Photo credit: Josh Sorenson
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
The BBC recently ran an article by health reporter James Gallagher covering the myriad ways in which excessive noise can damage our well-being. Gallagher was the reporter on the BBC News World Service documentary, “LOUD: Is noise an invisible killer?”
The answer to the question in the documentary title is an indisputable, “Yes!” Noise isn’t just a nuisance. Noise is unwanted and/or harmful sound, a definition adopted in 2023 by the International Commission on Biological Effects of Noise and added to Article II of the ICBEN Constitution. Gallagher explains how noise is stressful and activates the amygdala, a part of the brain primarily responsible for processing emotions. This in turn causes a cascade of involuntary physiological responses, leading to hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular disease and death.
There can be no rational doubt about the dangers of noise for human health. In addition to causing noise-induced hearing loss, tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and hyperacusis (a sensitivity to loud noise that doesn’t bother others), noise has non-auditory health effects. The mechanisms by which this happens is now understood down to the cellular, molecular and genetic levels. Noise literally kills people. Specific nighttime aircraft flights have been linked causally to specific heart attacks.
In Gallagher’s article, World Health Organization consultant Maria Foraster notes that the safe noise level to prevent adverse cardiovascular effects of noise is only 53 decibels. That number comes from WHO’s 2018 monograph, Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region. Fifty-three decibels is very close to the safe noise exposure level to prevent noise-induced hearing loss, which is probably 55 A-weighted* decibels.
We hope this BBC article and the documentary increase awareness of the dangers of noise. Perhaps it will lead more people demanding that legislators and regulators take steps to reduce noise in cities and towns, restaurants and retail stores and sports and entertainment venues, ultimately making the world a quieter place.
This can be done. Only a few decades ago, secondhand smoke was ubiquitous, in restaurants and bars, workplaces, retail stores and public transit. Then, secondhand smoke was found to be a health hazard, and those of us who complained about it were no longer deemed anxious or overly-sensitive complainers. We became health advocates for clean smoke-free air for ourselves, our companions and our children.
Unwanted noise is a health hazard. If enough people speak up about it, legislators and regulators will have to listen. A quieter world will be a better and healthier world for all.
*A-weighting adjusts unweighted sound measurements to approximate the frequencies heard in human speech.
