Listen Up

Of course noise can be annoying, but it can also affect your well-being. Luckily there are things you can do to protect yourself

By Madison Pearson

Have you ever woken up to the sound of your neighbor mowing the lawn? What about a train horn? Or maybe the roar of power tools from that construction site across the street?

Well, those noises may be doing more than just making you a bit disgruntled.

Erica Walker, a researcher at Brown University, has been digging into this subject for almost a decade now. Her own experience with sound inspired a lifetime of dedication to the topic.

“It started when I was working as an artist,” Walker says. “My apartment was my studio, so I was living and working in the same environment.”

Then a family with two young children moved into the upstairs apartment.

“It was horrible,” she says. “The kids ran around almost 24/7. I started collecting information on when the noise was happening, how loud it was and things like that so I could report it to my landlord. A close friend of mine encouraged me to get into the world of public health because they figured I might as well put all of this data collecting to good use and make some positive change out of my experience.”

Now Walker runs the Community Noise Lab out of Brown University’s School of Public Health, where she and a team of students explore the relationship between noise and health by working directly with communities to support their specific issues.

Her research has shown not only that noise is downright annoying, but that it can also affect your body in ways you might not realize.

Noise And Your Body

That question may seem straightforward, but it can differ from person to person and from community to community. What qualifies as too much sound?

Walker defines noise as “unwanted sound.” Any unwanted sound qualifies, not just loud things.

Dogs barking incessantly in the background, trains rushing by in the early morning, your neighbor’s workout playlist blasting from a Bluetooth speaker, the construction of new homes in your general vicinity.

An invasion of sound can have a physical effect on you. “Think of it like your body entering fight-orflight mode. Your heart rate increases, you sweat, your stomach turns and your body starts releasing stress hormones,” Walker says.

Her team has noted health issues related to a sound-induced persistent state of fight or flight, such as cardiovascular problems and even the increased use of antidepressants. But she adds, excessive sound exposure “can knock out your hearing. That’s the side effect that most people think of.”

Jorgen Bang deals with hearing loss related to noise exposure daily as a hearing instrument specialist at Professional Hearing Healthcare in Spokane. He ...continued on next page often works with people whose hearing was impacted by loud sounds such as gunfire or prolonged noise exposure in occupations like forestry or construction work.

“It doesn’t have to be continuous noise,” Bang says. “It can be one incident. If somebody worked on a flight line, it could be one incident from a jet, but primarily it is years of exposure.”

If that period of prolonged exposure happens early in life, the side effects may be life-altering.