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The constant noise is becoming one of the biggest stressors of the modern big city. How do decibels that have already become familiar affect our health?
He does not watch TV, there is no radio in his car, and when he crosses the threshold of the house, his wife turns off the music … “It’s just that Victor works as a DJ in a nightclub, and he really misses the silence,” explains his friend Alexei. Victor suffers from so-called sensory overload – an excess of visual and auditory information. To cope with the first, it is enough just to close your eyes. Getting rid of the second is much more difficult.
The roar of transport and construction sites, mobile phone calls, the constant sound background from working television and radio receivers, office noise – computers, printers, the hum of lamps … All these sounds not only irritate and tire us, they affect our health. According to the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation, the number of people suffering from hearing problems in Russia is increasing every day and today is about 13 million people.
“Such growth is associated primarily with man-made noise, among which we have to live,” comments otolaryngologist Evgeny Borisov. “In large cities, where noise pollution is higher, people are almost twice as likely to see a doctor for hearing problems.”
Sounds – a system of signals for the body
We unconsciously perceive all loud sounds as threatening. This is because for thousands of years our ancestors lived in a very quiet world. Any loud or sharp sound (above 30-40 decibels) meant danger: a thunderstorm, a hurricane, the roar of a stormy sea, the growl of a predator warning of an attack, a cry of pain …
Receiving this signal, the body instantly releases adrenaline into the blood, the sugar level rises, the pulse quickens, and the vessels narrow. And then the natural reaction should follow: it’s time to blow your feet. And running, which gives relief from stress. Today, according to the resolution of the State Committee for Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision of the Russian Federation, a noise level of 80 decibels is considered acceptable at workplaces, in residential, public buildings.
Noise affects not only our emotional state, but also our behavior.
For example, in the Moscow metro during rush hour, the noise level reaches 100 decibels. At the same time, the sound power equal to 150 decibels is deadly for humans. It is not surprising that we experience constant discomfort, feel unreasonable irritation and … often write off bad health to the weather, pressure or solar activity.
Noise affects not only our emotional state, but also behavior. American researchers Robert Baron and Deborah Richardson argue that the excess of the sound load contributes to the manifestations of interpersonal aggression.
We constantly meet confirmation of this: each of us regularly observes how transport scandals instantly flare up. Even just a sharp and loud voice of the interlocutor is able to infuriate, not to mention the furious sounds of repairs that are in full swing at the neighbors, or car alarms howling under the window.
Danger of loud sounds
Researchers led by Dr. Stefan Willich of the German Association of Cardiology have suggested that loud noise increases the risk of a heart attack by two to three times. This hypothesis was born out of a survey of 4000 patients, half of whom had suffered a heart attack.
“We seem to have determined the threshold at which the risk increases,” Dr. Willich comments on these data, “it is approximately 60 decibels. The risk seems to be related precisely to the effect of loud sound on the vessels, and not on the nervous system. In addition, noise-induced stress may be one of the factors that provokes people to overeat. This conclusion was made by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania (USA).
After examining dozens of women, they found a direct relationship between the level of “stress” at work and the amount of fatty foods consumed during the day. The same applies to office noises: the clatter of the keyboard, phone calls just as provoked women to eat something fatty. From the offered snacks, such women invariably chose something like chips, cheese or chocolate and ate twice as much as those whose work was not overloaded with such a background sound.
inaudible sounds
Perfect pitch people have the ability to recognize and identify sounds using note names, just as most of us can easily tell the difference between coffee and bleach, for example. A tired mother easily falls asleep to the loud sounds of the TV, but wakes up from the slightest movement of the baby: her hearing unmistakably distinguishes this absolutely inaudible rustle from other noises.
As for the range of sound perception, it is quite wide – and each of us has his own. It is generally accepted that sounds with a wave frequency above 20 kHz (ultrasound) and below 20 Hz (infrasound) are beyond the limits of the perception of the human ear. Ultrasound can be produced and heard by some animals; it is used to repel insects and rodents. Not audible to the ear, ultrasound is still perceived by the body: some particularly sensitive people begin to experience anxiety attacks and even panic. To an even greater extent, this applies to infrasound.
The fact is that in nature, infrasonic waves arise as a result of natural disasters. The low rumble of the earth is the first to be heard by pets leaving their homes before an earthquake. A person can also feel infrasonic vibrations – even being at a sufficient distance from hurricanes raging somewhere, storms, erupting volcanoes, deep movements of the earth’s crust. Not understanding what is happening to him, a person feels an unreasonable feeling of anxiety, his pressure rises, it becomes difficult for him to breathe, his heart squeezes, he falls into a state of panic.
Unfortunately, in the modern world, not only the forces of nature, but also mechanisms built by people can create infrasonic vibrations. The source of infrasound in the city can be industrial enterprises, transformer boxes, and many other technical facilities. Neither thick walls nor earplugs save you from inaudible noise. Scientists have just begun to study the effect of inaudible man-made noises on the body, and a solution to this problem has yet to be found.
