Neighborhood Noise May Increase Dementia Risk

 

Years ago, I read of studies that found that loud factory noise damages the brain.

https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2020/neighborhood-noise-may-increase-dementia-risk/

 

Michelle Samuels

November 6, 2020

Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia affect millions of older adults in the US—but not equally. Past research has identified risk factors including genes, education, racism, and air pollution, and a growing number of studies now point to noise as another influence on risk of dementia.

Now, a new study co-led by a School of Public Health researcher finds that 10 decibels more daytime neighborhood noise is associated with 36 percent higher odds of mild cognitive impairment and 30 percent higher odds of Alzheimer’s disease.

Published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, the study is the first of its kind in the US.

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https://www.alzdiscovery.org/cognitive-vitality/blog/do-loud-noises-harm-the-brain

 

 Do loud noises harm the brain?

    November 20, 2020 Betsy Mills, PhD

 Urban areas are centers of bustling activity, which can provide ample opportunities for cognitively stimulating activities, but also increase exposure to excessive noise, commonly referred to as noise pollution. Exposure to noise can lead to short term impairments in cognitive function, particularly with respect to the ability to focus and remember, while some studies suggest that, similar to air pollution, chronic exposure to noise pollution may increase the risk for dementia.

A report by the European Environmental Agency found that 12,000 premature deaths and 48,000 cases of ischemic heart disease were attributable to environmental noise pollution each year in Europe The majority of the noise pollution is related to traffic.

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Noise acts as a stressor by inducing a state of arousal in the body, which increases levels of stress hormones, such as cortisol. The brain is wasting resources on trying to tune out the noise, so the brain has less capacity to perform other complex tasks, leading to a temporary decline in cognitive performance [3]. Attention and memory tend to be the cognitive domains most impacted by noise. The stress response leads to vascular changes that can pave the way for cardiovascular disease and vascular dementia. Meta-analyses indicate that each 10 dB(A) increase in environmental noise increases the risk for adverse cardiovascular outcomes, including hypertension and heart attacks, by 7 to 17% [8]. Due to the strong connection between heart health and brain health, these negative effects on the cardiovascular system may account for some of the increased dementia risk from noise pollution. Exposure to noise during the night can impair sleep quality, which has additional negative health consequences. Chronic activation of the arousal-stress response can also cause oxidative stress, which is another driver of dementia.

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Update noise regulations to protect seals, porpoises

 

 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/956789

 

 News Release 28-Jun-2022
New guidelines needed on pile driving noise for offshore wind turbine installation
Peer-Reviewed Publication
American Institute of Physics

 

Noise produced by pile drivers building offshore wind turbines can damage the hearing of porpoises, seals, and other marine life. Regulations are in place, but guidance on this difficult topic requires regular revisits to incorporate results from new experiments.

 

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The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Leaf Blowers

 

I suggest reading the whole article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/25/opinion/leaf-blowers-california-emissions.html

 

By Margaret Renkl

Oct. 25, 2021

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Gasoline-powered leaf blowers are invaders, the most maddening of all the maddening, environment-destroying tools of the American lawn-care industry.

Nearly everything about how Americans “care” for their lawns is deadly. Pesticides prevent wildflower seeds from germinating and poison the insects that feed songbirds and other wildlife. Lawn mower blades, set too low, chop into bits the snakes and turtles and baby rabbits that can’t get away in time. Mulch, piled too deep, smothers ground-nesting bees, and often the very plants that mulch is supposed to protect, as well.

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This particular environmental catastrophe is not news. A 2011 study by Edmunds found that a two-stroke gasoline-powered leaf blower spewed out more pollution than a 6,200-pound Ford F-150 SVT Raptor pickup truck. Jason Kavanagh, the engineering editor at Edmunds at the time, noted that “hydrocarbon emissions from a half-hour of yard work with the two-stroke leaf blower are about the same as a 3,900-mile drive from Texas to Alaska in a Raptor.”

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“Some produce more than 100 decibels of low-frequency, wall-penetrating sound — or as much noise as a plane taking off — at levels that can cause tinnitus and hearing loss with long exposure,” Monica Cardoza wrote for Audubon Magazine this year.

