Noise Pollution: Time To Turn The Volume Down?

Afreen Fatima

 A growing concern in today’s society is the pollution of noise. It crept upon us ever so silently while being loud. Noise-- some may take it as a joke. A pollution of noise? Many may have not even pondered about this, and they might say its absolute nonsense. How is something so ingrained as a part of just our lives causing problems?




Noise pollution can happen by a number of different sources, for example, cars, motorcycles, planes, construction, ships, lawn mowers, and leaf blowers. The list is really endless. Generally activities between 60-80 dBA are considered safe if done for less than 12 hours.

In regards to human health, exposure to excess noises has been linked to heart disease, type two diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure. How does this happen? Loud noises may trigger the sympathetic nervous system and cause a release of stress hormones. The frequent release of these hormones may lead to the development of these problems. Children exposed to more noise also seem to be having a harder time in school. Their reading speeds, speech development, memory, and ability to problem solve is decreased.

Our ears are amazing, and they have learned to tune out these noises. Even though we may have gotten used to the noise they’re still there regardless.

The pollution of noise not only affects humans, but it also affects the environment. Exposure to loud noises may cause animals to relocate. Yes, they have been exposed to natural noises in the environment, but these noises have been adapted to. The introduction of noises from all these man made technologies disrupts their normal routine. Some birds like scrub jays now have a tendency to look for less noisy places to nest and avoid gas wells. Scrub jays rely on communication calls, and with all the noise being caused in the background suddenly they are being drowned out. The population of these birds is on a decline because they are not suited for this relocation. Jays plant seeds in the pinyon pine ecosystem in New York, and the disappearance of the jays plays hand in hand with the disappearance of the pines because of the lack of jays to plant them. Now that these scrub jays have moved over to another area due to loud noises caused by humans, the pinyon pine ecosystem is suffering. Noise tolerant species have a better chance at survival now, for example, the black chinned hummingbird.  This hummingbird settles in noisy places where it will have less competition, therefore, it will thrive. This introduction of noise was never natural and is detrimental to food webs because alteration will happen because of it. Any animal really that relies heavily on communication if the noises around it is too loud will suffer just like the birds. Bats were seen to be on a decrease near the highway due to traffic noise because they rely on their sense of sound to find food. Frogs are unable to find mates as well because of the covering of their calls. Male frogs cannot be heard from far away if they have a lower pitch, and when these males increase their frequency  for the female frogs to hear them the females seem to not be interested in the higher pitched calls.



Noise travels faster when underwater, so our animals in the ocean are also affected. Some of these animals are whales, purpoises, and dolphins. They rely on sound for navigation and other purposes, but our ships and oil drills are causing disruption.



There’s been laws passed by countries like Germany on this where people cannot cause excess noise pollution on Sunday and German holidays. Can this issue ever be solved with the growing population and advancement of technology? Will the animals be able to adapt fast enough? Are humans overlooking this type of pollution? Is there anything that can be done?



https://www.science.org.au/curious/earth-environment/noise-pollution-and-environment

