Photo credit: Alex Does Pictures
by Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Board of Directors, GrowNYC, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Honorary Chair, Quiet American Skies
In her article “The city’s search for quiet,” Dawn Attride writes that New York City is the loudest city in the United States. This means that millions of residents are exposed to harmful levels of noise that could adversely impact their health, including increased stroke risk and high blood pressure. Unsurprisingly, noise complaints rank first in calls to the city’s 311 helpline. Noise can also affect children at school and Attride cites a study I co-authored that looked at children in classrooms near an elevated train track. The study found that classes adjacent to passing trains were behind in reading scores when compared to children on the other side of the building, who were not exposed to train noise.
Jamie Banks, founder and president of Quiet Communities, reminded readers that the EPA’s Office of Noise Abatement and Control, first set up in the 1970s, was shut down in 1982. Thus, the federal government’s responsibility for noise control shifted to cities and states. Nevertheless, the law calling for the mitigation of unwanted noise, the Noise Control act of 1972, is still “on the books,” Banks said.
Erica Walker, an assistant professor at Brown University, is also cited in this article. Walker’s Community Noise Lab studies the sources of noise and provides opportunities for individuals to monitor noise levels in their communities. Walker became active in combating noise when she was disturbed by noise from an upstairs neighbor.
With so much noise surrounding us, there is certainly a need for quiet moments to “promote mental clarity, foster self-awareness and improve brain health.” Eric Pfeifer, a student at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in Freiburg, Germany, provides readers with suggestions to seek out quiet practices such as mediation and closing one’s eyes to rest several times a day. Pfeifer studies the human perception of silence.
With respect to the effects of elevated train noise on children’s classroom learning, the New York City Transit Agency installed rubber pads on the tracks near the school and the Board of Education installed noise abatement materials in the impacted classrooms. With these two abatements in place, the classrooms were quieter. A follow-up study found that children on both sides of the building were reading at the same level. What do we learn from this? Noise can be abated. However, as I say far too often, we lack the will to do so.