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 The risks come not only from the noise and the chemical emissions that two-stroke engines produce, but also from the dust they stir up. “That dust can contain pollen, mold, animal feces, heavy metals and chemicals from herbicides and pesticides,” notes Sara Peach of Yale Climate Connections. All this adds up to increased risk of lung cancer, asthma, cardiovascular disease, premature birth and other life-threatening conditions.

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But the trouble with leaf blowers isn’t only their pollution-spewing health consequences. It’s also the damage they do to biodiversity. Fallen leaves provide protection for overwintering insects and the egg sacs of others. Leaf blowers, whether electric or gasoline-powered, dislodge the leaf litter that is so essential to insect life — the insect life that in turn is so essential to birds and other wildlife.

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Study reveals common loud noises cause fluid buildup in the inner ear and suggests simple possible cure for noise-induced hearing loss

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/934449

 

 News Release 11-Nov-2021
Study reveals common loud noises cause fluid buildup in the inner ear and suggests simple possible cure for noise-induced hearing loss
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Southern California - Health Sciences

 

 Exposure to loud noise, such as a firecracker or an ear-splitting concert, is the most common preventable cause of hearing loss. Research suggests that 12% or more of the world population is at risk for noise-induced loss of hearing.

Loud sounds can cause a loss of auditory nerve cells in the inner ear, which are responsible for sending acoustic information to the brain, resulting in hearing difficulty. However, the mechanism behind this hearing loss is not fully understood.

Now, a new study from Keck Medicine of USC links this type of inner ear nerve damage to a condition known as endolymphatic hydrops, a buildup of fluid in the inner ear, showing that these both occur at noise exposure levels people might encounter in their daily life.

Additionally, researchers found that treating the resulting fluid buildup with a readily available saline solution lessened nerve damage in the inner ear.

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Common household noises may be stressing your dog

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/934354

 

 News Release 9-Nov-2021
Study shows people likely underestimate their dog’s anxiety
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of California - Davis

 

 Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found that people may not recognize that their dog is stressed when exposed to common household noises.  While it’s well-established that sudden loud noises, such as fireworks or thunderstorms, commonly trigger a dog’s anxiety, a new study finds even common noises, such as a vacuum or microwave can be a trigger. The study was published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

The research found that high-frequency, intermittent noises such as the battery warning of a smoke detector are more likely to cause a dog anxiety, rather than low-frequency, continuous noise.

“We know that there are a lot of dogs that have noise sensitivities, but we underestimate their fearfulness to noise we consider normal because many dog owners can’t read body language,” said lead author Emma Grigg, a research associate and lecturer at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
Signs of anxiety

Some common signs of a dog’s anxiety include cringing, trembling, or retreating, but owners may be less able to identify signs of fear or anxiety when behaviors are more subtle. For example, stressed dogs could pant, lick their lips, turn their head away or even stiffen their body. Sometimes their ears will turn back, and their head will lower below their shoulders. Grigg suggests owners better educate themselves on anxiety-related behavior.

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Headphones, earbuds impact younger generations' future audio health

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-06/asoa-hei060721.php

 

News Release 10-Jun-2021
Children at highest risk because auditory system maturation incomplete, normal hearing health vital for learning, socialization
Acoustical Society of America

 

As more and more people are taking advantage of music on the go, personal audio systems are pumping up the volume to the detriment of the listener's hearing. Children, teenagers, and young adults are listening to many hours of music daily at volumes exceeding the globally recommended public health limit of 70 decibels of average leisure noise exposure for a day for a year.


•••••

In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported almost 25% of American adults, age 20-69, have noise-induced hearing loss. Acquired hearing loss is associated with communication difficulties, social isolation, increased risk of falls and accidents, and health complications, including dementia in later life.

Auditory health risk is highest for people using personal audio systems for more than an hour a day at more than 50% volume over a five-year period. Disputing a recent Wall Street Journal article claiming 85 decibels is safe for children and teens, Fink said 85 decibels is not a safe exposure for anyone.

"People think the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 85 dBA recommended exposure level for noise is safe," he said. "But a noise level that won't prevent hearing loss in factory workers or heavy equipment operators is far too high for a young child whose ears have to last an entire lifetime."

•••••
"This isn't just a theoretical problem. Most people get too much noise every day," Fink said, citing studies from Western Michigan University and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Apple.

