Noise Pollution Article
The article obtained from the Noise Pollution Clearing house is called “Loud Noise Causing Increasing Rates of Hearing Loss in New York City (NPC).” New York Times published the article on 14th April, 2000 with the emphasis being of alerting and educating on the negative effects of Loud Noises. The article highlighted a research that was conducted on 64,000 New Yorkers over an eighteen year period from 1980 to 1998. The results proved that failure rate in the test was 60 percent higher in 1998 than eighteen years ago proving that many people are losing their hearing due to loud music.
It is learned that the industrial and technological advancements have made New York City become very developed, but the benefits have also proved detrimental to humans. The city is now noisier mainly due to construction projects; car horns and booms; people screaming; and traffic congestion (NPC). The noise has become a health hazard and a pollutant with possible damage in the inner ear resulting to a disease called NIHL (Noise Induced Hearing Loss) (Dugan, 2003). The sensitive structures inside the ear are called hair cells which are sensory organs that transform sound energy into electrical energy that are transported to the brain (Dugan, 2003).
It can also be learned that hearing loss can be permanent resulting to tinnitus—a buzzing in the head (Singal, 2005). The condition persists throughout one’s lifetime unless certain preventive and curative measures are taken. Care should also be noted in environments that are noise polluted since NIHL is occurs to individuals without them even noticing it. But symptoms result after a period of time associated with muffling or difficulty in speech understanding. The condition can be prevented by: being alert over noisy backgrounds and avoiding them; wearing ear plugs in noisy work environments; and having medical examinations (Singal, 2005).
References
Dugan, M. B. (2003). Living With Hearing Loss. Washington DC : Gallaudet University Press. Pp. 1-11
NPC (Noise Pollution Clearinghouse) website:
http://www.nonoise.org/
Singal, S. P. (2005). Noise Pollution and Control Strategy. New Jersey: Alpha Science International. Pp. 34-56
