Children & Noise
Noise poses a serious threat to our children’s hearing, health, learning and behavior. Recent research suggests that quiet promotes an environment which will foster learning, as well as the opportunity for parents and children to enjoy each other’s company. Parents must analyze their own home and recreational activities and make every effort to include quiet times with their children, reading, talking around the dinner table and listening to their children.
Noise & Its Effect on Children's Health
Effects of Noise on Children's Health
Noise poses a serious threat to our children's hearing, health, learning and behavior. Recent research suggests that quiet promotes an environment which will foster learning, as well as the opportunity for parents and children to enjoy each other's company. Parents must analyze their own home and recreational activities and make every effort to include quiet times with their children, reading, talking around the dinner table, and listening to their children.
Noise & Children's Health
Research has correlated exposure to noise with physiological changes in blood pressure, sleep, digestion and other stress-related disorders. People complain that noise makes them sick. The word noise is derived from the Latin word, noxia, meaning injury or hurt. In a 1997 study by Arline Bronzaft, Ph.D., et. al. in which a questionnaire was distributed to two groups, one living within the flight pattern of a major airport and the other in a quiet neighborhood, the researchers found that nearly seventy percent of the residents surveyed living within the flight corridors reported themselves bothered by aircraft noise. They also reported that these noises interfered with daily activities. Further, the subjects who were bothered by aircraft noise were more likely to complain of sleep difficulties and more likely to perceive themselves to be in poorer health. When we examine noise in our communities, we must remember that the noise which injures parents may very likely be injuring our children, as well. A study by Cohen, et. al., in 1980, examined the impact of aircraft noise on children's health and found higher systolic and diastolic pressure in children living near the Los Angeles airport when compared to children living further away. Evans, et. al. in 1995 found a relationship between chronic noise exposure and elevated neuroendocrine and cardiovascular measures for children living near Munich's International Airport.
Noise: A Serious Problem Which Can No Longer Be Ignored.
A significant amount of literature confirms that noise does, indeed, impact children's health. It is essential that we take seriously the relationship between noise and health. It is not so long ago that studies which correlated cigarette smoke with health were dismissed. We must give noise the priority status it deserves now before we risk creating a generation which suffers from the stress-related disorders and health impacts associated with noise. Remember, pay attention to the noise you make. Respect another person's right to peace and quiet and teach your children to turn down the volume in their activities.
