Sound pollution: Irritating nuisance
Tamanna Ferdous is a 2nd year honours examinee. Just as she seats at the table, in the evening her music-minded neighbour switches on his hi-fi set up at its full blast. She attempts in vain to concentrate on the contents in her notes, with the piercing metallic sound coming from the next-door, it is next to impossible to study. Closing her note-book, she begins to wonder whether people like her neighbour cannot enjoy music without disturbing others. There are plenty of people who have much in common with Tamanna's neighbour, and not only with music but other things of their liking, too.
They want other people to engage in their thoughtless quest for fun in spite of the fact that the others may not have the slightest interest in what they enjoy and that it can be rather annoying to them. The witless inconsiderate sound lovers of this kind are high on the list of noise-makers. If they can be a little more considerate of their fellow human beings, a serious problem can be readily solved with little intervention of the law. But most people are simply blind to the deleterious impact their wild fun can have on others. So sound pollution control laws have become a sine qua non for peace-loving people. What I have just mentioned is but one of sound pollution while there are countless instances of it. We all knowingly or unintentionally contributing more or less to sound pollution.
Let us now ponder on how we happen to pollute sound: When we raise our voice to blame or to scold someone, unconsciously though, we become sound polluters; when we drive a vehicle with an under-performing engine causing unnecessary noise, we more or less pollute sound; when we turn up the volume of our radio cassette recorder more than we ought to, again we pollute sound; when we throw thrashes, going on forever with ear-splitting music and ceaseless laughter of the merrymakers or the party-goers, we deprive our neighbors of their sleep as well as their peace of mind for hours on end and make a whacking contribution to sound pollution.
When we operate machines like blenders, grinders, electric drills and electric saws whose noise literally benumb our ears, we are at fault ourselves; when we run a rice-mill, a timber-mill, a press or a black-smith's shop giving out incessant noise, we are again guilty of polluting sound; when we use air-craft or trains to transport passengers or goods, we can scarcely argue that we are innocent of sound pollution; when we run a stone-quarry, emanating the ceaseless noise of blasts and hammer-blows hitting the granite, we cannot just claim that we are only trying to earn a living and that we do not intend to pollute sound; when we wage war, we maliciously pollute sound with gunfire, artillery and bomb-blasts, which, I believe, is the worst of all.
The list of instances of noise pollution is so prolix that it can go on and on. Excessive noise is, needless to mention, always disturbing and annoying. When our neighbour's cassette player starts to deafen us, we simply feel peeved and annoyed. This annoyance or irritation, which is not very much harmful in itself, can, however, goad us to aggression depending upon our mood and the nature of our relationship with that particular person annoying us, which will probably result in very unpleasant consequences.
Simply stated, a dispute can easily develop into an altercation which may in turn develop into a quarrel. As a result of this, some relationships may be wrecked beyond repair. If one is at a race track the noise is in context and the psychological effects are absent. If one is at an outdoor picnic the race track noise will produce adverse psychological and physical effects.
Further, an irritated person at his work place will certainly not do his best and will, naturally, tend to disagree with the others in a far worse manner than he would otherwise have done. He will certainly be far less productive than he would otherwise have been; no one will be too pleased to be working with him, either. Things would be even worse if the vexed person is the head of a particular organisation. Those under him will be in for an awful time. So it is only too clear that annoyance caused by noise can have very serious consequences on productivity in terms of human relations in an organisational context also.
Sound pollution, unfortunately, has come to stay with us, afflicting mankind with dire consequences. It is a major threat to the quality of human lives. According to psychologists, it has a serious repercussion on the human psyche. They opine subjected to 45 decibels of noise, the average person cannot sleep and at 120 decibels, the ear registers pain. Noise induced hearing loss usually happens slowly with no pain.
When one is exposed to loud noise repeatedly, he or she would have hearing loss that lasts forever. Besides, sounds can cause lack of sleep, irritability, ulcers, stress, indigestion, hypertension, heat diseases, etc, according to medical experts. The aged, the sick, the infant are definitely victims of noises from loudspeakers and other sources, early in the morning and late night hours during their sleep. A well-known heart specialist of the country in a recent write-up states that heart patients need about 6 hours of good undisturbed sleep, and if they get nocturnal angina due to noise pollution they should be prescribed antiangial drugs. Sometimes they are prone to acute myocardial infarction (heart attack). He further says that majority of heart attacks and strokes occur in the night and early morning, the ungodly hours when loudspeakers sounds come into play.
He is of the view noise pollution can cause severe stress and insomnia in some people who are sensitive to noise pollution due to high loudspeakers, especially at night and early morning. Insomnia could lead to severe fatigue and headache the following morning.
Under these circumstances, it is incumbent on the part of all stakeholders to understand the gravity and act responsibly. The Minister of Environment may bring in necessary legislation in the best interests of all concerned. In most developed countries and in some Asian countries, sound pollution has been prohibited through enactment of appropriate laws and regulations. It is high time, Bangladesh follows suit, not only to ban sound pollution from loudspeakers but also from other irritating sources.
Mohammad Shahidul Islam is National Trainer for Tourism Industry.
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