Can we live in absolute silence?
Imagine that you are alone at home. The TV is off. Computer does not work. The cat is sleeping peacefully on the couch. Silence and peace. Close your eyes and listen to the silence. What do you hear? The clock is ticking deafeningly loudly, the refrigerator is making noise, the cat is purring, his own heart is beating, music is playing at the neighbors behind the wall, the entrance door has slammed. Outside the window – the wind is rustling or the lawn mower is buzzing, you can hear the children playing in the yard.
Busy with business, we do not pay attention to these noises, but perceive them at the level of the unconscious: habitual sounds inform us that everything is in order, there is no danger. Remove this natural noise of life and the unconscious will immediately give an alarm: “Pay attention, something is wrong!”
Remember the stable speech turns “before the storm calm”, “disturbing silence”. They are also from there – from our past: in moments of expectation of danger, both man and beast tend to freeze, lie low, not make a sound or rustle. Such tension is not easy for our psyche.
We cannot bear absolute silence because it is unnatural. That is why a person placed in a soundproof room, after a few hours, begins to “hear” voices, music or other sounds, that is, he fills this empty space for himself.
Noise drug
“The main danger of noise is that we get used to it, like a kind of noise drug,” comments Vladimir Zinchenko, Doctor of Psychology. – Our senses (including hearing) have a certain insidiousness: just as a glutton feels the need to feel the taste of food, at some point we begin to feel the need for familiar sounds.
Here’s an example: we see people wearing headphones everywhere. For them, this is protection from the external environment, from ambient noise. But a person gets so used to the digital music that accompanies him that he constantly wears headphones – in the subway, in the park, at home and at work. He ceases to feel the need for silence.
And silence is a pause necessary for a person, allowing us to turn our feelings not outside, but inside ourselves. This is a period of so-called “active rest” – the time allotted for assessing the situation and oneself in it – without which it is impossible to make our actions justified, and our behavior meaningful. People who experience a constant need for a “noise drug” are, in fact, impoverishing themselves. Noise clogs the remnants of the creative impulse in us, existence becomes mechanical. The antidote to the ubiquitous city noises is, of course, silence.
To quote Pasternak, “silence is the best thing I’ve heard.” And this wealth is available to all of us: it is worth leaving the ring road. It is only necessary to realize the need for peace and quiet as a need for spiritual life. And give yourself the trouble sometimes to move away from the noisy comfort of civilization in order to look inside your soul.
Protect yourself from noise
What is the way out? Attempts to protect oneself from noise have been repeatedly made and are being made at different levels. One of the latest scientific discoveries is headphones with the so-called “active noise reduction”: each earphone has a microphone that picks up external sounds and generates a response sound wave in antiphase – thus reducing the level of external noise.
Of course, this is just one of the possible ways to solve the problem. The future lies in the creation of silent technology and even more perfect soundproofing of rooms, where each of us would finally have the opportunity to take a break from city noises, enjoy relaxing silence.
“The main source of noise in the city is transport,” says Nikolai Ivanov, president of the Society for the Control of Noise and Vibration. “The best solution to the problem could be an electric motor, but it will take time to implement it. It is possible to isolate roads with the help of tunnels or deep recesses: the walls of such structures turn into a sound-absorbing shield. A common option is landscaping the space between the track and buildings.
The best rest from technogenic noises is given to us by the sounds of nature: birdsong, the murmur of a stream, the sound of the surf
But in order to significantly reduce noise, a strip of at least 50 m wide is needed. So far, the most promising is an acoustic screen, consisting of perforated metal blocks filled with sound-absorbing material.”
What can be done on a personal level? For example, installing double-glazed windows on windows provides a noise reduction of 10 decibels. Instead of blinds, it is better to use thick curtains – double and even triple. In general, any textile – pillows, ottomans, tablecloths, upholstered furniture, carpets – dampens sound waves well. But equipment that works unnecessarily: computers, televisions and radios creates an unnecessary background noise. Together with the usual monotonous hum of traffic outside the window, it forms the so-called “white noise”. It is he who gives the main load on the nervous system, says psychologist Nikolai Svidro.
“Usually people react to the sounds of running machines, boiler rooms, elevators, and they get used to the monotonous “white” noise and stop noticing it. But this is something bad. If you are awakened in the middle of the night by a loud noise, you will quarrel, get nervous and calm down. That is, you will react. And a person does not react to an even increased noise background, irritation accumulates, and then manifests itself in the form of chronic stress and somatic diseases.
The best rest from technogenic noises is given to us by the sounds of nature: birdsong, the murmur of a stream, the sound of the surf. Even for those who cannot afford regular trips out of town, there is a way out – audio recordings for every taste.