Loud Noise as a Public Health Hazard

I am amazed that there has not been more of a global effort to curb noise similar to efforts to curb pollution, drunk driving, drug use, drinking, unsafe sex, unsafe diets, sugar, poverty, cholesterol, being overweight, homelessness etc etc.

Thoughts? Dave

 

It'll never happen until enough of the right people in power get tinnitus. What makes tinnitus different is that they can't see it or hear it. It's not a pain problem. It's like this phantom ghost that nobody really believes in or its power until they get it. And even then, some may get it where it's mild and non-obtrusive and think, this isn't a big deal.

And to add more insult to injury, people with tinnitus would have a hard time organizing mass protests because they can be too damn loud. ...

(seriously, I really don't know either to laugh or cry on that last part)

 

Dunno man, it is not just tinnitus--it is hearing loss, recruitment, hyperacusis and balance issues all caused by loud noise...

Hearing loss and tinnitus / hyperacusis also lead to depression, social isolation, suicide, dementia, anxiety, insomnia...

Tinnitus and hearing loss are the leading health issues/injuries that VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) come home with... Hearing loss is becoming a global pandemic.

 

Loud noise exposure - certainly in the UK - is a growing health crisis. The potential impact in particular on children's hearing - which is even more vulnerable to damage than adults - is great, but is not being recognised, with the full scale of the damage only likely to be clear in the decades to come.

Some time ago I contacted AoHL (Action on Hearing Loss) the UK charity to ask what they were doing to campaign on this. They replied that it "wasn't a priority". That's right for a charity called Action on Hearing Loss - loud noise exposure - the second most common cause of hearing loss (after the ageing process itself) - wasn't a priority. In contrast spending millions of their funds on an expensive new London headquarters does seem to have been a priority for the charity.

 

Scumbags. Disturbing.

 

There was an attempt to regulate noise in the US decades ago. The Nixon administration submitted The Noise Control Act of 1972.

This gave the EPA the power to regulate noise pollution. Regan quickly put an end to this when he was elected and things haven't improved since.

 

He is scum. Always hated him.

 

All of the dining places here in CA are designed to be loud. There is now more effort to ban (and have banned) plastic straws!! Loud simply does not matter.

 

Invisible diseases don't matter to people.

 

A case of severe pain-hyperacusis is also being discussed:

Is Noise Pollution the Next Big Public-Health Crisis?
Research shows that loud sound can have a significant impact on human health, as well as doing devastating damage to ecosystems.
By David Owen

 

This type of rhetoric isn't helpful.