Comments

Anonymous said…
I honestly think this problem will only grow over the next few decades. This issue, while important, is not talked about at all. I never even knew about this issue until my physics teacher explained to us this concept this year. As you mentioned, Germany has imposed a law of low noise pollution on Sundays, but I think in a place like the United States it would be impossible to enforce these types of laws. We have so much more land space compared to Germany, meaning a lot more areas to enforce these types of laws. New, more efficient technologies typically produce less sound than their counterparts (like a Tesla compared to a old Toyota Corolla). Animals will definitely have a hard time adapting to these changes, as these changes would require biological change. As I said, humans definitely overlook this pollution. We only focus on air pollution and water pollution, and we do need to consider how sound impacts humans and wildlife.
May 3, 2019 at 7:50 AM
Anonymous said…
With the advancements in technology, noise pollution could decrease as most new everyday items are utilizing buffers to decrease the sounds made in things. For example, the new types of doors and windows that will close slowly even when you try to slam it as well as the newer models of cars are substantially quieter. Laws might need to be implemented however, at this rate of inventions being more sound sensitive, sound pollution might be phasing out of society. Of course, it will take a long time however, what doesn’t? Next, animals could adapt but it’ll take time once again just like most things.
May 3, 2019 at 10:06 AM
Anonymous said…
Personally, I have never considered the fact that noise pollution has negative effects. However, after reading this blog post, I find it quite interesting and surprising that noise pollution has affected humans and animals. In my opinion, the large population of both animals and humans makes privacy rather difficult. However, with the right amount of adjustments made and perhaps laws established, we may be able reduce much of the current pollution. Solutions can include a ban on removing noise reducing exhausts on cars, better design on electric equipment (lawn care, construction, and lumbering). An increase in these solutions may cause an improvement in reducing noise pollution and making the world a quieter place.
May 3, 2019 at 10:15 AM
Anonymous said…
I definitely think that humans are overlooking this issue. Personally, it has never crossed my mind. I have only ever heard of the term “noise pollution” when my parents were recently looking to purchase a new house. I definitely do not think that animals will be able to adapt fast enough, because evolutionary adaptations take hundreds of years to develop, they don’t occur overnight. However, we can always spread awareness of an issue and educate people in countries such as India and China in an attempt to reduce the amount of noise pollution. I feel like this is the best course we can take now while we wait/look for other technological innovations to help us with this issue.
May 6, 2019 at 11:25 AM
Anonymous said…
Noise pollution is the type of pollution that I almost never hear about. I always viewed loud noise as an annoyance, but never did I consider noise as being actually harmful. The growing population will make noise pollution difficult to eliminate, but there are technological methods that can be used to reduce it. New technology such as electric/ hybrid cars are very quiet and produce much less sound than traditional cars. I don’t think any sort of ban is necessary because I believe technology will ultimately reduce the effect noise pollution has a humans and animals.
May 6, 2019 at 9:30 PM
Anonymous said…
Just the fact that I did not hear anything about this topic until today shows the lack of publicity and acknowledgement. This is an environmental problem that would further grow and further impact the environment negatively. In my opinion, I think it would be easier for us to start taking care of the environment in order to reduce the noise pollution overall. Starting from the little things like recycling, saving energy, and replacing our main energy source with renewable energy. Then, since the modern technologies improve everyday, we could implement the technology in order to further stop the increasing of noise pollution. I think this process would take a long time, but I believe we will be able to stop this.
May 7, 2019 at 6:33 AM
Anonymous said…
Noise pollution is a bigger problem than most people think. Not only is noise extremely distracting and piercing, it also leads to harmful symptoms like stress, headaches, migraines, and loss of focus which can lead to other, bigger health problems. I have experience with noise pollution because India is one of the worst places with regards to noise. Hardly 2 seconds can go by without a car honking, dog barking, people yelling, or a bus chugging by. A lot of this can be helped by simple organization of roads and traffic, to help with the honking and yelling. I know that some policies are in place to prevent noise pollution, even in Flower Mound. The band has restrictions on what times we can have rehearsal, as to not play too early (before 7 am) and disrupt the neighborhood. More policies like this one, and on a bigger scale, will help reduce noise pollution around the world.
May 7, 2019 at 9:24 AM
Anonymous said…
I think that noise pollution is definitely overlooked by the general population. Sure, there are some regulations in place, but the average person probably doesn’t think about the adverse effects that the noise they generate might have. Growing population and increasing technical advancements might make eradicating or dercreasing noise pollution much harder, but it us up to us to take action nand help educate others about this kind of pollution in order to hopefully make a difference.
May 7, 2019 at 10:39 AM
Anonymous said…
I think people are definitely overlooking this pollution. Noise pollution is not very well known and there are many things I didn’t know but I learned through this blog post. Right now in this generation, I believe that this issue can not be solved. We can try to improve this issue but because of the growing population and advanced technology, the noise will still increase greatly. And for the animals, there is a possibly they will adapt but I think it would not be fast enough.
May 8, 2019 at 11:56 AM
Anonymous said…
I had never thought that noise pollution could cause negative effects on people or harm anything. I always thought it was just people being whiny. Reading about all of the things that loud noise for long periods of time does worried me. I really like hearing, and when I go to a concert and my hearing is gone, I'm always so scared that it will never come back, but it always does. These people's hearing doesn't. And it hurts animals as well. I think any proposed development that would cause too much noise pollution should be located far away from communities and in relatively isolated areas regarding wildlife.
May 8, 2019 at 12:54 PM
Anonymous said…
I never though of sound as such a harmful form of pollution. I always thought it was a trivial problem that we did not need to worry about. I think hearing is an important thing we need and it is one of our most important senses. It is scary how the things we do and use can hurt not only us but the animals around us. i think it is a hard problem to control, because with our growing population the amount of noise will only increase but we can enforce laws for sound limit and put strict restrictions on them with heavy consequences.
May 8, 2019 at 4:50 PM
Anonymous said…
I have heard about noise pollution many times throughout my life, but I’ve never heard of its effects. The concept of noise pollution has been mentioned randomly here and there but it honestly sounds absurd because when you hear pollution, it’s much more obvious when it’s water or even air pollution. I’ve never considered loud noises to be a problem for anything other than your eardrums. It’s crazy to think that our noises are causing problems to the environment around us. I don’t believe anything will be done about this issue in the near future because it is not as pressing as other problems that are being dealt with, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be. There should be some regulations on noise so as to not further harm to the environment.
May 9, 2019 at 8:29 AM
Anonymous said…
