There’s no denying we all suffer in some way at some time and, except in the sense of choosing certain lifestyles, we are rarely able to choose our own ailments. Some of them we inherit, some we bring on ourselves because they go with a certain job or place.
But even if we could choose our ailments, we would not necessarily choose them appropriately.
Ask someone if they would prefer to lose their sight or their hearing and the chances are they would choose hearing, because it’s so easy to envisage the awfulness of blindness – being unable to read or see beautiful things, or horrid things you can bump into. You only have you put your hand over your eyes to feel helpless.
Having noise stop, on the other hand, is often very welcome. Even people who have lived near the deaf often have no idea how it cuts one off; what it’s like when even ordinary conversation isn’t possible.
My mother, who was totally deaf but good at lip-reading, was once when she was a widow taken out to dinner by one of my father’s ex-pupils. She looked forward to it very much, but the next day she said: “It was so disappointing. The restaurant was very dark, only candles and I couldn’t read a thing he said.”
This well-meaning, highly educated man simply didn’t realise he was making conversation impossible. Ears may not always be less precious than eyes, but all too often you need both, and I suppose it’s no pity that we can’t choose anyway.
People living near noisy roads could have a bigger risk of high blood pressure, a new study suggests.
Meanwhile, long-term exposure to air pollution can also increase a person’s risk, experts found.
The new study tracked 41,000 people in five different countries for up to nine years.
An extra adult per every 100 living in the most polluted areas will develop high blood pressure compared with those living in the less polluted areas, the research suggests.
The study, published in the European Heart Journal, also found that traffic noise is associated with an increase in cases of hypertension.
Researchers gathered information on 41,000 people from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Spain at the start of the study and again during a follow-up examination between five and nine years later.
None suffered high blood pressure when they joined the study, but during the follow-up period 15% had developed hypertension or started to take blood pressure-lowering medications.
The researchers also measured air pollution during three separate two-week periods.
And they assessed traffic density outside the homes of participants.
They found that people living in noisy streets, where there were average night-time noise levels of 50 decibels, had a 6% increased risk of developing hypertension compared to those living on quieter streets.
And those living in areas with higher concentrations of polluting particles were significantly more likely to have self-reported high blood pressure.
Lead author Barbara Hoffmann, professor of environmental epidemiology at at Heinrich-Heine-University of Dusseldorf, Germany, said: “Our findings show that long-term exposure to particulate air pollution is associated with a higher incidence of self-reported hypertension and with intake of anti-hypertensive medication.
“As virtually everybody is exposed to air pollution for all of their lives, this leads to a high number of hypertension cases, posing a great burden on the individual and on society.
“Exposure to traffic noise shares many of the same sources with air pollution and so has the potential to confound the estimates of the adverse effects of pollution on human health. However, this study controlled for traffic noise exposure and found that the associations of air pollution with hypertension did not vanish. This is important because preventive measures for air pollution and noise differ.”
But Prof Francesco Cappuccio of the University of Warwick, said: “The present aggregate analysis suggests that whilst measures of air pollution across different European countries are associated with a greater risk of ‘self-reported’ hypertension, there is no evidence of such an association with the incidence of ‘measured’ hypertension.
“This finding, understated in both the study’s conclusion and in the press release, introduces a big note of caution. It is well recognised that the awareness of hypertension in the general population is weakly correlated with its presence when measured, and the lack of symptoms or signs often associated with it makes self-reported estimates unreliable, often biasing population hypertension estimates.”
Hearing loss is normally associated with old age or years of touring in a rock band. But preventable noise-induced hearing loss is actually pretty common in the general population, affecting around 15% of Americans according to the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders (NIDCD).
When that damage is done to the sensory hair cells in the ear, people can’t regenerate them, so the damage is permanent, explains John Oghalai, professor of otolaryngology at Stanford University and director of the Children’s Hearing Center at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. While there is ongoing research into finding ways to regenerate sensory hair cells and improve cochlear implants, there is no perfect solution to hearing loss right now, which makes the need to lessen our exposure to loud noise that much more important.
But when you live in a city, like the majority of US residents, it can be hard to avoid loud noise, between trains, buses, honking cars and the sound of millions of people living on top of each other.
To get a sense of how much volume many of us experience just by going to work or meeting a friend for a meal, I decided to measure the normal din that 8.5 million New Yorkers experience every day.
Since New Yorkers love to eat out – and the eateries in this city are notoriously loud – I measured the volume in two restaurants: a popular New Orleans style casual eatery in Brooklyn and a trendy Southern food restaurant in Manhattan during Sunday brunch.
During dinner time, the Brooklyn restaurant clocked in at 91 decibels. At the Manhattan brunch spot, the noise level varied between 92 decibels as people strained to be heard above the reggae music, to a low of 72 decibels with UB40’s 1980s hit Red Red Wine, which allowed everyone to shout a little less.
