Quiet UK

Category: Noise pollution

  • Sound or Noise? What are you hearing?

    Sound or Noise? What are you hearing?

    I’d like you to imagine a scenario. You’re sat at home, on your sofa, you’ve just finished work and you want to wind down. What do you do? My first thought would be a cold glass of alcohol-free beer. My second would be, ‘how about some music.’ So, if you’re like me you turn on your wireless speaker, connect your phone and depending on the kind of day you’ve had the music coming out could be anything from opera to country western, heavy metal to the songs of Disney (just me?). You listen and you relax. This is sound.

    Now I’d like you to imagine another scenario. This time you are standing up on a commuter train (standing, of course because there are never any seats by the time the train gets to your stop). A person opposite you is listening to the music they like. It’s probably something to relax them during their equally miserable commute. It’s probably music that you would normally enjoy in any other circumstance. But, today, right now, the tinny, ptz ptz ptz and muffled lyrics are driving you to distraction. You feel you heart race, your fists clench and you start thinking homicidal thoughts (again, just me?). You don’t want to listen, you can’t relax. This is noise.

    Noise or sound?

    So, what’s the difference between the two scenarios? Technically, there is no difference between sound and noise – they are both caused by vibrating air particles that generate pressure waves and are detected by the ear before being translated by the brain into something that you hear. But from a hearing point of view the difference is highly subjective. Sound is something we hear. Noise is something we don’t want to hear.

    The difference between a sound we want to hear and one we don’t is listener intent. More than likely, a sound that we have had some agency in creating or agreeing to listen to is preferable to one that is being created by or forced upon us by someone else.

    For example, my husband loves classic music and likes to play it in the car. In contrast all I hear is the scritchy, scratchy violins and once I detect them, that is all I can focus on. If I’m in the car, the stereo is getting turned off. The sound is the same but translated very differently by our brains.

    There are several factors that may change a sound to a noise:

    • the volume – it doesn’t have to be loud, sometimes a quiet sound can be more annoying.
    • the characteristics – for example, the frequency
    • the duration – a dog barking once or twice is probably ok, but what if it barks for several hours?
    • the time of the noise – again the dog barking during the day might be ok, but at 3am?

    And these are all subjective. One person’s noise is another person’s relaxing soundscape.

    But how does this help people who have sensitive hearing, who find there is more noise in their life than sound? For me, thinking about the difference between sound and noise has helped a bit (definite work in progress based on my reaction to my neighbour mowing his lawn today!). I don’t live in a world of silence; I create sounds that might escape into other people’s worlds and give them a bit of a tic. I’m sure not everyone appreciates my lively renditions of Let it Go or Total Eclipse of the Heart.

    Some tips to reduce noise in your life

    If the noise is coming from in your home, try explaining how it impacts you to the person making it – my husband now only plays his guitar and piano when I’m out of the house.

    Can you change your commute? Not a simple solution for everyone but sometimes changing your train or bus to the one before or after your usual one can make a massive difference to the amount of people and therefore noise. Or could you walk part of your commute – stress busting in itself and saves you money!

    I would say use the quiet carriage but from experience those are a greater source of noise and stress than the buffet car!

    Noise cancelling headphones are an option. My mum swears by her’s but I feel claustrophobic in them. I recomend you try out a friend’s pair before shelling out for some – they are not cheap.

    At the moment I’m exploring how I can learn to live with some noise and also how to find the quiet that some days my head craves so much it hurts. As I try things out I’ll share the results with you (good and bad). The above tips are just a couple of things that I’ve found to help – and they won’t always help or they aren’t always possible but they are something to try and see if they work for you.

    Feel free to share your experiences of noise and how you have coped or what you have changed to improve your sound experience of the world.

  • Notifications and alarms – why it’s time to silence your digital world

    Notifications and alarms – why it’s time to silence your digital world

    Back in the late 1980s, my Nan bought a Grandfather clock for my Grandad. And my grandad was delighted. He set it up and we all waited patiently for the next hour to arrive. Ding-dong-ding-dong it went. We all clapped enthusiastically. Fast-forward a couple of days and the once novel chimes were driving us to distraction. Another couple of days and the bells were silenced, only to be allowed to ring once a year on New Year’s Eve. We didn’t need to be alerted to every passing hour of our lives.

    More recently, at a family event, I found a rather more modern technology was driving me to distraction. Ding went my Nan’s iPad. Boing went my mother’s phone. Yet another phone announced ‘your son is texting you’ to the whole room. It took a lot of willpower, and a desire to remain on the Christmas present list, not to grab their devices and lob them out the window. And these digital noise offenders weren’t my younger cousins or their kids, these were the boomers and early-born Gen Xers. They seem to have missed the memo on the effects of app notifications and allowing your digital devices to infiltrate every waking moment.

    And I wouldn’t mind if they got up and answered the alert. Nope, my Nan’s iPad continued to ‘ding’ away in the corner, each ‘ding’ seemingly getting louder each time it was ignored. She’d acknowledge each ‘ding’ by stopping the conversation, saying ‘oh that’s an email’ before going back to whatever she was talking about.

    Just turn them off

    Just to clarify — turn off your notifications, not your grandparents.

    I used to be an early adopter of various devices but then I got bored with the faff of setting them up, not to mention the cost. My Samsung phone is eight years old and the phone company have given up sending me updates on the latest phone that I ‘really must have’. And in the eight years I’ve had the phone the only sound it has ever made is ‘ring’. I will admit that at one point in the early 00s my Nokia used to beep out the theme tune to Fraggle Rock, but I have learned my lesson.