Urban traffic noise causes song learning deficits in birds

I'm sure excessive noise of any kind, not just traffic noise, causes these problems.

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-05/m-utn051321.php

 

News Release 13-May-2021
Zebra finches also suffer from a suppressed immune function due to the chronic stress
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

 

Traffic noise leads to inaccuracies and delays in the development of song learning in young birds. They also suffer from a suppressed immune system, which is an indicator of chronic stress. A new study by researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and colleagues shows that young zebra finches, just like children, are particularly vulnerable to the effects of noise because of its potential to interfere with learning at a critical developmental stage.

Traffic noise is a pervasive pollutant that adversely affects the health and well-being of millions of people. In addition to severe noise-induced diseases in adults, traffic noise has also been linked to learning impairments and language deficits in children.

•••••

Transportation noise pollution and cardio- and cerebrovascular disease

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/doc--tnp040621.php

[Surely other noise would have the same effect.]

News Release 6-Apr-2021
Dpt of Cardiology - University Medical Center Mainz

 

Epidemiological studies have found that transportation noise increases the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, with high-quality evidence for ischaemic heart disease. According to the WHO, ?1.6 million healthy life-years are lost annually from traffic-related noise in Western Europe. Traffic noise at night causes fragmentation and shortening of sleep, elevation of stress hormone levels, and increased oxidative stress in the vasculature and the brain. These factors can promote vascular dysfunction, inflammation and hypertension, thereby elevating the risk of cardiovascular disease.


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Bearded seals are loud -- but not loud enough

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/cu-bsa_1022421.php

 

News Release 24-Feb-2021
Vocal threshold may hamper survival of this Arctic species
Cornell University

 

During mating season, male bearded seals make loud calls to attract a mate--even their "quiet" call could still be as ear-rattling as a chainsaw. Bearded seals have to be loud to be heard over the cacophony of their equally loud brethren. And, increasingly, the noise humans make is adding to the underwater din and could have serious consequences.


•••••

From spring through early summer, the under-ice habitat near Utqiagvik, Alaska, is flooded with the vocalizations of male bearded seals--a sound that can be best described as "otherworldly." These elaborate vocalizations are essential for bearded seal reproduction, but in the rapidly changing Arctic soundscape, where noise from industrial activities is predicted to dramatically increase in the next 15 years, bearded seals may need to adjust their calling behavior if they are going to be heard above the noise generated by ships and commercial activities. But the bearded seals can only do so much.

Fournet and colleagues listened to thousands of recorded bearded seal vocalizations from Arctic Alaska spanning a two-year period. Each call was carefully measured and compared to the concurrent ambient noise conditions. What they found is that bearded seals do call louder as their underwater acoustic habitat gets noisier, but there is an upper limit to this behavior. As expected, when ambient noise gets too high, bearded seals are no longer able to compensate in order to be heard. As a result, as ambient noise conditions increase, the distance over which individuals can be detected goes down.

"Given that these are reproductive calls, it is likely that the seals are already calling as close to as loudly as possible-the males very much want to be heard by the females," Fournet says. "So, it is unsurprising that there is an upper limit. I'm grateful that we have been able to identify that limit so we can make responsible management choices moving forward."

While this work has intrinsic conservation value, a major impetus for pursuing this research is the value of bearded seals-or ugruk in the Inupiaq language-to Alaska Native communities in the high Arctic. Bearded seals are at the center of subsistence and cultural activities in Inupiaq communities. Threats to bearded seals are by extension threats to the communities that rely on them.

"This work never would have happened without the insight and guidance of Arctic communities," Fournet says. "It was their energy that led the Cornell Lab to place hydrophones in the water. It is our job to continue listening."

Human noise affects animal behaviour, studies show

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/03/human-noise-affects-animal-behaviour-studies-show

 

Traffic noise affected zebra finches’ foraging habits and field crickets’ mating

 

 Natalie Grover Science correspondent
Tue 2 Feb 2021 19.01 EST

Working from home during Covid-19 has brought noise pollution close to home, whether it’s your partner making calls within earshot or grinding coffee during your Zoom interview. Now research suggests the animal kingdom is also disturbed by the noise of humans and our gadgets.

