Outrageous Sound And Human Health

What is noise and how to control it has become a puzzle in developing countries and sub Sahara Africa.
Sound translates to noise if it interferes with the comfort of people or exceeds acceptable limits
According to Online Dictionary, sound is measured in Decibel, a word coined after Alexander Graham-Bell, the inventor of the Telephone and audio device.
An audiologist, Friedrich Richie says the maximum sound measurement conducive for human health is 60 decibel. This measurement appears to be an odd concept to many sound system users and instrumentalists as most of them associate high sound with melody.
Every audio-visual electronic device has a sound regulation mechanism to guard against outrageous sound and noise Pollution.
Much has been said about noise Pollution. In fact, there are extant laws in Nigeria domesticated in Rivers State that prohibit outrageous sound. But the laws are far from being implemented. The human nature is averse to instructions and control.
According to a research study by Dr. John Green, a psychosomatic therapist, most defaulters of sound abuse are associated with religious organisations, Night clubs and studios.
Green said that sound has  very powerful effects.
“The sound of your voice will do this just as much as anything else. In fact, probably more than anything else. I’m fond of saying that the human voice is one of the most powerful sounds on the planet. It’s the only sound that can say I love you or even start a war”
He noted that Noise health effects are the physical and psychological health consequences of regular exposure to consistent elevated sound levels. Noise from high traffic and high elevated sound from event halls are considered by the World Health Organization to be one of the worst environmental stressors for humans, second only to air pollution.
According to the research, elevated workplace or environmental noise can cause hearing impairment, tinnitus, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, annoyance, and sleep disturbance. Changes in the immune system and birth defects have been also attributed to noise exposure
An audiologist conducting an audiometric hearing test in a sound-proof testing booth and declares that:
Although age-related health effects (presbycusis) occur naturally with age, in many countries the cumulative impact of noise is sufficient to impair the hearing of a large fraction of the population over the course of a lifetime. Noise exposure has been known to induce noise-induced hearing loss, tinnitus, hypertension, vasoconstriction, and other cardiovascular adverse effects. Chronic noise exposure has been associated with sleep disturbances and increased incidence of diabetes. Adverse cardiovascular effects occur from chronic exposure to noise due to the sympathetic nervous system’s inability to habituate. The sympathetic nervous system maintains lighter stages of sleep when the body is exposed to noise, which does not allow blood pressure to follow the normal rise and fall cycle of an undisturbed circadian rhythm.
Stress from time spent around elevated noise levels has been linked with increased workplace accident rates and aggression and other antisocial behaviors. The most significant sources are vehicles, aircraft, prolonged exposure to loud music, and industrial noise, the study further reveals.
The loss of lives is alarming. There are approximately 10,000 deaths per year as a result of noise in the European Union.
The research also reveals quite interestingly that Noise induces hearing loss
Noise-induced hearing loss is a permanent shift in pure-tone thresholds, resulting in sensorineural hearing loss. The severity of a threshold shift is dependent on duration and severity of noise exposure. Noise-induced threshold shifts are seen as a notch on an audiogram from 3000 to 6000 Hz, but most often at 4000 Hz.
Exposure to loud noises, either in a single traumatic experience or over time, can damage the auditory system and result in hearing loss and sometimes tinnitus as well. Traumatic noise exposure can happen at work (e.g., loud machinery), at play (e.g., loud sporting events, concerts, recreational activities), and/or by accident (e.g., a backfiring engine.) Noise induced hearing loss is sometimes unilateral and typically causes patients to lose hearing around the frequency of the triggering sound trauma.
Tinnitus, the report says, is an auditory disorder characterized by the perception of a sound (ringing, chirping, buzzing, etc.) in the ear in the absence of an external sound source. There are two types of tinnitus: subjective and objective. Subjective is the most common and can only be heard “in the head” by the person affected. Objective tinnitus can be heard from those around the affected person and the audiologist can hear it using a stethoscope.Tinnitus can also be categorized by the way it sounds in one’s ear, pulsatile tinnitus  which is caused by the vascular nature of Glomus tumors and non-pulsatile tinnitus which usually sounds like crickets, the sea and bees.
