Loud noise is Unhealthy

October 24, 2008

Makis Tsapogas, a professor of surgery and adviser to the World Health Organization, explains that “Noise is one of life’s great stressors. When you’re exposed to loud noises, your blood vessels constrict and less blood flows to the organs.”

The woman behind the launching of United Kingdom’s Right to Peace and Quiet campaign, Valerie Gibson, even compares noise to passive smoking. She said, “People aren’t aware that noise is affecting them, but their health deteriorates.”

Dutch researchers also found out that people living on noisy streets suffer more high blood pressure than those in quieter areas. According to them, noise can cause people to get angry more easily, and provoke depression and organic diseases particularly when under stressful situations. Younger people are more at risk. It was reported that mothers who lived near airports bore more premature and underweight babies.

The researchers also agree that noise from traffic, night clubs, building firms, lively restaurants, discos and even background music – is enough to make some people’s muscles tense, their pupils dilate, their heartbeat increase, their arteries constrict and their blood cholesterol and adrenalin levels rise. Too much exposure to noise can also cause deafness.

But are there ways of coping with this environmental nuisance? Jenny Colebourne, director of the healing center in central Athens, suggest a therapy which deepens concentration: meditation.

Also, we can simply relax and concentrate on other more pleasant activities.