If You Can't Eliminate The Noise Pollution... Reduce it!

If you can’t eliminate noise from your environment, you can actually create a healthier environment by replacing stress-inducing environmental sounds with more pleasing ones. For example, you can reduce the impact of airport or city noise with a white noise machine or 'sound spa'. They play sounds ranging from waterfalls to rain to babbling brooks to basic static, and these sounds mask the more jarring environmental noises that can distract you or negatively affect your sleep. They can also make it easier to meditate or practice visualization techniques.

Additionally, you can drown out distracting sounds from a noisy office environment or neighborhood with music from your iPod or stereo and enjoy the stress management and health benefits of music while lessening the impact of the other noise. This can also improve your mood, boost your immunity, calm your physiology, or energize you. While you’re really trading some sounds for others, the sounds of nature or music can be more soothing and better for your health.

Info from: Stress.about.com

Stress and Noise Pollution: How You May Be At Risk

What Is Noise Pollution?

Noise pollution can be defined as intrusive noise that disrupts, distracts, or detracts from regular functioning. And while people mainly think of noise pollution as a problem of the big cities, with the competing sounds of more people in a smaller space, noise pollution can also be found in suburban neighborhoods (in the form of leaf blowers, lawn mowers, and home construction) and even individual homes and offices at levels that can have a negative impact on your health and productivity.

Causes of Noise Pollution 

While there are many different sources of noise pollution, there are some main culprits that have been researched and found to have a negative impact on health. They include the following:

Airplanes—It’s been well-documented that noise pollution from airplanes has a significant negative impact on the health and wellbeing of those who live close to airports. This can include heart disease, high blood pressure and chronic stress. (About.com’s Environment Guide has more information on the effects of airports and noise pollution.)

Cars--One of the complaints of those who live in big cities or on busy streets is the disruption from the sounds of traffic. Interestingly, though, even low levels of traffic noise can be damaging to people, and traffic noise is one of the most commonly experienced contributors to noise pollution.

Workplace Noise—Most of us may think of loud assembly lines or construction sites when we think of noise pollution in the workplace, and while these examples definitely apply, regular offices are not immune. With more people packed into busy office spaces, office noise is a common complaint. Co-workers who talk, drum their fingers on the desk, or offer other distracting noises can decrease the productivity of those around them without realizing it.

Home Sound--Many people don’t think of their homes as ‘noisy’, but if there’s a lot of activity in the home, including a constantly running t.v., this overall noise level can actually be a threat to concentration and a cause of stress. In fact, children from more noisy homes do suffer ill effects from this type of sound pollution that include less cognitive growth, delayed language skills, increased anxiety, and impaired resilience, according to a Purdue University professor in a related press release.

Info at Stress.About.Com

Gare aux effets des baladeurs MP3 sur l'audition

Les baladeurs MP3 d'aujourd'hui ont envoyé le Walkman au rayon des antiquités: il est maintenant possible d'écouter de la musique de bonne qualité pendant des heures et à des volumes de son élevés. Souvent trop élevés. 

Et les spécialistes sont de plus en plus inquiets des conséquences néfastes pour l'audition des adolescents avec l'apparition de plus en plus précoce de baisse sensible de l'audition, que certains appellent même une «épidémie de troubles auditifs».

Un adolescent sur quatre est à risque d'une perte d'audition résultant directement de ses habitudes d'écoute avec son baladeur, affirme ainsi le Pr Chava Muchnik, de la Tel Aviv University au terme de son étude, publiée dans l'International Journal of Audiology. 

Près de 289 adolescents, entre 13 et 17 ans, ont participé à l'étude. Ils ont été interrogés sur leurs habitudes d'écoute avec leur iPod ou autre baladeur MP3. Et en particulier sur le niveau sonore et la durée d'utilisation. Dans un deuxième temps, le volume du son des baladeurs a été mesuré chez 74 adolescents dans un environnement calme puis dans un environnement bruyant. Les volumes mesurés ont servi à établir les risques potentiels pour l'audition des adolescents.

