This page contains dozens of links to studies and news reports on noise, including book reviews and editorials.
Book Reviews Editorials and Essays News Releases Technical Articles World News and Opinion
- By the Committee on Technology for a Quieter America, National Academy of Engineering, of the National Academies.
Technology for a quieter America
The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C. (2010).
Exposure to noise at home, at work, while traveling, and during leisure activities is a fact of life for all Americans. At times noise can be loud enough to damage hearing, and at lower levels it can disrupt normal living, affect sleep patterns, affect our ability to concentrate at work, interfere with outdoor recreational activities, and, in some cases, interfere with communications and even cause accidents. Clearly, exposure to excessive noise can affect our quality of life.
As the population of the United States and, indeed, the world increases and developing countries become more industrialized, problems of noise are likely to become more pervasive and lower the quality of life for everyone. Efforts to manage noise exposures, to design quieter buildings, products, equipment, and transportation vehicles, and to provide a regulatory environment that facilitates adequate, cost-effective, sustainable noise controls require our immediate attention.
Technology for a Quieter America looks at the most commonly identified sources of noise, how they are characterized, and efforts that have been made to reduce noise emissions and experiences. The book also reviews the standards and regulations that govern noise levels and the federal, state, and local agencies that regulate noise for the benefit, safety, and wellness of society at large. In addition, it presents the cost-benefit trade-offs between efforts to mitigate noise and the improvements they achieve, information sources available to the public on the dimensions of noise problems and their mitigation, and the need to educate professionals who can deal with these issues.
Noise emissions are an issue in industry, in communities, in buildings, and during leisure activities. As such, Technology for a Quieter America will appeal to a wide range of stakeholders: the engineering community; the public; government at the federal, state, and local levels; private industry; labor unions; and nonprofit organizations. Implementation of the recommendations in Technology for a Quieter America will result in reduction of the noise levels to which Americans are exposed and will improve the ability of American industry to compete in world markets paying increasing attention to the noise emissions of products.
Website link
This text is available online free.
- Why Noise Matters (2011)
A Worldwide Perspective on the Problems, Policies and Solutions
By John Stewart with Arline Bronzaft, Francis McManus, Nigel Rodgers and Val Weedon
- In Pursuit of Silence
by George Prochnik (2010), reviewed by A.Y. Fedorenko- This is Your Brain on Music: the Science of a Human Obsession
by Daniel J. Levitin (2007), Reviewed by Alice Fedorenko
- The Treasure of Quiet Moments
Article by by Alice Fedorenko
Based on the book, Pause: Putting the Brakes on a Runaway Life, by Katherine Gibson (2006).- Neighbours from Hell: Managing today's brand of conflict close to home
by Bob Borzotta- Carol: A Woman's Way (Fiction)
by Kathy Ashby (2009)
A woman seeks to preserve her local environment.- Noise
by Bart Kosko (2006)- One Square Inch of Silence
by Gordon Hempton and John Grossman- Stillness: Daily Gifts of Solitude
by Richard Mahler- Unclutter Your Life: Transforming Your Physical, Mental and Emotional Space
by Katherine Gibson- Quiet Mind: One-Minute Retreats from a Busy World
by David Kundtz (2000).- The Right to Quiet Society's contribution to the Consultation On Implementing The Environmental Noise Directive In Wales
- Right to Quiet Society's response to Vancouver Sun article about a Quiet revolution by Mr. Douglas Todd
- Shore 104 FM imposes its amplified "music" on West End residents (summer 2010)
- Quiet Places for the Jet Beset
by Ed Spargo
- Office Politics
by By Jhaleh Zaraweh
- Community Noise ordinance by J. Luis Bento Coelho
- A Trinidadian student's research essay on noise pollution
- Acoustic Responsibility: A Concept Whose Time Has Come
- Cosmic Bowling, the White Flash, and the Death of Tranquility
- For Now, the Issue Is Awareness
- Music: The New Addiction
- Progress – or Paradise Lost?
News Releases
Anti-Noise Group Wants Establishments to Pipe Down
VICTORIA, April 26, 1997—Announcing our campaign against program audio in public places.
Technical Articles
- We have several articles and descriptions of articles about air conditioner noise and its reduction; precedents; advice in combating a/c noise here.
- Venus Project at the University of Victoria
Endangered whales research is carried out at the VENUS Project, University of Victoria, British Columbia, to determine the impact of constant marine noise.
- How Much Noise Is Too Much Noise?
by Federico Miyara of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Argentina)- The Physics, Physiology, and Psychology of Noise
This informative talk by member Jeremy Tatum also expresses our reservations about decibel-based municipal noise laws.- Sound and acoustics:
Stig Igemansson wrote an interesting book and technical articles on sound and acoustics. One place that provides access to this public domain work is:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/AcousticalTest/
Industrial/Vibration_Control.html
The illustrations are available in downloadable .pdf format from this site.- Explanation of Decibel Levels
By Jeremy Tatum, Ph.D.
- Sound Measuring in the Field: Questions and Answers from Wakefield Acoustics in Victoria, BC.
- Experience with Noise By Barbara Hichens
World News and Opinion
- Sound Bites
Gleanings from the world press.- Please Turn Off the Music
Piped music is more than an annoyance to the hearing impaired.- Pardon? Speak Up! I’ve Just Been to the Movies
No, you aren’t imagining that movies have gotten painfully loud.- In Which the Dreaded Leaf Blower Gets its Comeuppance
Ted Mitchell explains in painstaking detail exactly why you find leaf blowers so damned annoying.- The Lost Resource...or...”Quiet Please”
What happens when bad manners and modern technology meet.- Piped Music: An Expensive Mistake
A German study suggests that compulsory listening doesn’t make people better consumers.- Prospect Lake Ban on Jet Skis Raises the Stakes in the Noise Battle
How Big Industry is fighting to appropriate the soundscape.- Leaf-Blowers and the GDP
by Michael Valpy of the Globe and Mail.- Is There Sound Pollution on the Sound?
External link to an article from a San Juan County newspaper about the various acoustical atrocities being perpetrated in the “silent world” of our coastal waters.
Health effects
-Some non-auditory effects of noise are: Cardiovascular constriction, elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, more laboured breathing, measurable changes in skin resistance and skeletal muscle tension, digestive system changes, glandular activity altering the chemical content of blood and urine, vestibular effect, balance sense effect, changes in brain chemistry and more....
—Dr. Luther Terry - Former US Surgeon General —
Noiseletter, Spring 2001
