Noise Pollution
INDIA
The world capital of noise
By noise we mean unwanted sounds. Possibly due to cultural reasons and lack of awareness,India in general and kerala in particular has become the world capital of noise pollution.Unfortunately this grave health hazard has not received the proper attention in our country unlike other causes of pollution like water,air and environmental pollution.
EFFECTS OF NOISE POLLUTION
The ill effects of noise pollution can be divided into:
*Cognitive and Psychological effects
*Effects on vital organs like heart,lungs and brain
*Effects of hearing and other functions of the ear like balancing
The loud sounds will interfere with skilled works including learning and produce lack of concentration,irritability, sleeplessness and symptoms like head ache.These effects varies with different persons but it is more in children,pregnant ladies and older people.As most of our festivals and political activities usually happen in January to April we can imagine how much it affects our students,who goes to their examinations during this time.
The systemic effects include, changes in cardio-vascular,respiratory,nervous,and endocrine systems.It is scientifically proved that loud sounds trigger constrictions of arteries, thereby producing increase in blood pressure and heart rate. Noise has very severe adverse effects on cardiac, asthmatic and diabetic patients. These effects are more pronounced in pregnant women.patients with giddiness (vertigo) can develop a severe attack when exposed to loud sounds.
The effects of noise in the ear include deafness, continuous humming sound and a feeling of imbalance.Extreme sounds will produce pain in the ear including rupture of the tympanic membrane(drum).It is not only because of the environmental noise pollution but also due to personal exposure to mobile phones,head phone music and continuous exposure to TV programmes.Needless to mention,most of these are avoidable and preventable.
When exposed to loud sounds of more than 90db sounds to even shorter periods, many people develop a feeling of block in their ear and this is called the temporary threshold shift.If the exposure is short,the hearing comes back to normal, but if the exposure occur
repeatedly or last for longer time,the hearing does not come back to normal and this is called permanent threshold shift(permanent deafness).
The excessive sound not only affects the human beings but also other living and non living things.Birds and animals are very prone to loud sounds.There are reports that archaeologically important buildings developed damages due to excessive sound.
SOURCES OF NOISE POLLUTION
Loud speakers:Even though we have very strict rules on noise pollution,use of loud speakers in public spaces is going on without any hindrance. Religious and political groups are the worst offenders.Most of the time the sound output,duration and area exposed are beyond what is permitted.
Traffic Noise: Nowhere in the world the vehicle horns are misused as in our country. This is in contrast to much more populated foreign cities like NewYork,Shanghai,Tokyo etc having much more vehicles than our cities. Even though sounding horn is to be done only in exceptional instances, in our country,especially in kerala it is the rule.Apart from horn,the sound of the engines and vibration of the vehicles all contribute to the total traffic sounds. In our state the worst offenders are the buses, auto rickshaws and of course the silencer removed bikes.
Industrial Noise: Fortunately industrial noise is less in kerala in the real sense.But the employees working in the whatever minimum industry we have,have to be protected from the effects of sounds.In our state,construction activity using concrete mixers,cutting of tiles,drilling etc are the real culprits.Most of these work are supposed to be done indoor with proper acoustic protection as far as possible.
Domestic Noise: As the technology advances our homes have become more noisy due to electronic and electrical equipments like fan,AC,TV,grinders,Mixers,Refrigerators etc. A few decades back the conversation of the inmates were the only sounds inside our houses.Now even old age people and very young children are in front of the TV for hours without knowing its ill effects.
Music:Modern music has become one of the main sources of noise unlike the traditional music of the past.Louder the music better the quality is the thinking of many especially the youngsters.In the past,only rock music had high decibels,now take any ganemela,the decibel level is beyond 100.Also yougsters continuously using ear phones to enjoy music is a common site in our public places. Whatever be the loudness,continuous exposure is always harmful.
HOW TO CONTROL NOISE POLLUTION
The most important reason for noise pollution is lack of awareness among the public.Thus proper awareness programs are the best way to control this.As mentioned earlier just using an ear plug which cost less than Rs10/-,a tile worker can avoid damage to his ear to a great extent.Similarly using less noiser instruments,electrical and electronic gadgets etc in working places and also in our own homes,will go a long way in maintaining a healthy hearing till our old age.
NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR SAFE SOUND
We need proper initiatives and efforts from various corners of our society including state and local governments, political and religious groups,NGOs and other professional organizations who are interested to fight against this social evil. With this idea in mind the state association ENT surgeons (AOI Kerala State) and IMA (Indian Medical Association),Trivandrum has started the National Initiative for safe Sound.We hope,as doctors especially ENT surgeons have the duty to bring to the notice of the society,the urgent need of controlling noise pollution in our country.As the name implies this initiative encourages every person to use sound in a safer way so that our general health and hearing capacity can be maintained till our old age.Hopefully we will be launching this initiative in Trivandrum in September 2014 and would be able to launch the initiative in other states through national IMA and National association of Otolaryngologists of India.