Près de 80 % des adolescents participants à l'étude utilisaient leur baladeur très régulièrement, 21 % d'entre eux l'écoutant de 1 à 4 heures, et 8 % s'en servant plus de 4 heures consécutivement.

«Dans 10 ou 20 ans, estime le Pr Muchnik, il sera trop tard et on verra que toute une jeune génération souffre de surdités partielles beaucoup plus tôt qu'attendu en fonction du vieillissement». Elle recommande ainsi que tous les pays adoptent, pour commencer, les normes européennes qui limitent à 100 décibels le volume maximal des iPod et des baladeurs MP3, dont certains, non «bridés», peuvent atteindre près de 130 décibels. Mais 100 dB, cela équivaut déjà au niveau acoustique d'une boîte de nuit. Et l'on sait qu'un risque pour l'oreille est déjà avéré à partir de 80 dB. Les spécialistes recommandent que des campagnes de prévention soient menées pour sensibiliser les enfants et les parents aux dangers de ces décibels.

Info sur Le Figaro SANTÉ

Sono, a noise cancelation and isolation device that sticks on your window

If you’re the sort that needs peace and quiet to get anything done, escaping the noise pollution of every day life — regardless of where you’re located — is no easy task. A new device that sticks onto your window, Sono, will not only cancel real-world noise, but isolate the noises you’d prefer to hear, if any.

You live in a corner apartment, and your one, meager window faces a beautiful, serene park. However, in front of that park is a major metropolitan road, host to loud traffic throughout the day. If not for the constant stream of cars and barking dogs, the soothing sounds of chirping birds and the wind rustling through trees would make its way across the street and into your bedroom. With Sono, you can stick the device right on your window, and fiddle with some settings to either cancel out noise entirely, or cancel out the specific noises that are drowning out the peaceful ones.

Sono it’s a concept created by Austrian industrial designer Rudolf Stefanich. Sono works by vibrating a window in a pattern counter to the vibrations caused by the ambient noise, essentially turning the surface into a noise-canceling speaker. During prototype testing, Sono’s transducer used active noise canceling to successfully lower the audio signal by 12 decibels — which would probably do a good job of blocking out quieter sounds in the 30-80 dB range, but you’d still definitely hear traffic and other loud sounds.

The device employs concentric broadband antenna rings, and can be charged through WiFi signals or the standard electric outlet, so your noise shield won’t unceremoniously lower in the middle of the night.

The strength of Sono is not that it can cancel out obnoxious ambient noises, but can still filter pleasant ambient noises through. So, not only can you still get the chirping birds and rustling leaves from that park across the street, but the sounds are natural — not some recreation on your phone that sounds very digital. Though Stefanich’s device is more of a concept than a tangible item, the theory behind the device was successfully tested with that aforementioned prototype, and it is a finalist for the James Dyson Award.

Info from Extreme Tech

O porquê dos arquitetos precisarem de usar os ouvidos

O nosso mundo cada vez mais barulhento está a corroer a nossa saúde mental. Julian Treasure estuda o som e aconselha empresas relativamente a como usá-lo melhor. É o presidente da Sound Agency, uma empresa que aconselha empresas por todo o mundo em como usar o som. Diz-nos para prestarmos atenção aos sons que nos rodeiam. Como é que eles nos fazem sentir: produtivos, nervosos, com energia?

Nesta Ted Talk, Treasure explica que devido a uma má acústica, os alunos em salas de aula perdem 50% do que os professores dizem, e pacientes em hospitais têm dificuldade em dormir porque continuamente se sentem stressados. Julian Treasure faz um apelo à ação dos designers e arquitetos para prestarem atenção à "arquitetura invisível" do som. 

Deixo-vos com outras duas Ted Talks do mesmo autor aqui (Sound Health in 8 steps) e aqui (5 ways to listen better).