I defiantly believe that people are overlooking this issue. I don’t live in a very rural area and am constantly experiencing very loud noises from the environment around me. At times when I’ve visited the city, I’ve seen the true extent that noise can be disruptive. It was hard for me to sleep in such a loud place, especially since I was hearing sounds I wasn’t use to. My experience seems parallel to those of animals that are disrupted by new communities. The government should defiantly create bylaws that restrict major construction on certain days of the year and create protected areas for species to thrive.
May 9, 2019 at 10:58 AM
Anonymous said…
When I hear noise pollution I thought it was just some silly thing and I didn’t stop to really think about it and what it actually is and how it affects our day to day life.Auditory senses are so important and we use them constantly. It’s one of those things we all take for granted. However, noise pollution is very hard to control as it is all around us. We will need to put heavy restrictions on noise in order to not continue harming our environment before it’s too late.
May 9, 2019 at 1:15 PM
Anonymous said…
Noise pollution is definitely not taken as seriously as the other forms of pollution. Many don’t see it as legitimate because it’s “invisible”. To compensate, more must be done to help the issue. The only way to fix this problem as the population gets larger, is to place restrictions on the amount of noise produced and when you can create excessive noise. For example, some cities prohibit citizens from making noise after certain times of the day. As a society, we need to learn to lessen the amount of sound that we produce in order to reduce the effects it has on animals, because they won’t be able to adapt fast enough to keep up with our current rate of increasing sound production.
May 9, 2019 at 8:10 PM
Anonymous said…
I feel that a lot of people don’t even consider noise pollution as a form of pollution. I think this is because we don’t consider the effects of loud noises on organisms other than ourselves because we are so used to it in our everyday lives. It does not affect our day to day lives, but it affects animals all around us because it can cause stress and hinder their development. I think urban areas have a lot of noise pollution that needs to be reduced as it is quite loud for everyone living in the area and around it, as well as for the animals living around cities too. I think there needs to be more effective legislation and regulation of noise pollution, possibly eliminating noise pollution gradually throughout the year and picking certain weeks where noise should be reduced so that organisms can thrive in their environment as we do.
May 9, 2019 at 9:14 PM
Anonymous said…
A thing I hate is when a loud car drives by. It always scares the bejeezus out of me. Noise pollution caused by cars will be a thing of the past. Because electric cars barely harms silence, in the next few decades or so, when everyone's driving electric cars, no more noise will be generated. As for ships and planes, I don't see a solution. I hate hearing planes fly over our house, but electric planes aren't a thing that'll exist soon.
On a similar topic is light pollution, which is like noise pollution in the sense that it's "invisible" and it directly affects one of the five senses. Light pollution is the brightening of the night sky due to human-made sources, such as street lights. Like noise pollution, there are adverse consequences on human and animal health, like mood and anxiety. Lakes near constant light sources prevent zooplankton from eating surface algae, leading to algae blooms.
May 9, 2019 at 10:11 PM
Amogh Gokhale said…
I never saw sound as being a major problem, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. How many times have constant noises given you a headache, or just been irritating? We have to understand that these also extend to animals, and can have a significant affect on how they behave and act. This is especially true for animals with sensitive hearing, such as dolphins. These noises are something they have no built in tolerance for, and can lead to their death.
May 12, 2019 at 7:16 AM
Anonymous said…
Noise pollution never seemed to be a big problem to me. As a kid, I always heard the term but never really knew what it meant and what it was. But it is a serious problem that is definitely overlooked. Animals cannot adapt quickly enough to the growing noise pollution and the problems it causes humans are essentially doubled for animals. Animals like dolphins are very sensitive to hearing and if this noise pollution continues, ultimate doom is to come upon the dolphins and the animals like them. We need to reduce our noise pollution or bad things will come and the effects will be irreversible.
May 12, 2019 at 5:03 PM
Anonymous said…
Whenever I think about noise pollution, I think about all those late night parties and curfew hours. Mostly, re-enforcement needs to be upgraded to help reduce this issue for social communities. However, regulating the noise pollution of larger factories would prove to be more difficult, but a necessity none the less. Humans are definitely overlooking the fact that this is potentially harmful to animals in more ways than one. Honestly, humans are growing at a feasible rate in which the noise most likely wont go down in the near future.
May 13, 2019 at 9:43 AM
Anonymous said…
We can reduce noise pollution be using noise-cancelling headphones. Lots of people may not know, but sound cancelling headphones are better for reducing sound pollution. It's fundamentally critical for business and construction workers. The noise cancelling headphones filters the unwanted sound before it hits your ears. This may seem strange or intense, but it qualifies as a possible means to reduce noise pollution. Sound is created by powerful sound waves or movements which can be significantly reduced by barriers. By installing this barrier, you'll be creating a mechanism that absorbs the powerful sound waves or movements, thereby reducing noise pollution. For animals, some technology will be created to help this specific issue.
May 13, 2019 at 6:08 PM
Anonymous said…
Unfortunately, noise pollution is probably a problem that will only get bigger as time progresses. In America, cars are a practical necessity. When you are downtown going to your job, think of how many times there are people who honk when there is a traffic jam, not fast reaction times, etc. And for suburban homes, things such as lawn mowers are needed for cutting grass and making your lawn look presentable. Also, the sound of airplanes will not go away anytime soon. I will say that noise pollution is a huge problem, but there is almost no way that it can be dealt with right now.
May 13, 2019 at 7:31 PM
Anonymous said…
You bring up some great points about noise pollution that I never really considered. To be honest when I think of pollutants I think of material things such as chemicals, but noise never really crosses my mind as a problem when in fact it is. Being able to peacefully enjoy the silence in nature or simply in your own home.Noise pollution can disturb animals and even lead to a lot of stress and restlessness in humans. Now this may seem pretty minor in comparison considering there isn’t as much data to prove the effects of noise pollution, but it is. Enough noise pollution could cause mass migrations of animals and humans out of a certain area which ends up effecting the ecosystem that they move to.
May 14, 2019 at 2:57 PM
Anonymous said…
I feel like noise pollution is often overshadowed by fossil fuels or plastic in the ocean but it still really effects our environment especially the animals. Noise pollution is another layer we add to destroying habitats. We come in and build in their habitats and then to top it off we run them out of the areas close to where we built over their habitat by noise pollution. Excessive noise is not natural for animals and it stresses them out making it hard for them to live. The way Germany handles it by making it illegal to make a lot of noise on sundays is a nice idea but just one day out of seven isn’t going to make the change that needs to be made. We need to implement laws against loud construction or how loud your car horn is.
May 15, 2019 at 7:16 AM
Anonymous said…
Although noise pollution may be underestimated in terms of its implications in today’s society, what we can do to solve noise pollution is much more reversible than land or ocean pollution. In regards to the effects on humans for noise pollution, people can literally just use earbuds and listen to music or ear plugs to drown out noise. I regards to the animals, I believe that laws should be placed to restrict noise in order to preserve nature’s true environment and sound.
May 16, 2019 at 7:46 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's the deal with airline food?

