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How Noise effects your health

Source: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1307272/


One only has to drive on Cape Town's roads or watch someone freak out in a queue to see how incredibly stressed out most people are these days.  Tempers are short and people have little patience. The smallest challenge or delay triggers them, resulting in an explosion of emotion that is totally out of proportion to what is happening.

Stress is a very big part of everyone's life.  Noise contributes to this significantly - it might even be unconscious and it's only when you go somewhere quiet that you realize just how much you needed the peace.  Your body relaxes and you literally feel like the stress is draining out of you - you are less jumpy, your temper isn't as sort and you actually get a good nights sleep.

For you, it might be your neighbors barking dogs or the guy who revs his motorbike engine incessantly.  Others may struggle with the ongoing building sites around Cape Town and the noise this generates.  The really unlucky might have neighbors who love to come home and party at 1am a couple of nights a week.

For me, it's the relentless noise of overhead helicopter tourist flights that starts in the morning and goes on until sunset  - summer months are the worst with the relentless droning overhead.  My suburb is generally quiet and overlooks False Bay, unfortunately, this has now been destroyed over the past 2 years thanks to an elitist and minority tourism activity reserved for the privileged few who can afford it.  The number of Helicopter flips in summer can often be more than 40 a day.

Some article below on the effects of noise:

Noise activates our stress hormones

Environmental Noise Pollution in the United States: Developing an Effective Public Health Response


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