“Though the pathophysiology of tinnitus isn’t known, noise exposure can be a contributing factor, therefore tinnitus can be associated with hearing loss, generated by the cochlea and central nervous system (CNS). High frequency hearing loss causes a high pitched tinnitus and low frequency hearing loss causes a roaring tinnitus. Noise-induced tinnitus can be temporary or permanent depending on the type and amount of noise a person was exposed to”, the report says.
Noise has been associated with important cardiovascular health problems, particularly hypertension, as it causes an increase in levels of stress hormones and vascular oxidative stress. Noise levels of 50 dB(A) or greater at night may increase the risk of myocardial infarction by chronically elevated cortisol production.
Traffic noise has several negative effects, including increased risk for coronary artery disease, with night-time exposure to noise possibly more harmful than day-time exposure.It has also been shown to increase blood pressure in individuals within the surrounding residential areas, with railways and high elevated sound halls causing the greatest cardiovascular effects.Roadway noise levels are sufficient to constrict arterial blood flow and lead to elevated blood pressure. Vasoconstriction can result from elevated adrenaline levels or through medical stress reactions. Long-term exposure to noise is correlated to increase in cortisol and angiotensin-II levels which are respectively associated with oxidative stress and vascular inflammation. Individuals subject to greater than 80 dB(A) in the workplace are at increased risk of having increased blood pressure.
A 2021 systematic review on the effect of occupational exposure to noise on ischaemic heart disease (IHD), stroke and hypertension, coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) located 17 studies that met the inclusion criteria, comprising a total of 534,688 participants (7.47% females) in 11 countries and in three WHO regions (the Americas, Europe, and the Western Pacific).
The study found the low quality of evidence of the effect of occupational exposure to intense noise (e”85 dBA), compared to occupational exposure below 85 dBA (<85 dBA). They concluded that there is inadequate evidence of harmfulness for the studied outcomes with the exception for the risk of acquiring IHD, which was 29% higher for those exposed to noise in their workplace.
The report also identified other health effects of prohibitive sound as follows:
High elevated sound may also increase the risk of sleep disturbances, stroke, diabetes, and becoming overweight.
Psychological impacts of noise
Causal relationships have been discovered between noise and psychological effects such as annoyance, psychiatric disorders, and effects on psychosocial well-being.Exposure to intense levels of noise can cause personality changes and violent reactions. Noise has also been shown to be a factor that is attributed to violent reactions. The psychological impacts of noise also include an addiction to loud music. This was researched in a study where non-professional musicians were found to have loudness addictions more often than non-musician control subjects.
Psychological health effects from noise also include depression and anxiety. Individuals who have hearing loss, including noise induced hearing loss, may have their symptoms alleviated with the use of hearing aids. Individuals who do not seek treatment for their loss are 50% more likely to have depression than their aided peers.These psychological effects can lead to detriments in physical care in the form of reduced self-care, work-tolerance, and increased isolation.
Auditory stimuli can also serve as psychological triggers for individuals with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Sound affects us psychologically. It changes our emotions and our moods. Music will do that, of course. I’m sure you can think of a song that will make you happy. But when the sound comes buzzing, you see yourself hating the song at that moment or frowning.
So music changes our mood. However, it’s not the only sound that does that. There are plenty of sounds in nature that do. Bird song for example makes us feel relaxed and reassured, because we’ve learned over hundreds of thousands of years again that when the birds are singing we’re normally pretty safe. Sound can affect our emotional state positively or negatively.
Stress
Research commissioned by Rockwool, a multi-national insulation manufacturer headquartered in Denmark, reveals that in the UK one third (33%) of victims of domestic disturbances claim loud parties have left them unable to sleep or made them stressed in the last two years. Around one in eleven (9%) of those affected by domestic disturbances claims it has left them continually disturbed and stressed. More than 1.8 million people claim noisy neighbors have made their life a misery and they cannot enjoy their own homes. The impact of noise on health is potentially a significant problem across the UK given that more than 17.5 million Britons (38%) have been disturbed by the inhabitants of neighboring properties in the last two years. For almost one in ten (7%) Britons this is a regular occurrence.
The extent of the problem of noise pollution for public health is reinforced by figures collated by Rockwool from local authority responses to a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request. This research reveals in the period April 2008 – 2009 UK councils received 315,838 complaints about noise pollution from private residences. This resulted in environmental health officers across the UK serving 8,069 noise abatement notices, or citations under the terms of the Anti-Social Behavior (Scotland) Act.
With additional record from WHO.

By: Igbiki Benibo