As humans proliferate, we have penetrated deeper into wildlife habitats, creating a pervasive rise in environmental sound that not only directly affects the ability of animals to hear but indeed communicate. Emerging research suggests noise pollution, caused, for instance, by traffic, interferes with animal behaviour, including cognition and mating.

In an attempt to capture the impact of traffic sounds on cognitive performance, researchers gave adult zebra finches – a species of diminutive songbirds native to Australia – a series of foraging tasks.

The birds were either in a relatively quiet laboratory environment or treated to traffic noises designed to simulate a series of cars driving past 20 to 30 metres away.

•••••

All tasks apart from colour association learning were negatively affected by traffic noise, the researchers wrote in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“We weren’t really sure that we would see such a strong effect,” said study author Christopher Templeton, an assistant professor at Pacific University, Oregon, US.

“These are birds that … live in big colonies, they’re all talking all the time making quite a big ruckus. So, to see that just the simple act of hearing cars drive by is enough to really keep them from being able to perform on these tests is pretty surprising in some ways.”

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We Now Know Why Naval Sonar Leads To Mass Whale Strandings

https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/we-now-know-why-naval-sonar-leads-to-mass-whale-strandings/all/

Nov. 2018

For decades scientists have known that naval sonar can have a detrimental impact on marine life. The sound is so intense that marine mammals will swim hundreds of miles, dive incredibly deep, or even beach themselves in an attempt to flee the unbearable din. Beaked whales, in particular, tend to strand themselves in response to sonar. A new review paper, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, tells us why.  

•••••

Typical mass strandings involve two or more animals beaching themselves while alive at roughly the same time and place. Exactly why these events happen isn’t really known – it could be due to sickness, disorientation, or being chased into shallow water by a predator. We’re still not quite sure. Atypical mass stranding events, on the other hand, involve two or more whales washing up in six days no more than 74 kilometers (46 miles) apart. These kinds of strandings are usually associated with sound.

So how exactly does sonar sound cause the whales to beach themselves? According to the new paper, which summarises what was discussed at a 2017 meeting of beaked whale experts in the Canary Islands, the sonar distresses beaked whales to the extent that they end up with nitrogen bubbles in their blood. This can cause hemorrhaging and damage to their vital organs. If you’re a diver, you’ll know this kind of nitrogen poisoning as decompression sickness, aka the bends – a rare but life-threatening effect of coming up to the surface too quickly.

But how can an animal perfectly adapted to life underwater, with the ability to dive 2,000 meters (6,500 feet), end up with the same problem as a panicky scuba diver?

"In the presence of sonar they are stressed and swim vigorously away from the sound source, changing their diving pattern," lead author Yara Bernaldo de Quiros told AFP.

"The stress response, in other words, overrides the diving response, which makes the animals accumulate nitrogen. It's like an adrenalin shot."

•••••

The authors note that to mitigate the impacts of sonar on beaked whales, we must ban its use in areas where they're found. A moratorium on the use of MFAS around the Canary Islands in 2004 shows just how well this works – no atypical strandings have been seen since. The researchers urge other countries where sonar is deployed, such as the US, Greece, Italy, and Japan, to follow suit.

Shut off the leaf blowers and restore peace to suburbia

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/12/21/shut-off-the-leaf-blowers-and-restore-peace-to-suburbia/

 

By Peter Bahouth
8:01 AM on Dec 18, 2020 CST

My very first job was raking leaves in the fall. It was a good way to make a little money without leaving the neighborhood. The weather was cool, the leaves were trippy colors, and people were out and about before the coming semi-hibernation of winter. It was a beautiful season of red, orange and yellow, quiet but for the sound of kids jumping into huge piles of leaves.

Now, the simple and efficient rake has been replaced by the daily intrusion of loud and polluting gas-powered leaf blowers designed to blast away any leaf that dares land on a lawn. The mind-rattling racket of these machines has made being outside, working and going to school remotely, listening to someone or something, even thinking, nearly impossible. 

Operating a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour emits smog-forming pollution comparable to driving a 2017 Toyota Camry about 1,100 miles, or approximately the distance from Chicago to Houston. Particulate matter linked to cancers, heart disease, asthma and other serious ailments, lingers in the air for days in droplets so small that the body has no way to filter them from entering the lungs. Most affected are children, the elderly and, of course, the operators of these machines.

