HEALTH NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17979, 26 March 1930, Page 2

HEALTH NOTES.

NOISE. A HEALTH MENACE. « (Contributed by the Department of Health.) It is probable that most city dwellers find noise an intermittent nuisance, hut overseas medical publications have now declared that it is a definite menace to the public health, resulting in loss of efficiency and energy. Manufacturing, commerce, recreation, and oilier pursuits and their necessary adjuncts, such as transportation, building operations, warning signals, etc., manifest their energy in a common factor —NOISE. In times past the industrial activity of a city was determined by the size of the smoke cloud that hung over it in the sky—the more smoke Ihe more business. But we have learned that the smoke cloud means more sickness and ill-health as well as more business, and many agencies arc now striving to find a way to prevent it. The time is now approaching when Noise Will Be Taboo, as well ks the smoke cloud, the infecled water and food supply, a 'U other dangers to our health and comfort, , . • _ p Noise in general is an admission ot carelessness or indifference to the proper installation or operation of equipment, The steel-tyred waggons, the iron-shod horse, the cobblestone streets, the surface cars, the warning blasts from auto horns, the open cutouts and haphazard installation ol machinery with no provision for sound deadening, streets in had repair, rundown auto tracks, and many others are all sources of unnecessary noise. Some individual concerns endeavour to fortify themselves against this nuisance by sound-proofing theii buildings. This affords relief f° r a few, but in the interest, of all the people the preventive measure must he the correction at the source of the difficulty. . ~ , People are prone to believe that noise in a necessary evil and a sign of progress, but this is not the. case. Noise is a health hazard. Scientific research has shown that it requires more energy to perform duties in noisy locations than it does lo perform similar duties in quiet locations, states an authority. These tests were made on normal subjects. Wc cannot even hazard a guess as lo what a 10 per cent, saving in energy means in a person's added capacity for enjoying recreation or as a reserve in pet forming additional work. Noise not sufficient lo wake a sleeping person will cause muscles to become tense and to stay tense for as long a period as 30 minutes before they relax. Sleep under these conditions is not refreshing, and no doubt accounts for many people waking fatigued after sleeping their allotted period. . people who live in noisy districts develop a certain resistance lo noise, Nevertheless they are living

Under an Unnecessary Strain. Such people moving to quieter areas are subject lo an adverse reaction for a period of time, during which they find it difficult to sleep or work without noise stimulus, as that is exactly what it is—an artificial stimulus which produces inactivity of the body tissues and organs in an endeavour to protect itself from this artificial .condition. When this stimulus reaches its.limit a breaking clown of the nervous system occurs —similar, indeed, to the reaction suffered by the shell-shocked victims of the World War. It has been estimated that 80 per cent, of the noise in all districts except industrial is caused by traffic, An investigation tends to show that it is the interrupting ancl loud noises that irritate and perturb. The noise problem is serious, as noise breeds noise. Loud traffic noises require loud warning signals. This increases the din and in turn calls foi loud warning signals. Note, for instance, the sirens in use by the fire departments at the present time. A few years ago a warning gong was all that was necessary, and it could be heart! for blocks. The increasing traffic noise year by year lias caused several hospitals in America, with hundreds of thousands invested in buildings and grounds, to seriously consider moving to quieter areas. The problem of street noises 'docs not primarily concern the individual encaged in the noise-producing occupation. It concerns primarily the ordinary citizen who, to maintain his health and efficiency, needs a proper setting for Rest and Recuperation from the day’s work; it concerns the invalid ancl convalescent, whose chances of recovery from illness may depend as much as on anything else on the presence of facilities for uninterupled sleep; it concerns the neurasthenic, the sufferer from functional nervous diseases, whose condition, if not actually caused by such noises, is aggravated by them; and it concerns the brain worker engaged in intricate calculations or in an occupation demanding continuous concentrated thought. The fact that large numbers of people, whether nervous or not, undoubl edly suffer intensely from noise is sufficient for all reasonable persons to support measures lo diminish Ibis nuisance. So much of the harm is done by individual thoughtlessness —the noisy theatreparly, the loose tail-board, the unnecessary factor, for example—that it seems reasonable to hope that real reform could be brought about by personal consideration for others.