Research finds noise a health hazard, so how can seniors cope?

[caption id="attachment_11150" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Leaf Blower"][/caption]

NEW ORLEANS -  - Judith Martin --Recent news discusses how  young people are having problems hearing and
how loud noises and loud music through earphones has contributed to the
problem.  The hearing problems, however,
become more acute for seniors.




Seniors have problems with noise especially during the aging
process.  Even those who had superior
hearing at one time, find when they get older noise becomes particularly
bothersome.  In fact one third of seniors have been found to have some form of hearing problem.  But one thing they have in common is trouble in handling noise.

So what is a senior to do?

Let’s look at what what some experts say about the kind of
noise in our environment and perhaps from that assess some solutions.

"Ear aches: Noise pollution rattles nerves, harms
health" by Kathleen Kirkwood, Contra Costa Times; August, 2010 describes
the impact of noise on our civilization and how it can negatively impact our
health in the long run.


To paraphrase: We who inhabit suburbia or the city pay a higher price than we
realize for the convenience of living within reasonable driving distance of
work and the bright lights of the entertainment quarters after dark.


The price we pay is that the "heart rate, blood pressure and breathing all
increase when the system reacts to loud noises," according to Louis
Hagler, 74, a retired physician in Oakland, Calif., as quoted by Kirkwood.


There is an extreme amount of noise bombarding suburbanites and city dwellers
from everywhere, from the roar of traffic around the clock from the nearby
interstate, the boom cars driven by on the surrounding streets by high school
and college kids (and unfortunately, also drug dealers), big dump trucks going
to construction sites, and the piercing shriek of a neighbor's outdoor air
conditioning condenser. 

 Areas  near railroads experience a particular kind
of noise pollution certain to make anyone grit his or her teeth, the sound of
the warning horn blown by trains when they are approaching crossings.


Noise comes at us from many directions,
the Banshee-like wail of leaf blowers, or the kid who has his room in
the attic of the house next door and likes to open the windows and share his
blaring "taste in music" with the neighborhood.


Is it any wonder that suburban homes are being built more and more like
anti-noise fortresses, with thick brick fascia walls and few windows? Those
windows have double- glazing that blocks noise abundantly well.


Kirkwood's report recounts how fewer and fewer people go out into their back
yards or even open the windows of their houses, to enjoy the evening breezes
because of all the noise clamoring in around them.


Closing doors and windows can help, but all of us need that fresh air and
sunshine.  So what can we do to relieve
the noise pollution?  How about good
manners?

 Good manners and
respect for the neighbors would curb some of the racket from car radios and
"the local rock group down the street,” that rock group that almost
everyone faces on every other street in America.

 Unfortunately, most
cities do not have the police manpower to enforce noise ordinances. Murders and
robberies always take precedence over blaring loudspeakers on the next balcony
over.


For large-scale noise producers, like highways, one solution everyone has no
doubt seen is the anti-noise walls set up along interstates where they cut
through suburbia.


The list of noise sources contains many of these ear-deafening events,  those trains with the blasting warning horns,
the trains, and the airports where the noise from the planes taking off or
landing can be a problem for the residents around.

Perhaps the notion of quiet zones might work as well as
education about what impact noise can have on health.  In other words, if people learn they can lose
their hearing, have their blood pressure raised and their stress levels
increased as well to the detriment of heart and other health conditions, there
might be a solution to the problem.

In Richmond City, California, there are quiet zones for the
trains where the warning horns cannot be sounded.


The concept of quiet zones in residential areas has taken root in Baton Rouge
and Baker, Louisiana. There are quiet zones now in neighborhoods where blaring
auto radios have been virtually a terrifying presence. As is known very clearly
in New Orleans, drug dealers -- or just plain punk kids showing off -- like to
cruise around with their boom-boom-boom rap muzak blaring to flaunt their
presence and to let people know that they are around. But there are no
"noise police" to stop them, so the racket continues anyway.  New Orleans needs those quiet zones.


To minimize the problem at airports,  is
an especially difficult problem due to the issues involved with the comings and
goings of aircraft.  Anyone who lives
under the flight paths from an airport knows that the only way to handle the
noise is to learn to live with it.   Putting a lot of sound-proofing insulation in
the attic can mitigate the racket coming down from straight overhead.
Convincing airports to orient their runways so that arriving and departing
flights do not fly low over residential areas is something to be hoped for.


Kirkwood  talks about an article
published in March, 2007, for the Southern Medical Journal  entitled "Noise Pollution: A Modern
Plague", that noises "from boom cars and deafening noise at sporting
events and concerts, are considered noise because they come from unwanted
sources."


Examples of these unwanted noses include that deafening noise at sporting
events, teams that play against the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome have
long learned why the "world's biggest room" is also the world's
loudest room, when local fans start their hullabaloo. It is no secret that
visiting teams use sign language to give instructions in the huddle.


There will never be a satisfactory way to totally control noise in cities and
suburbia. Existing ordinances could be enforced, if only there were enough
police to handle the problem apart from regular crime patrols. For most people,
it is simply a matter of learning to cope with the noise, and block it from
their living spaces as much as possible.


A neighbor with an outdoor condenser unit can be irritating, for sure.  What one enterprising person did was to put a
small fan on the floor to make noise to counteract the sounds from the
condenser unit.

The solution to noise seems to be to call the authorities,
learn to cope with the noise you can’t control, talk with the offenders or find
solutions that can mask the undesirable noise.

Because noise is unhealthy, one must assume control and try
a variety of ways since that protection has been found by medical people to be

important.