Noise is all around us. And it harms our health

The roar of passing trucks on the highway. Hammering a construction site. The roar of an airplane taking off.

If you live in a large city in Canada, chances are you regularly hear noises that are harmful to your health.

And while small towns and rural areas tend to be quieter, loud noises like passing trains can still be distracting.

“We just view noise as an annoyance,” said Hugh Davies, a professor in the school of population and public health at UBC.

“We’re bathing in an acoustic sea. And I think it’s hard for people to realize that some of that is dangerous,” he said.

Sound regulations in North America are generally patchy, experts say, and tend to focus on things like parties or concert halls, rather than the noise sources that actually cause us the most harm: noises from transportation.

But there’s plenty of research to show that regular exposure to loud traffic sounds, as many Canadians do every day, can have long-term adverse health effects that go beyond just our hearing.

How do we experience sound?

Our nervous system has evolved to be on constant alert, and so is hearing, Tor Oiamo told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC’s The dose.

“While we may not wake up, we may not be annoyed or disturbed by a noise, we’re still going to register those sounds and our nervous system is still going to process that,” says Oimao, an associate professor of geography and the environment. studies at Toronto Metropolitan University.

This is why our alarm clocks wake us up in the morning, Davies said.

“You’re always listening. Even in the middle of the night, your brain is processing sound,” he said.

Fight or flight

Hearing a noise triggers our fight-or-flight response, said Erica Walker, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the school of public health at Brown University in Providence, RI.

“Your heart rate increases. You start sweating. You start releasing these hormones that prepare you for battle — or prepare you to run from it,” Walker said.

That sustained stress response over time can lead to adverse health outcomes.

How noise harms our health

For decades, research has shown that number of cardiovascular disease be exalted among men exposed to higher noise levels.

Davies has been studying this issue for years and has used population-level health data in Vancouver to prove it heart disease are higher for people living in noisy neighbourhoods.

To do that research, he and his team used a map of sound levels in BC’s lower mainland, the first of its kind in Canada at the time of the study’s release in 2012.

Using the same data, Davies found higher diabetes rates like reduced birth weight in babies whose mothers lived in noisy areas.

There has also been research shows that in schools with chronic aircraft noise, primary school students had lower reading scores.

What is safe sound?

The World Health Organization recommends that average noise exposure for road traffic may not be louder than 53 decibels during the day and no more than 45 decibels at night.

For reference, 53 decibels is approximately the noise level of a quiet residential street.

As the traffic noise outside your window gets louder, your risk of ischemic heart disease goes up, Oiamo said, because your body’s response to sound can cause increased levels of stress hormones and an increased heart rate.

A fairly busy road has an average decibel level of 61, he said.

“Most of us who live near something other than a very quiet side street are going to have that kind of noise level,” Oiamo said.

Sound is influenced by urban planning

For Walker, noise isn’t just a public health issue, it’s also an environmental justice issue.

At Brown University, she runs a lab where she works with people trying to cope with noise in their neighborhood.

Walker said the noise problems she sees stem from poor urban planning practices, such as building neighborhoods near airports, industrial activities or major highways.

The communities she works with are usually home to lower-income people who are often racialized.

“We decide that we will dump our acoustic waste in those communities where they just don’t have the power to organize and fight back,” Walker said.

“Should we put condominiums or condominiums next to a highway? Should we put schools next to a highway?”

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Low-income communities have fewer resources to deal with noise pollution, so the powers-that-be dump all their acoustic waste right at their front doors, leading to “acoustic inequality.”

The acoustic soundscape — and not just the landscape — should be considered in planning decisions, Walker said.

Tor Oiamo in Toronto has a similar perspective.

“You’re not going to eliminate cars. You’re not going to eliminate transportation noise. But we could do better to keep those away from people,” he said.

How can we reduce the noise around us?

For many of us, reducing noise in our environment can be a cost, such as moving to a quieter neighborhood or soundproofing our homes.

If you have the option, consider which side of the house your bedroom is on, Davies said.

“Noise varies a lot from one side of the house to the other, so you might move to a quieter part of the house to sleep,” he said.

Experts also recommend educating yourself about the noise around you by measuring the decibel levels on your phone.

For iPhone users, Oimao recommends an app developed by NIOSH, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The app is not available for Android, but there are other noise apps that users can download.

Other than that, and stocking up on earplugs, experts say reducing noise requires bigger policy solutions.

“I’ve worked with communities for years that have fought over issues without moving the needle,” Walker said.

Her advice?

“Collect data, show up when your voice is needed, but provide input.”