THE TOLL OF NOISE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5295, 4 July 1928, Page 4

THE TOLL OF NOISE.

A NATIONAL PROBLEM. EFFECT ON THE NERVES. “The steady growth of traffic and other street noises in all our cities is affecting the health, efficiency, and wealth of the community,” writes. Professor Hen'ry J. Spooner in the “Daily News.”

“It is true,” he says, “that the physical health of our people is better than it has ever, been, but their nervous health is being insidiously affected by .the increasing devastating din —preventable n'oise that distracts atten.ton and tends to decrease the efficiency of all workers—particularly of executives and of mental workers engaged on creative work, who often suffer agonies in endeavouring to sustain a mental effort in a noisy atmosphere. Quite .apart from the human factor, of the noise question, we have the serious economic one due to the alarming depreciation in the value of house property and land along the near, traffic routes. At least some 50 or 60 per cent, of the harmful traffic noise is preventable, but no attempt is being made by our statesmen to grapple with this national problem.”