14 Aug Sound pollution – equally or more dangerous than poison

The very definition of sound pollution reveals perhaps one of the most unscientific conclusions and understandings of the modern science. According to the theory of modern science 85 dB (decibels) is considered as the safest exposure level of sound up to a maximum duration of 8hrs. This safe limit can go up further if the permissible time of safe listening further decreases.

Effects of sound pollution:

We are all exposed to noise pollution, thanks to unscientific modern industrialization. For some unfortunate people in the society, the impact is horrible, as they are exposed to noise pollution day and night. The most common health issues are Noise-induced Hearing Loss (NHL), many fatal diseases, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep disturbances, mental stress etc. According to the modern scientific study 150 dB is usually considered enough to burst your eardrums. The threshold for death is usually pegged at around 185-200 dB.

Two types of noise pollution:

1. Sudden loud noise can destroy eardrum.
2. Ambient noise, which is constant background noise – damages the internal hearing system. Psychological damage caused by this type of noise pollution is certainly higher than the physical fatal diseases.

What causes sound pollution:

As you may be aware, noise pollution emerges from most of the modern equipment like vehicles, aircraft, industrial machines etc. Other appliances contributing to noise pollution are television, sound systems, loud speakers etc when used at high volume. According to the modern science, all sounds including those emerging from the Nature like thunder, from animals etc are also added in the list of sound pollution if it crosses the safe dB limit.

I totally disagree with this modern scientific conclusion. It is undoubtedly unscientific and baseless. Scientists must observe the Nature closely and study the other creations of the Nature and their lifestyle before coming to any firm conclusion on matters of this kind. Human cannot be and should not be isolated from the Nature while making researches on such critical issues. The reality is that all the inhabitants of this planet Earth including human are subjected to heavy sound pollution. Millions of creatures die or sustain fatal injuries due to this pollution crisis. Insects, birds, animals and all the creatures living in both water and land are facing this man-made disastrous pollution. Large number of dead whales appeared on the beaches of Australia recently is cited here as one of the examples. They all died due to horrible and irritating sound produced by large ships and submarines. You must understand that sound pollution is equally or more dangerous than even poison. Science may take decades to understand this reality.

It is truth that certain sound can make you happy and bring positivity and freshness, whereas certain sounds are capable to make you sad, gloomy and inactive. Certain types of sound are carriers of many fatal diseases. Hence it is absolutely wrong to say that sound pollution can just cause damage to the eardrums or hearing system. It is certainly much more than that. It is also incorrect to say all sounds that crosses the safe dB limit can cause damage to the hearing system. I shall describe this with an example. Birds and animals do not seem to be afraid of huge unexpected sound of thunder blast in the sky, whereas they will be frightened or run off or fly off frantically from the place on hearing a relatively smaller sound produced by a man-made cracker. This is the reason I insisted that you should observe Nature closely. You can learn and find out many hidden divine secrets of the universe from the Nature. There, you will be astonished to see many things that may not fit into your logical conclusions. Sound pollution is one such issue. A blast of thunder approximately registers at around 120 dB at close proximity to the ground. Though it is far higher than the safety limit, it does not do any harm to your eardrums or any part of the body. Animals or birds seem to enjoy such moments and are not at all afraid of it. What could be the reason? Have you made any effort to find out this? Earth, on the other hand is getting so much benefit from this majestic sound. Fertility of soil increases and it boosts growth and health of all plants because of this thunder. It carries and delivers so much positive charges to all of us through its electric charges and mighty sound. Researchers should focus on these subjects and try to explore other abundance of Nature and Natural forces rather than coming to wrong conclusions. Your wrong conclusions contribute dangerous damage to the humanity at large.

The above logic is even applicable to low frequency sounds. Many ultra sounds and low frequency sounds, not even audible to our hearing ability are damaging our internal organs. It is therefore very important that the scientific community re-writes the logics and definitions of sound pollution. This will help to regulate or ban dangerous sound-polluting health hazardous equipment. We must educate people that sound pollution is equally or more dangerous than other pollution like radiation, physical pollution, chemical pollution, micro-biological pollution etc.

Many of the Natural calamities like cyclones, incessant rain, earthquakes etc we experience these days are triggered by sound pollution. Accumulation of sounds of various frequencies, especially produced by man-made huge machineries are getting echoed by hitting the concrete structures around, and thereafter forming a formidable force causing imbalances on natural flow of air movements. This will take the shape of negative destructive energies. This energy can explode when it matures, creating huge destruction all around.

Apart from regulating sound polluting apparatus and gadgets, authorities must issue guidelines and instructions to diffuse the existing noise-polluted atmosphere. This is possible only by planting trees all over the inhabited places. A minimum of 20% of the land area in cities, and 50% of the land area in industrial belts must be converted as forests for this purpose. It may be noted that only trees can save humanity from this highly polluted atmosphere as the permanent solution.

– By Ateendriya Ancient Science Scholar Acharai Shri Barat Venkit