•••••

The low-frequency waves travel farthest and produce the worst health effects, but the high-frequency waves (think dentist drill) add a grating intrusion. Unlike eyes, ears can’t shut. Studies show that noise pollution heightens stress, disrupts sleep, leads to hypertension and impairs learning.

[Also increases the likelihood of deafness and dementia.]

There is no waste in nature, and leaves aren’t litter. When autumn leaves fall, many species of butterflies, bees, fireflies, moths, ladybugs and earthworms find their winter home. The Luna moth is one of the most beautiful wild creatures that still exists close to our homes. Wrapping their cocoons in leaves provides excellent camouflage and insulation from cold temperatures. The cocoons are bright lime green and as large as four and a half inches long, and finding one is always a delight. But weekly blowing of leaf cover has substantially destroyed Luna moth habitat as well as that for fireflies and many other species. When we treat leaves like trash, we’re tossing out something other species need to survive.

•••••

Nature is not someplace to visit, it’s all around us. Even the most urbanized places are home to countless populations of wild birds, butterflies, flowers and other species. Our surroundings have much to offer in an increasingly complicated and electronic world. Nature provides us a place to think, create and de-stress. Spending time outside is rejuvenating and important to our well-being, but the persistent noise of gas-powered blowers makes it tough to enjoy the simple act of being outside, and it’s loud enough to disrupt your day, even inside your own home, a place that has become more essential than ever.

Sanctuary is being lost to the sanctity of a well-groomed lawn. With a million new gas-powered blowers sold each year, and manufacturers pushing the year-round use of leaf blowers for a variety of purposes, including to dry off pavement, it’s only getting worse. We’re not only losing peace and quiet and the quality of our air, we’re losing a whole season.

It’s time to hit the reset button and take back autumn. Buy someone a rake for Christmas, and get out in the crisp clean air and jump in the leaves.

Airplane noise at night can trigger cardiovascular death

I'm sure other noise can have the same effect, like the jerk who goes around our neighborhood setting off fire crackers in the middle of the night, some of them sounding like bombs.  Got a small chest pain for hours one night from one close to my house.

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-11/stap-ana112720.php

 

News Release 27-Nov-2020
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

Most studies on transportation noise and cardiovascular mortality have focused on long-term exposure to noise. These studies demonstrated that chronic noise exposure is a risk factor for cardiovascular mortality. Across Europe, 48,000 cases of ischemic heart disease per year can be attributed to noise exposure, in particular to road traffic noise.

For the first time, a study led by researchers at Swiss TPH found that acute noise from airplanes during the night can trigger cardiovascular deaths within two hours of aircraft noise exposure. The study published today in the peer-reviewed European Heart Journal found that the risk of a cardiovascular death increases by 33% for night-time noise levels between 40 and 50 decibels and 44% for levels above 55 decibels.

"We found that aircraft noise contributed to about 800 out of 25,000 cardiovascular deaths that occurred between 2000 and 2015 in the vicinity of Zurich airport. This represents three percent of all observed cardiovascular deaths," said Martin Röösli, corresponding author of the study and Head of the Environmental Exposures and Health unit at Swiss TPH.

According to Röösli, the results are similar to the effects that emotions such as anger or excitement have on cardiovascular mortality. "This is not so surprising, as we know night-time noise causes stress and affects sleep," he added. The night-time noise effect was more pronounced in quiet areas with little railway and road traffic background noise and for people living in older houses, which often have less insulation and are thus more noise-prone.

•••••

Community noise may increase dementia risk

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/w-cnm101920.php

News Release 21-Oct-2020
Wiley

Results from a new study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia support emerging evidence suggesting that noise may influence individuals' risk of developing dementia later in life.

Researchers studied 5,227 participants of the Chicago Health and Aging Project who were aged 65 years or older, of whom 30% had mild cognitive impairment and 11% had Alzheimer's disease. They found that persons living with 10 decibels more noise near their residences during the daytime had a 36% higher odds of having mild cognitive impairment and a 30% higher odds of having Alzheimer's disease.

"These findings suggest that within typical urban communities in the United States, higher levels of noise may impact the brains of older adults and make it harder for them to function without assistance. This is an important finding since millions of Americans are currently impacted by high levels of noise in their communities," said senior author Sara D. Adar, ScD, of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor.


