European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 26, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Hear this research on noise disappears in the Din by Malcolm w. Browne new York times Fly urn Merica in noisier than Ever audiologists say and the costs May include lost hearing impaired health reduced learning ability and antisocial behaviour. Noise causes stress just As crowding and the threat of crime do said or. Alice h. Suter an audiologist at the National Institute for occupational safety and health. Quot but unlike some of the other problems Quot she went on Quot noise seems to be accepted by our society these Days As a necessary the absence of Federal financial support for noise abatement programs in the last eight years has left the United states largely unprotected against a swelling torrent of noise she said. A Lack of research funds has prevented measurements of the Overall increase in noise Levels but government and scientific experts appear to agree that they have grown steadily in the past decade. One reason was suggested by Samuel Stempler director of new York City a Bureau of air resources a Branch of the City s department of environmental Protection. A the trouble with noise a he said Quot is that it s not visible like garbage Oil spills and other pollutants. So it seems to get less attention than the More conspicuous pollutants despite the hazards it it May even be that substantial numbers of americans have begun to enjoy dangerous noise. Or. Ernest a. Peterson of the University of Miami school of Medicine a leading authority on the physiological effects of noise says it May be addictive. Quot we know that the level of sound produced by a Boom boxy radios and tape players elevates blood Levels of norepinephrine a adrenaline a he said. Quot there a evidence that some people enjoy the highs they get from adrenaline. They intentionally do dangerous things just to get that adrenaline he suspects that Many people Are becoming addicted to the adrenaline they get from noise. Government efforts to reduce the harmful effects of noise have faltered in the last decade. In 1981 the Reagan administration ordered the termination of the environmental Protection Agency s noise abatement program saying the responsibility should rest with local governments not Washington. The decision followed a decade of what Many audiologists say were significant victories. Under the noise control act of 1972, the Federal government paid for noise research issued wide ranging regulations and supported a amps Sharon Kilday state and local noise abatement agencies in a variety of ways. A but since 1982, when the Federal government s noise abatement program effectively ended local programs have also foundered Quot Suter said. Quot at the Peak of interest in noise control during the 1970s, there were 1,100 state and local anti noise programs. Today Only 15 Are still virtually All local noise abatement programs depended at least partly on Federal funds and other forms of support. Most of the scientific research in the 1970s and Early 80s on the effects of noise was also federally supported and scientists say that when this support ended research also stopped. The latest textbooks on noise and its effects Are still based largely on investigations carried out As Long ago As 15 years when the Federal noise program was at its height. Suter and other experts say More than 20 million americans Are exposed in their daily lives to persistent environmental noise loud enough to cause hearing loss a above 80 decibels or about the level of vacuum cleaners electric tools or heavy traffic. The Decibel scale is logarithmic and for every increase of 10 decibels the Energy of a sound increases tenfold and its perceived loudness roughly doubles although no ranking of the relative loudness of cities has been compiled environmental scientists say that in general the no siness of a Community rises in direct proportion to its population. Noise Levels vary greatly from place to place an Epa study in the Early 80s showed that the quietest times in Urban apartments Are noisier than the noisiest times in Small towns. Aside from loss of hearing noise is suspected of having a variety of physiological effects. Many studies have strongly suggested a link Between noise and High blood pressure. Peterson of the University of Miami established that the blood pressure of Rhesus monkeys and other primates rises when the animals Are exposed to noise and blood pressure remains High even after the noise stops. Six years after the opening of a new runway at Schigol Airport in Amsterdam dutch investigators found that the Sale of Antihypertensive drugs to nearby residents doubled. A polish study showed that chronic exposure to noise Between 85 and 115 decibels about the level of a noisy factory sharply increased the incidence of hypertension and peptic ulcers. A 1982 investigation by William Meecham of the University of California at los Angeles found a higher rate of cardiovascular deaths strokes suicides and murder among 200,000 residents of a flight path corridor near los Angeles International Airport than in the rest of the City although factors other than noise probably played a role. Or. David c. Glass Provost of the state University of new York at Stony Brook says there is evidence that noise degrades the immune response impairing resistance to disease. Glass or. Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and or. Jerome e. Singer of the uniformed services University of the health sciences in Bethesda md., investigated the effects of noise on learning ability. In the 1970s the group studied children living in a particularly noisy housing Complex Over the approach to George Washington Bridge in upper Manhattan. They found that children living on the lower noisier floors did not read As Well As those on the upper floors. Similar studies by these and other scientists in new York and los Angeles reached the tentative conclusion that noise impedes learning. A noise has to be considered As just one among Many of the intrusive elements of our environment Quot Glass said. Quot but even in that context the noise situation is simply awful. In the absence of continuing studies it s difficult to get an objective measure but in the last year or so in be certainly experienced More irritation from noise in new York City. Among the sounds that Are particularly noticeable Are ambulance sirens and automobile burglar monday March 26, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page
