Prolonged exposure to extreme noise is known to cause many health problems. Typically, we think of noise as more of a nuisance rather than as something that can affect your long term health! Maybe this is because, unlike smog, sound waves aren’t visible. After all, if you could see sound, perhaps you would be more alarmed about how much HARM NOISE can do!
Noise is also harmful to wildlife and domestic pets! So if you feel your pet is affected by noise, you need to speak to your vet!
Top sources of noise pollution:
- Construction sites: These typically rely on heavy equipment like cranes, cement mixers, payloaders, and jackhammers, which produce thunderous, near-constant noise.
- Local sound: House parties, concerts, clubs, stadiums, and other similar venues and cars and loudspeakers also add to the clatter.
- Traffic: Especially in large and crowded cities – including car engines, emergency sirens, horns, loud music, etc.
- Airport traffic: Likewise, individuals and families living near rail lines and stations are also subject to loud, prolonged noise.
- Industrial machinery: The furnaces, compressors, generators, and cranes, etc.
- At home: Outside, this can include lawnmowers, motorcycles, leaf blowers, back-up beepers, and more. Inside, barking dogs, loud appliances, and multiple audio/video speakers playing at once can create a racket.
The human ear is extremely sensitive
The human ear is a permanently open auditory channel. Even when you are asleep, your ears are awake, picking up and transmitting sounds that are filtered and interpreted by different parts of the brain. Noise can interrupt your sleep, causing sleep deprivation, which can seriously affect your physical and mental health!
Research into the effects of noise has shown some evidence that nighttime noise has been associated with cardiovascular disease and strokes in the elderly!
Exposure to constant or very loud noise, either occupational or leisure, can cause temporary or permanent damage to hearing!
Health Issues and NOISE
some of the known physical effects of noise exposure include – stress, constriction of blood vessels, tightening of muscles, increased heart rate, blood pressure, and changes in the stomach and abdomen movement.
These health issues can affect all age’s even children, and in some cases, the Health effects can be worse in our children and young people! Excessive exposure to noise can compound the instances of cognitive impairment in children!
Noise pollution can be worse in big cities and towns!
Noise from traffic, in particular, is considered by the World Health Organization to be one of the worst environmental stressors for humans, second only to air pollution!
Noise pollution impacts millions of people every day!
Research suggests that road noise is a major issue for many people living in Europe, with data suggesting that policy objectives on environmental noise have not been achieved. Noise is shown to compound the impact on our quality of life and mental health. Numerous studies have been undertaken into the effects of noise, which have linked noise pollution to increased anxiety and depression.
This is naturally a contributing factor to more and more people needing medication to alleviate the effects that noise has had on their health! Stress and anxiety from time spent around excessive noise levels have been linked with increased workplace accident rates and aggression and other antisocial behaviors.
What can you do?
Moving away from the noise isn’t always an option if you live in a town or work in a noisy environment/job!
How may your local pharmaceutical company be able to help?
Most pharmaceutical companies offer advice and support for those suffering from the effects of long term noise pollution. Probably the most obvious solution is to drop into the pharmacy to obtain human medicine or even a set of earplugs! Your local pharmaceutical company can also recommend preparations that can be used to help aid sleep and soothe your nerves.
Pop along to your local pharmacy and get advice. The pharmacist will be able to point you in the right direction.
As a final note, I would like to leave you with a famous debate in the medical research world. Scientists have been carrying research regarding the medicine that is able to treat hearing loss, be it due to noise pollution or other reasons. A recent hot topic is the effects of CBD and other essential oils on hearing loss, the results of which have been very mixed and that have labeled the research inconclusive!