    The first thing I do whenever something digital comes in the house is turn off all the beeps, dings, bleeps etc. With the exception of my sodding attention-seeking washing machine which I can’t silence — AEG I’m looking at you.

    And it’s worth the ten minutes of my life it takes to do this — I know it’s a foreign concept to some but I believe if something is really that urgent the person will call me.

    Pay attention

    Those little dings, bings and bleeps do nothing but seek and divert our attention. Some studies suggest that app notifications are to blame for our lack of concentration. Others say that they are a symptom of a society that expects us to be contactable (by work or family and friends) at all times which has a knock on effect on our health and wellbeing. Whichever it is, turning off your notifications solves both problems.

    A study by Deloitte showed that the average American household has 25 connected devices — that’s a lot of things that go beep. And according to RescueTime we pick up our phones an average of 58 times a day — often in response to a notification. And once you’re on your phone you may as well check the news or the latest TikTok trend. Now, what was I doing again?

    Plus, if like me, you’re someone with hyperacusis (noise sensitivity) the sounds can create anxiety and a reduction in general wellbeing. Add in misophonia (a decreased tolerance to specific sounds) and I’ll be the person sitting next to you on the train plotting increasingly vindictive ways to kill you while your phone beeps away, letting you know there’s a photo of your cousin’s kid playing football on WhatsApp. Think about those around you — an app notification that makes a sound is not only notifying you.

    I’m focussing on the sounds devices make here because I write about sound and hearing health. But it doesn’t have to be sound — a red dot or flashing light can be equally distracting — if a little less annoying to those around you.

    I’m not dissing tech and social media. After I’ve pressed publish on this story I’ll head over to Bluesky to share it. But as much as I’d like you to read this story, it will never be that important that your device has to alert you to its presence.

  • What is noise pollution and what can you do about it?

    What is noise pollution and what can you do about it?

    Stop for a minute. Turn off the TV. Take off your headphones. What do you hear? If you hear nothing but natural sounds — birds, water, bees buzzing, then you’re either very lucky or your brain is doing its utmost not to hear the everyday noise of the human-made world.

    And our brains are very good at this. Walk into a room with a smelly dog and you’ll probably wrinkle your nose at first, but give it a while and nose blindness will kick in. The same happens with sounds and noise. But even if we can’t ‘hear’ them they are still having an effect on our bodies and our wellbeing. A WHO study showed that one million healthy years of life are lost every year due to traffic noise in western Europe alone. One million healthy years of life!

    And guess who is more likely to live in areas with higher levels of noise pollution? Yep, people with lower socioeconomic status and other disadvantaged groups.

    What is noise pollution?

    We hear a lot about air pollution, with good reason. Interestingly many of the things that cause air pollution also cause noise pollution — cars, planes, factories — they do a real number on the environment around them.

    Excessive noise seriously harms human health and interferes with people’s daily activities at school, at work, at home and during leisure time. It can disturb sleep, cause cardiovascular and psychophysiological effects, reduce performance and provoke annoyance responses and changes in social behaviour. World Health Organization (WHO)

    Last week the UK and Europe literally burned in a record-breaking heatwave. As per the advice I kept my windows and curtains shut during the day to keep out the worst of the heat. In the late evening, when it finally cooled a bit, I opened the windows and was greeted by the sound of lawnmowers. Who the f*ck is mowing their lawn when it was still 30+ degrees. Why the f*ck would you mow what is essentially now straw due to the climate crisis-induced heatwave. This action was unnecessary and showed a distinct lack of consideration for their neighbours. I shut the windows and swore and sweated a lot.

    Noise pollution is harming the environment. Noise pollution is harming human health. It can lead to hearing loss and tinnitus. It creates stress in the body leading to cardiovascular disease. It reduces children’s ability to learn. It affects sleep patterns — a big one for me, and trust me the world doesn’t need me getting less sleep.

    Noise pollution needs to be a political issue. It needs to be a priority in every political party manifesto. Environmental groups need to talk about it more. Reducing or changing the things that make noise will have a positive impact on the climate crisis.

    But what can I do about it?

    First of all, listen. Listen for the good sounds, the birds singing, the arrival of bees in spring. Not only are these sounds good for your wellbeing, they also need someone listening out for them so that if they are impacted by human behaviour someone notices and does something about it.

    Other practical things you can do include:

    • Stop flying — that’s it. We all know we need to stop doing that shit.
    • Ditch the car if you are able — walk, cycle, wheel or use (quiet) public transport instead. And no, electric cars aren’t silent. The engines might not roar like a diesel or petrol engine, but the noise they create when travelling on the road is just the same.
    • Campaign for low-traffic neighbourhoods and lower speed limits in your area. Remember 20 is plenty where people live.
    • Dig up your lawn and replace it with herbs and pollinator-friendly plants = no more lawn mower or strimmer. I did this and the increase in bees, birds and butterflies has been amazing. Plus we saved £150 on replacing our broken lawnmower.*
    • Talk to your local council or government — make them understand that this is an important issue. Ask them to consider noise pollution whenever they approve a new housing estate or road. Perhaps instead of a new road, they could improve the walking and cycling infrastructure?

    These suggestions link closely to noises that I feel impact my life. You might have other noises that you feel are more urgent to rid your environment of. One person I follow on Twitter would love to see the end of leaf blowers. Why not buy a rake and broom instead — that way you also get a workout.

    It’s time to get noisy about noise.

    *Lawns are carbon sinks. If you dig up your lawn replace it with other plants and trees. Don’t pave over it or replace with other forms of hard landscaping.