On page 266, we told you about some of the more common sources of noise pollution—car stereos, loud parties, and Wiccan priestesses. Here are a few more stories full of sound and fury.
CRAZY COMMERCIALS
You’re curled up on the couch watching your favorite TV show. Something really dramatic happens, the scene fades to black, and before you know it, your television erupts into loud music, glaring colors, and some announcer yelling, “There’s never been a better time to buy a Toyota!” To curb this annoyance, in 2009 Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-California) introduced legislation called the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation act, or CALM, which will fine stations for airing “excessively noisy or strident” commercials. But even if the law passes, it may prove hard to enforce. That’s because in the United States, the FCC already controls how loud a station can broadcast. TV shows rarely, if ever, reach the maximum level. Advertisers, however, push the entire 30 seconds to the highest level. “If someone sets off a camera flash every now and then, it’s one thing,” writes Spencer Critchley in Digital Audio magazine. “If they aim a steady spotlight into your eyes it’s another, even if the peak brightness is no higher.”
The Apple iPod was designed to be an “instrument of solitude,” where the listener can retreat to his or her library of music while not forcing it upon others. But a 2007 Associated Press article reported that people who don’t own the devices have complained to Apple that the iPod itself is a growing source of noise pollution. That’s because the listeners who put the little ear buds on—while on a bus or plane, or in their cubicle or a waiting room—are often unaware that the tinny sound can be heard by anyone within about 10 feet. “Like the cell phone,” said the article, “the iPod can foster a sense of apathy when the user is among strangers. It’s easier to blow off social norms—and channel Justin Timberlake during rush hour—when you don’t know whom you’re irritating.”
A Hunch, Inc., political survey found that Conservatives prefer Colby cheese. Liberals like Brie.
Farmers in Massachusetts have been furious since a taxpayer-subsidized solar panel factory was built on nearby land in January 2009. The plant is so noisy that, according to the Boston Herald, “Their horses have ulcers, the ducks have disappeared, and a dog has started gnawing off doorknobs.” Said one farmer, “Imagine tuning your radio to a station that gets only static. Then imagine having to listen to that 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s what we are living with. It’s like our tax dollars are being used to torture us.” The plant has since hired a “noise specialist” to try to figure out how to dampen some of the sounds (after the factory was threatened with fines of $1,000 per day). A spokesman apologized, but said that making solar panels is a “loud business.”
In a recent study conducted by Imperial College London, scientists measured the heart and brain activity of people who lived near four major European airports (including England’s Heathrow, which has had a long history of noise-pollution controversy). Every time a plane flew overhead, the subjects’ blood pressure went up, even when they were asleep. It wasn’t just the jet engines that did it: Whenever any significant “noise event” occurred—described as 35 decibels or more (a passing car with a loud engine, or drunk people shouting in the street)—the subjects’ blood pressure raised to dangerous levels. And there was a direct correlation: the louder the noise, the higher the blood pressure. That makes for restless nights, which leads to stressful days.
An 82-year-old German man was fed up by an annoying song coming in through his window. It happened in the morning, the afternoon, and the middle of the night. He kept yelling out his window for the neighborhood kids to shut up, but the song would start playing again. It was so annoying that he finally called the police—who instantly solved the case. How? An officer found a greeting card on the man’s windowsill. It was the kind that has a tiny speaker inside and plays a song every time the card shakes…which happened every time a breeze came in through the window. The man was “happy, relieved, and a little embarrassed.”
Poll results: One in three iPhone owners has ended a relationship via text message.