the intended result of the item (so it doesn't count for, say, speakers), you'd pay a small fee for each db over 70db, or some other level, determined to cause hearing loss, or noise pollution in a somewhat large area.
Noise all the time. Light all the time. Both of these are counter to human living until recently. These physical stresses, plus an infinite number of low level chemical stresses and the progress of modern life feels underwhelming.<p>That said, I have a "weekend home" in Vermont. It's dark. It's quiet. Guests, as well as myself, sleep extra well. Noticeably well.
I think Tom Scott did a video in UK with an area created to absorb airplane noise.<p>The topic of noise pollution from wind turbines also seems similar.
Relevant book:<p>One square inch of silence : one man's search for natural silence in a noisy world, by Gordon Hempton<p><a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/one-square-inch-of-silence-one-mans-search-for-natural-silence-in-a-noisy-world/" rel="nofollow">https://www.worldcat.org/title/one-square-inch-of-silence-on...</a>
For those who do find unnecessary, thoughtless noise unbearable, you might enjoy the movie Noise: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87pHHFMtVE4" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87pHHFMtVE4</a>
Highly recommend getting awesome noise cancelling headphones if you’re sensitive to it, i looove mine (Sony WH1000XM4s) and basically wear them all day. They even do a decent job at low frequency cancellation.
Wrote this during the lockdown.<p><a href="https://thallukrish.medium.com/noise-and-well-being-a9f0b30d55a6" rel="nofollow">https://thallukrish.medium.com/noise-and-well-being-a9f0b30d...</a>
Maybe we need anti-noise insurgency in our cities.<p>Find the noise. Smash it. Dash.<p>Masked batmans on bikes.<p>All it needs is to become popular. A cool name and logo. A marketing campaign.<p>That would silence cities quick<p>Use the social media. Encrypted text...
I tried a walking meditation on the Sam Harris Waking Up app while in a shopping mall. It is incredible the amount of background noise and lights that are there all vying for your attention. The human mind does an incredible job of blocking it out. I really couldn’t wait to be around some nature after that experience.
At some point for a few weeks and months, there is a strong vibration in my whole block and my entire floor for 24 hours, it's a terrible nights that I couldn't sleep.
> road noise during the day<p>My understanding is that the vast majority of road noise is caused by vehicles outfitted with non-standard tires. Where I live, 90% of the road noise is caused by lifted trucks using massive off-road tires on local roads and highways. It isn’t clear if this against the law all over the country, but in various US states, the police will issue tickets. There are several employees of local businesses who commute nearby and wake up the neighborhood when they go to work and when they return with the sound of their huge off-road tires getting on and off the highway. I’ve driven next to them on the highway several times and the noise is deafening. I can’t see how this is allowed. Next time I drive past them, I will run the NIOSH SLM app and record the decibels.
These comments just reaffirm my decision to live by a state highway intersection and within ear/nose distance of major industrial facilities on the side of a hill in an area where use of jake brakes isn't prohibited.<p>Noise pollution will kill me a hell of a lot slower than living near people care about these sorts of things. The people who give a fuck about the obsessive lawn guy and his leaf blower or the teenager with his obnoxious exhaust tend to also give a lot of fucks about a lot of other "niceness" things that would cost me a lot of money and frustration to conform to.