Image
Paula Cao You ever notice how airline food tastes like your dentist's waiting room floor? You have your little bowl of pasta, and it looks like they fished it out your sink drain. And you can't bring food onto the plane, so you're stuck with either hours of not eating the food or hours of wishing you hadn't eaten the food. And they spend half an hour pushing the little cart and blocking the aisle so you can't get to the bathroom, which strangely enough, smells exactly like what you just ate. But even worse than eating airline food (hard to believe) is the waste airline food generates. The last time I was on a plane, I had two meals. Everything was individually wrapped: the bread, the main course, two sides, even the Kit-Kat bar that was already in a wrapper. Everything came in these plastic containers. Seems like a ton of waste. Every tray of food brought onto the plane is thrown away, even if no one eats it (due to health concerns), which is quite wasteful....
Read more

What We Can Recycle

Image
Ryan Oh Recycling. An option that all of us can directly take that, supposedly, shouldn’t be very hard to do. I mean, so often we are told to recycle what we can, but of those times how many resulted in the recycling of un-recyclable items? Yes, recycling technology has been improved upon, and now we have a wider array of recyclable options, however there are still many items that are thought to be recyclable but are not. For example, plastic bags. Yes, these can be recycled it’s just how we recycle them. By gathering recyclables in plastic bags or recycling the baggies in general, we cause problems for recycling equipment resulting in jams, contamination of paper bales, and interference in compost facilities. What we can do to prevent plastic bags from becoming our demise is to give them to recycling programs that focus exclusively on them. Oftentimes, grocery stores offer plastic bag pick-up and drop-off programs. If you don’t have such a grocery store near you, keep a bag collec...
Read more

Land Pollution Is Not The Solution

Image
Rishit Podder Land Pollution We talk about water and air pollution all the time but land pollution as well as a big impact on the environment as it is continuously polluted and vulnerable. Land pollution simply means degradation of the earth’s surface as a result of human activities like mining, littering, deforestation, industrial, construction and agricultural activities. Land pollution can have a huge environmental impact in the form of air pollution and soil pollution which in turn can have an adverse effect on human health. There are many causes of land pollution, but the main concern is deforestation and soil erosion. Deforestation results in dry land which mean that it can never be fertile again. The problem with that is that the land will eventually become unstable for farming and other crops. In addition, the land will also become polluted by heavy metals such as lead and mercury. It is estimated that over 50 percent of all earth's surface water has been polluted b...
Read more