Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Noise pollution hurts the heart

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 286 posts

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#31

Post by johnchristopher »

belly_joe wrote: post #2

I feel the sound -> stress connection palpably. Especially sudden loud noises like a horn honking cause me to feel upset for a long while after being startled. Seems like a convincing argument to me for car-free spaces, although honestly I just wish we had stronger social norms against unnecessarily using a car's horn.

I have stopped explaining people how my neighbor's friends honking when coming in and leaving drives me up the wall. There's the sound and then there's the rage from "that was fucking useless to do, you just spent 15 minutes saying goodbye on the doorstep, it 11PM, please be quiet" but I am the grumpy one. So I say nothing anymore.

Fun thing is, when I am in the city, I like opening the windows in summer and car noises don't bother me much because it's normal and part of the scenery.

But then I am perfectly capable of putting on my pajamas past 10PM, climb down the stairs from the flat to the street, knock on the car's window and ask the driver to turn off the engine because the low humming noise I hear in my bed is driving me insane. It's when the sound is useless and could be easily prevented that I get crazy. Misophonia very much also.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#32

Post by the_only_law »

centimeter wrote: post #25
Dumblydorr wrote: post #4

The main problem seems to be stress; with loud noises comes stress, which is a chronic killer. There's also the correlation between loud noise and air pollution, loud noise and sleep disruption, vibrations, disruptions to daily habits, inconvenience of construction and transit, etc. Personal story, there were workers using an extremely loud diesel powered crane to redo the facade of our building. They without fail be…

I think it’s unfortunate that society has become pacified to a point that people generally will not use e.g. minor equipment sabotage to deal with nuisances like this that otherwise take excessive bureaucratic nonsense to combat.

With cameras everywhere and such a litigious society? The stress is probably less impactful in the short run compared to after they get fucked over by a lawsuit and/or criminal charge.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#33

Post by UweSchmidt »

macg333 wrote: post #27

I live near a busy road, close to an intersection with a stoplight, and have my desk at a window that faces said road. The constant slowing a revving of traffic around the light is very distracting and I run an air purifier on high throughout the day to stabilize the noise and drown out the shifting traffic noises. I have also shifted my desk so that it does not overlook the road and thus I don't have to watch indivi…

With more EVs the local pollution is going go down a lot. Probably also something that you'd notice more you could do a quick A/B test.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#34

Post by RootReducer »

Guest42 wrote: post #15
belly_joe wrote: post #2

I feel the sound -> stress connection palpably. Especially sudden loud noises like a horn honking cause me to feel upset for a long while after being startled. Seems like a convincing argument to me for car-free spaces, although honestly I just wish we had stronger social norms against unnecessarily using a car's horn.

Agreed. I also don’t like it when locking a car via remote causes the horn to go off and in order to make sure people hit it multiple times.

A neighbor used to come home from work late at night and lock their doors three or four times, and every time it would wake me up. I wish there was a silent door lock and it would just flash the headlights.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#35

Post by nickysielicki »

baron816 wrote: post #3

There are few things that make me angrier than when a Harley-Davidson style motorcycle (or a pack of them) drive past me while I’m walking down the street. I can’t believe cities haven’t prohibited them, especially at night. Those things are specifically designed to create noise pollution. They’re so fucking obnoxious, even just thinking about it while I’m writing this is working me up.

I get where you're coming from, but I also believe that loud pipes save lives. Ultimately, is it really that big of a deal?

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#36

Post by [deleted] »

ryanianian wrote: post #13

Damaging the heart sounds right. My neighbor has a unique obsession with his leaf-blower. It's like his daily 30-120 minutes of exercise at random times of the day. Even with all the noise-cancelling technology in the world, it ruins me for at least 2-3 hours and makes both video-conferencing and deep work basically impossible. Here's the thing: Nobody cares. The neighbor can say no to polite requests to figure out a…

[deleted]

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#37

Post by boredumb »

nickt wrote: post #28
boredumb wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harleys stock are actually under the legal noise limit (80 decibels i think?) and are generally that loud due to straight exhaust and a specific cam shaft they use to squeeze more performance out of them. My understanding is folks prefer them to be loud so that they can be better noticed by cars and get hit less often. Dirt bikes are around 100 decibels, perform like trash and shouldn't be on the freeway near cars in…

That “loud pipes save lives is rubbish” [1]. Even if it were true the ROI on some training and awareness would be far higher. [1] https://www.quora.com/Do-loud-pipes-really-significantly-sav...

>>ROI on some training and awareness would be far higher.

Motorcycle people generally spend money to placard their cars up with "Watch out for motorcyclists!" stickers so unless you're insinuating the government should use public funds to educate drivers on checking their mirrors and not getting into accidents with motorcyclists I'm not sure what you're actually saying.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#38

Post by zapita »

nickt wrote: post #28
boredumb wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harleys stock are actually under the legal noise limit (80 decibels i think?) and are generally that loud due to straight exhaust and a specific cam shaft they use to squeeze more performance out of them. My understanding is folks prefer them to be loud so that they can be better noticed by cars and get hit less often. Dirt bikes are around 100 decibels, perform like trash and shouldn't be on the freeway near cars in…

That “loud pipes save lives is rubbish” [1]. Even if it were true the ROI on some training and awareness would be far higher. [1] https://www.quora.com/Do-loud-pipes-really-significantly-sav...

OK but individual motorcycle riders are not in a position to train and raise awareness in a way that makes them safe. So from the rider’s perspective, there is no good alternative.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#39

Post by pilsetnieks »

dheera wrote: post #8
baron816 wrote: post #3

There are few things that make me angrier than when a Harley-Davidson style motorcycle (or a pack of them) drive past me while I’m walking down the street. I can’t believe cities haven’t prohibited them, especially at night. Those things are specifically designed to create noise pollution. They’re so fucking obnoxious, even just thinking about it while I’m writing this is working me up.

The one thing that makes me even angrier is gas-powered leaf blowers that make multiple passes past my apartment, and seemingly deliberately linger for longer if I'm in the middle of a conference call. Seriously, go electric and ban those abominations.

They are also hugely polluting, more than cars and trucks: https://www.wsj.com/articles/that-ear-splitting-leaf-blower-...

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#40

Post by elicash »

A bit unrelated, but I'd love to use a Zillow-like platform but filtering homes for noise pollution, light pollution, air pollution. (Also climate and flooding.)

Most people wouldn't use it, because they've basically decided which city/town (bc of work/family) and are just trying to narrow down which home. But it'd be very useful to me, personally, as someone who can do my job from anywhere. Also, I'd imagine it's impossible to get detailed enough data for some of this stuff. Noise being the toughest, I'd bet, though maybe you could approximate based on various factors (traffic, etc).

Post reply on HN