Photo credit: RDNE Stock project
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Our noise colleague, pioneering noise researcher Arline Bronzaft, PhD, wrote a wonderful essay in the newsletter of the Holy Trinity Church, located in the Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The publication is part of the church’s education ministry. Dr. Bronzaft wrote that having respect for one’s neighbors, and understanding the impact your noise has on them, is part of respecting your neighbors. Then–appropriately for a church newsletter–she quotes the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Some people like more noise than others, but they should be aware that their noise might bother others. That’s part of a basic respect for the people we share the environment with, whether at home, at work, or when one is out and about. At home, keep common spaces clean and orderly. At work, don’t leave a mess for someone else to clean up in the break room. When walking on the street, if f you drop something, pick it up and put it in the trash.
If people respected their neighbors when it came to noise, and if local, state, and federal governments respected citizens’ rights to quiet, the world would be a quieter and healthier place for all.