•••••

Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy may increase blood pressure in early life

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-11/bifg-eta111220.php

 

News Release 12-Nov-2020
Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)

 

Exposure to an urban environment characterised by high levels of air pollution and noise in areas with a high building density during the foetal period and in early childhood may contribute to higher blood pressure. This was the conclusion of a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) published in Environment International. ISGlobal is an institution supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation.


•••••

Analysis of the results showed that exposure to higher levels of air pollution, particularly during the first two terms of pregnancy, was associated with higher blood pressure in childhood. 

•••••

Furthermore, other characteristics of the urban environment during childhood also appear to be important. High building density is associated with higher blood pressure and good urban transport connectivity is linked to lower blood pressure. "It is possible that these associations reflect how people move around in the city and may indicate that greater connectivity promotes physical activity in the population" explains ISGlobal researcher Charline Warembourg, first author of the study. Exposure to noise also appears to be associated with higher blood pressure in children.

•••••

High blood pressure is one of the chief risk factors for cardiovascular disease, a condition which is currently the leading cause of death worldwide. "Numerous studies have shown that children with higher blood pressure are more likely to develop hypertension later in life," says Martine Vrijheid, study leader and director of ISGlobal's Childhood and Environment Programme. "The results of this study show how important it is to identify environmental exposures that contribute to hypertension in early life, from conception onwards."

•••••

Repeated small blasts put military, law enforcement at risk for brain injury

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-11/uovh-rsb111220.php

 

News Release 12-Nov-2020
UVA-led study examined specialists who use explosives to enter buildings
University of Virginia Health System

 

Military and law-enforcement personnel repeatedly exposed to low-level blasts have significant brain changes - including an increased level of brain injury and inflammation - compared with a control group, a new study has found.

Led by University of Virginia School of Medicine researcher James Stone, MD, PhD, the study compared the brains of 20 "breachers" - specialists who use explosives to enter buildings and other structures - with a 14-person, age-matched control group. The breachers had been exposed to an average of 4,628 blasts, while the control group had been exposed to an average of three.

Blood measurements and neuropsychological assessments suggest that the breachers have increased levels of brain injury and inflammation, which the researchers wrote is "consistent with the theory that exposure to breaching-related blasts leads to system-wide effects in the brain."

The study also found that the breachers had statistically significant differences in blood flow, brain structure and brain activity.


•••••

Long-term exposure to traffic noise may impact weight gain in the UK population

If road noise has this effect, so must loud music.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-08/uoo-let081720.php

 

News Release 17-Aug-2020
University of Oxford

 

Transport noise is a major problem in Europe, with over 100 million people living in areas where road traffic noise exceeds levels greater than 55dB, the health-based threshold set by the EU. A new study by the University of Oxford and the University of Leicester has found a connection between traffic noise and obesity. Long-term exposure to road traffic noise, such as living near a motorway or on a busy road, was associated with an increase in body mass index and waist circumference, which are key markers of obesity. The study was published today in the journal Environmental Research.


•••••

Noise appears to negatively impact fetal health

In my neighborhood, people voluntarily subject themselves and their neighbors to loud noise, from very loud sound systems and fire crackers.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-07/lu-ana071320.php


News Release 13-Jul-2020
Lehigh University


Prolonged exposure to loud noise is more than annoying, it is bad for human health. Beyond the obvious potential damage to hearing, chronic noise exposure has also been linked to adverse cardiovascular effects, such as increased risks of heart attacks and strokes.

Now, for the first time, researchers have provided a causal estimate linking high-level noise exposure to another key health challenge: low birth weight (< 2,500 grams or approximately 5.5 pounds).

Health economists from Lehigh University, Lafayette College and the University of Colorado, Denver were able to pinpoint a causal link by studying residential neighborhoods impacted by recent changes in airplane flight patterns going in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the largest airports in the United States.

•••••

Their analysis revealed an increase of 1.6 percentage points--or 22 percent--in the risk of having a low birth weight baby among mothers living close to the airport, in the direction of the runway, exposed to noise levels over the 55 dB threshold (the threshold used by the EPA and the WHO for the protection of public health), and during the period when the new flight pattern changes were more actively implemented at the airport.

