When you hear the word pollution, what immediately comes to mind? Maybe water, air, or even soil, but have you ever considered noise? Noise pollution is a serious issue that can have adverse effects on your health, affecting the human body in 3 main ways: Physical, Physiological, and Psychological.
Physical Effects:
Physical effects of noise pollution can include hearing loss or tinnitus. Most experts agree that exposure to sound more than 85 dB for consecutive hours is potentially dangerous, and it is estimated that 30 million Americans are exposed to dangerous noise levels each day. Below is a range of decibel levels to give you an idea of every day sounds that most reproduce that intensity level.
Physiological Effects:
Research has shown that physiological effects of noise pollution can include the following:
- Industrial workers regularly exposed to high noise levels have higher cases of nausea, headaches, argumentativeness, blood pressure, and changes in mood and anxiety.
- Noise can affect sleep by causing restlessness and lowered REM.
- People who live near an airport report more stress headaches increased blood pressure and overall being tense and edgy.
- Children with chronic exposure to aircraft noise have reduced motivation and perform lower on standardized tests.
Psychological Effects:
The psychological effects of noise pollution are distractions and annoyances, which negatively affects productivity. Studies have shown that worker productivity can be decreased depending on the length of time exposed to higher frequency noise. For example, the low rumblings of traffic can be considered background noise while screeching noises from alarms or machinery are considered a call to action.
GLT Products provides a range of Acoustical Insulation Solutions to prevent the detrimental effects of noise pollution. Learn more about which of our products are perfect for your next project HERE.
