Noise mostly is defined as undesired sounds which have adverse effect on mankind. Yes, undesired. Loud song of Justin Bieber played by you may be noise for some other person, as he may want to do some work or taking some rest. So, the noise is psychological assemble controlled by psycho-social as well as physical properties.
Sound is generated by quickly changing pressure of air molecules at your eardrum. A healthy young ear is sensitive towards sound approximately between 20-Hertz to 20-kHz. Noise health effects are psychological and physical health consequences of continuous exposure to constant elevated sound levels. As per report of European Environment Agency, only in Europe 10,000 persons dies due to noise pollution in European Union. Here we’ll see five hazardous effects of noise on human health.
Stress effects and cardiovascular disorders:
Mostly cause to development of stress reactions and cardiovascular disorders has been attached with Noises. Studies show that high blood pressure or discharge of stress hormone levels are elevated in noise-exposed industrial workers. Adults as well as children residing near airport areas are susceptible in aircraft noise to have higher blood pressure problem and elevated levels of stress hormones.
Investigational studies conducted for chronic noise effects, show that noise effects on non-specific measures resulted into stress reactions including heart rate, blood pressure, stress hormone output and vasoconstriction (constriction of blood vessels resulting into blood pressure). Although people can be accustomed with this situation, however in some cases it has built chronic effects.
In an experiment Rhesus monkeys were exposed to loud noise for nine months. Their blood pressure increased by one third and even their BP-levels were maintained and remained high for a one-month follow-up period after ending noise.
In this way it is correlated with chances in increment of risk of cardiovascular problems. It not only plays a role in general stress response, but also can be cause to ulcers, weight at birth, miscarriage, consumption of medicating, infectious diseases etc.
Noise effects on Mental health:
If you lived in noisy areas, you must give it a second thought to still live in that area, as noise creates frustration and irritation and continued annoyance are one of the causes of mental problems, and in some cases may impair mental health. In a study conducted regarding mental hospital admissions around different airports in Los Angeles and Heathrow airport in London supports this argument. However, with proper control for socio-demographic variables, correlation between mental health and noise levels can be eliminated.
Noise effects sleep quality:
Sleep is one of the normal noise-sensitive human activities. It is out of question that you can sleep in noisy areas. Studies conducted in laboratories, show that 20 to 40% of normal noise sensitive persons have issues to fall asleep, or they change sleep stage or even awakened by faint noise level of 50 decibel, while soft conversation in library falls within 30-40 decibels. Interestingly this is not the case in children, as they least often change their stages due to such low noise and also less easily awakened than adults.
Not only noise effects sleep quality but also sleep deprivation can affect your daily routine work which is different from difficulty of task in normal life and difficulty you would face due to sleep deprivation.
Noise affects your routine performance and your understanding through senses:
Noise can disturb your routine work and cognitively demanding tasks like reading, memorizing, vigilance and process of acquiring knowledge. In 2003, in order to check noise effects on recall memory, an experiment was conducted on children aged 12 to 14 years for 15 minutes whole week learning session in noise. Results showed that there was memory recall impairment from aircraft (66 db) and road traffic noise (55 db), but there was no such impairment due to verbal noise.
But study on a larger scale conducted on young people, people of middle age, and old teachers in 2005, results were rather different. It shows that language based remembrance was more sensitive than other memory tasks, even verbal noise and road traffic noise is equally harmful.
Overall, either in noisy or less noisy areas, particularly children are vulnerable to noise exposure in cognitive performance and school achievement of language acquisition, memory and reading.
Noise effects on social behavior:
It has been consistently shown in lab tests that noise is continuously interacted with anger in provoking aggression. It doesn’t mean that noise itself creates anger but when person is angry then presence of noise further fuels to aggression.