•••••

The changes in flight patterns around the Newark airport, as well as many airports in the United States, were triggered by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic control initiative called the Next Generation Air Transportation System, known as NextGen. Designed to reduce flight time and save fuel, one component of NextGen employs precision satellite monitoring instead of old-fashioned radar to guide airplanes. These satellite-designed optimum routes are made to be more direct. The use of satellite monitoring allows for more planes in the air, safely spaced and flying closer together, so more planes can use the same route.

Usage of these new routes by more and more aircraft and the adoption of a gradual descent approach?resulting in planes coming in to land at lower altitudes-have exposed residents living in areas under the satellite-designed routes to, as one resident impacted by changes in Arizona told CBS News, "a constant barrage of airplanes flying over their homes."

•••••

Hand dryers are ‘clearly dangerous’ to children’s hearing, published research by a 13-year-old shows

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/07/02/hand-dryers-are-clearly-dangerous-childrens-hearing-published-research-by-year-old-shows/

By Christopher Ingraham
July 2, 2019 at 9:28 a.m. EDT

•••••

But new research from the journal of the Canadian Paediatric Society confirms what toddlers have suspected all along: Restroom hand dryers really are too loud. They operate at decibel levels “that are clearly dangerous to children’s hearing.” Loud enough to hurt, and potentially damage children’s sensitive ears.

The study’s author, Nora Louise Keegan, should know: She’s 13, and her now-published paper draws on research she’s been doing since age 9, when she noticed restroom hand dryers were hurting her ears.

For her study (which notes that its data “was originally presented at the Calgary Youth Science Fair”), Keegan used a professional-grade decibel meter to compile loudness measurements of electric hand dryers at dozens of public restrooms in Alberta from 2015 to 2017. She purposefully selected “locations that children might frequent,” such as schools, parks, restaurants and malls.

For each of the 44 dryers in her final database, Keegan took measurements at various heights and distances to approximate the real-world experience of children and adults of various sizes. She also measured decibel output with and without the presence of a hand in the airstream.

She found that the most common dryers she encountered were astonishingly loud under real-world circumstances. “All Xlerator models, the Blast, and the Dyson Airblade and Airblade V models were louder than 100 dBA [adjusted decibels] when hands were in the air flow, for all measurements,” Keegan writes. That threshold is loud enough that the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health recommends that adult workers be exposed to no more than 15 minutes of it each day.

A number of the dryer models clocked well above 100 dBA, however, with average loudness levels approaching that of a jackhammer directly adjacent to a person’s ear. At those levels, according to NIOSH calculations, the safe level of exposure for adult workers is measured in mere seconds.

Keegan notes with concern that children are more vulnerable to damage from loud noise than adults, with sudden noises, like that of a hand dryer, being more harmful than ones that build up over time. Based on a variety of published guidelines, she concludes that “there is no safe duration of exposure for children to sounds greater than a level somewhere between 91 and 111 dBA."

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Keegan’s research confirms previous work by Shari Salzhauer Berkowitz of Mercy College, who also found that commonly used dryers were producing greater noise than their manufacturers claimed, at levels unsafe for all-day adult exposure.

Keegan writes, in conclusion, that “children who have complained about loud hand dryers have been right all along about the dryers hurting their ears.”

Insights into why loud noise is bad for your health

In my neighborhood, the noise comes from people's boomboxes.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/eb-iiw042220.php

News Release 27-Apr-2020
Experimental Biology

Whether it is loud machinery at work, a busy freeway or a nearby airport, many people are exposed to high levels of noise. Two new mouse studies provide new insight into how this type of noise exposure can lead to high blood pressure and cancer-related DNA damage.

"Large studies have linked noise exposure to health problems in people," said Matthias Oelze, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the University Medical Center of Mainz in Germany. "Our new data provides additional mechanistic insights into these adverse health effects, especially high blood pressure and potentially cancer development, both leading causes of global death."

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Oelze and colleagues found that healthy mice exposed to four days of aircraft noise were more likely to develop high blood pressure. For mice with pre-established high blood pressure, this noise exposure aggravated heart damage because of a synergistic increase of oxidative stress and inflammation in the cardiovascular and neuronal systems.

In another study, the researchers observed that the same noise exposure induced oxidative DNA damage in mice. This damage led to a highly mutagenic DNA lesion that was previously associated with the development of cancer in other settings.

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