For comparison, a food blender registers at around 90 decibels. Imagine dining out as a blender is going off at the next table.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha), exposure to 90 decibels risks damaging hearing after eight hours, so each time the waitstaff pull a long shift, they may be causing damage to their ears.
What constitutes too loud is up for debate. The Osha permissible exposure limit is 90 decibels for all workers for an eight-hour day. But there is no way to determine the exact volume at which most people would develop hearing loss without actually exposing people to hearing damaging levels of noise on purpose, which would be unethical. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has found “significant noise-induced hearing loss” at the levels permitted by Osha.
Sometimes, dining out in Brooklyn can be hazardous to your long term hearing. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Even if New Yorkers can avoid loud restaurants, 5.7 million people travel by subway each weekday. While the noise inside a subway car is only 75-85 decibels – provided no one is shouting and there are no performers – the noise of a train passing the station is another matter. In Times Square, one of the busiest subway stations in the city, the noise level ranges from 80 decibels to 96 decibels when the express trains barrel through the station.
Other stations measured, including the 86th street station on Manhattan’s Upper West Side briefly hit an ear-splitting 101.9 decibels.
The eastbound trains at Union Square, another popular station, registered in at around 95 decibels, as New Yorkers and tourists alike looked pained and covered their ears with their hands. For perspective, 100 decibels is also the volume of a power lawn mower or a jet taking off at 305 meters.
Most of us try to spend as little time in subway stations as possible, and MTA employees wear hearing protection, but anyone who commutes in the city easily spends 15-30 minutes, five days a week listening to industrial-level noise while waiting for their train to pull in.
Everyday city noises are impossible to avoid but there are a few things people can do to help stave off hearing damage. It can be a good idea to use foam earplugs if you are stuck waiting for the express train. The same rule applies to loud concerts, says Oghalai.
For headphones, there is a simple rule: if you can hear someone else’s music when they have them on, the volume is too loud, Oghalai says. For eating out, there are now noise ratings included in many restaurant reviews.
Companies like Apple provide a function to limit the maximum volume on their devices if you are concerned as well.
From daily commutes, to eating out, to sitting in your apartment and hearing the honking of cars from a sixth-story window when the mailman blocks the street below with his van (a robust 83 decibels), New York is full of noise no matter where you go.
But for those lucky enough to escape, there is somewhere nearby they can go for quiet. In the suburbs, the sound inside a house in upstate New York with the soothing hum of central air and two elderly dogs wheezing in the background is a relaxing 33 decibels, just above the volume threshold for rustling leaves.
Quiet please! … Sound ban sought in cinemas. Photograph: Rich Legg/Getty Photos/Vetta
Connecticut is aiming to grow to be the initial US state to impose a ban on extreme sound ranges at public film screenings, it has been reported. A bill is at the moment before the state legislature’s Public Safety and Safety Committee that would ban the exhibiting of any movie or trailer that exceeds 85 decibels.
The ban attempt was initiated by chemical industry advisor William Younger, a Stamford resident who was quoted as saying: “Why they need this kind of loud sounds is past me … Hopefully this will be a wakeup phone to the theater owners and the MPAA to get their act collectively and do anything which is excellent for the public and still will satisfy their wants.” Democratic senator Carlo Leone, who helped introduce the bill, explained: “I help the notion moving forward … If there are other corrective measures with out legislation and it requires care of the problem, that would be the better decision.”
However, other people do not see the necessity of a ban. AP quote Dr Robert Dobie, a professor at the University of Texas who is described as an professional in noise-induced hearing reduction, who explained the 85-decibel regular is for prolonged publicity, not occasional loud sounds. “The exposure is so quick and intermittent that no one with any expertise would ever say that they have any genuine danger of hazard or harm,” he explained. “I feel quite comfy that the exposures are not anywhere close to hazardous. It really is the combination of degree and duration that matters.” For comparison, 85 decibels is identical degree as regular traffic sound, whilst a hair dryer is one hundred decibels, according to the American Tinnitus Association.
The business physique Movement Picture Association of America also oppose a ban, with senior vice president Vans Stevenson saying: “Surely no 1 is going to do anything at all that would have a hint of currently being hazardous … We have gone to wonderful lengths to make certain that average is in an acceptable range that is not harmful.” In 1999 the Nationwide Association of Theatre Owners launched the TASA (Trailer Audio Requirements Association) standard, a voluntary certification to restrict sound strain to 85 Leq
Young, however, says a limit is necessary as cinemas do not stick to the TASA normal, claiming his tests have shown sound levels have risen to a hundred decibels. “Who would like to sit there in ache? These businesses should not topic folks to dangerous sounds.”