Interesting facts about sound

The malleus, incus and stapes (otherwise known as the hammer, anvil and stirrup) are the smallest bones in the human body and are full size at birth.    All three together could fit on a penny. The whole area of the middle ear is no bigger than an M&M.    The cochlea (inner ear) is about the size of a pencil eraser.    The ear never stops working, even when people are asleep. The ear continues to hear sounds, but the brain shuts them out.    Ears are self-cleaning. Pores in the ear canal produce cerumen, or ear wax, and tiny hairs, called cilia, push the wax out of the ear.    Sound travels at the speed of 1130 feet per second, or 770 miles per hour.    A sonic boom occurs when an object breaks the speed of sound. The sound waves from behind and in front of the object crash into each other and create the boom.    Chuck Yeager was the first American pilot to travel faster than the speed of sound.    At 115 dB, a baby's cry is louder than a car horn.    In Africa, a tribe of people call Maabans live in such quiet that they can hear a whisper from across a baseball field, even when they are very old.    The hearing of a dog is more sensitive than humans. Dogs can hear much higher frequencies, which is why they respond to "silent" dog whistles. More than 28 million Americans have a hearing loss.    More than 1/3 of the U.S. population have a significant hearing impairment by age 65.    Approximately 2 million people are profoundly deaf.    One of every 1,000 infants is born totally deaf.    Sitting in front of the speakers at a rock concert can expose a person to 120 dB, which will begin to damage hearing in only 7-1/2 minutes.    It does not matter if you like the sounds you are exposed to. An orchestra playing Mozart at 120 dB will damage your hearing as quickly as Metallica playing at 120 dB.    Two out of three babies will have an ear infection before age 1.

 

Red Grapes, Red Wine Could Prevent Hearing Loss and Cognitive Decline

Studies linking red wine with numerous health benefits are not new, though neither are studies coming to opposite conclusions, admittedly. But in the last decade or so, we’ve seen numerous bodies of research indicating a wealth of potential benefits in an occasional or even regular glass of red wine. Recently, scientists with the Department of Otolarynology-Head & Neck Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital have found the active component within red wine and grapes, known as resveratrol, may help protect against both hearing loss and cognitive decline.

“Our latest study focuses on resveratrol and its effect on bioinflammation, the body’s response to injury and something that is believed to be the cause of many health problems including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, aging, and hearing loss,” said the study’s lead author Michael D. Seidman, director of the Division of Otologic/Neurotologic Surgery.

The researchers looked at how resveratrol could protect against hearing loss and cognitive decline thought to be caused by cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), a “key to the inflammatory process”. They found that noise exposure caused an up-regulation of COX-2 while resveratrol inhibited COX-2 expression and actually reduced hearing loss caused by prolonged acoustic stimulation in rats.

“COX-2 levels are induced dramatically following noise exposure,” the study reads. “This increased expression may be a potential mechanism of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and a possibly mechanism of resveratrol’s ability to mitigate NIHL by its ability to reduce COX-2 expression.”

“We’ve shown that by giving animals resveratrol, we can reduce the amount of hearing and cognitive decline,” said Dr. Seidman. 

Resveratrol is found in most concentrated levels within the skin of red grapes, which is why it is found in red wine. While the benefits of red wine due to resveratrol are suspected to be many, critics warn against using red wine as a health food.

To that end, a study last fall by researchers with Rutgers University found that just two glasses of red wine each day can actually reduce brain cell production by up to 40%. They found that although motor skills and short-term associative learning were not affected by a blood alcohol level of .08 (the legal driving limit), brain cell production was.

What does this mean for you? It likely means that resveratrol has health benefits, but the alcohol in wine could negate those benefits if consumed in larger amounts. In other words, you can get your resveratrol from red grapes and even wine, but don’t continue to drink moderately if you’re concerned about the potential negative effects.

From Natural Society