Non-auditory Effects of Noise

Many people in industry and the Services, who have practical experience of noise, regard any investigation of this question as a waste of time; they are not prepared even to admit the possibility that noise affects people. On the other hand, those who dislike noise will sometimes use most inadequate evidence to support their pleas for a quieter society. This is a pity, because noise abatement really is a good cause, and it is likely to be discredited if it gets to be associated with bad science. One allegation often made is that noise produces mental illness. A recent article in a weekly newspaper, for instance, was headed with a striking illustration of a lady in a state of considerable distress, with the caption 'She was yet another victim, reduced to a screaming wreck'. On turning eagerly to the text, one learns that the lady was a typist who found the sound of office typewriters worried her more and more until eventually she had to go into a mental hospital. Now the snag in this sort of anecdote is of course that one cannot distinguish cause and effect. Was it the noise, perhaps, that made the woman ill? Or was it the fact that she was already ill that caused her to be hypersensitive to noise? Another patient might equally well complain that her neighbours were combining to slander her and persecute her, and yet one might be cautious about believing this statement. What is needed in the case of noise is a study of large numbers of people living under noisy conditions, to discover whether they are mentally ill more often than other people are. The United States Navy, for some years, has been conducting an experiment along these very lines. They have in view a new weapon that would produce a very loud sound and wondered whether the noise could be used as a weapon of war. So they are now studying the effects of a very loud noise on a large number of people. For this purpose they have set up a colony of human guinea pigs on an island in the Pacific. They have been studying the effects of the noise on these people for several months now. One result of the study has been to show that people do not become mentally ill as a result of noise, but they do become very irritable. There is, in fact, a growing body of evidence to suggest that noise is a contributory factor in a number of diseases, but not necessarily the cause. Another effect of noise is that it reduces efficiency. There are many cases on record of people who, by some extraordinary good luck, have been able to work in the midst of noise without being distracted. But the number of such people is small. Now the reason why noise reduces efficiency is that it distracts people. It makes them think about the noise instead of about their work. For example, a man working in a factory where there is a great deal of noise will be thinking about the noise all the time, and this will make him less efficient. Noise also has a harmful effect on people's sleep. It is a common experience that people who live in noisy environments are likely to have bad sleep. They may not be able to fall asleep at all, or they may be woken up several times during the night. This is because noise disturbs their normal sleep pattern. In conclusion, noise has a number of non - auditory effects on people, and these effects are important and should be taken into account.

在工业部门工作和在军队中服役的许多人对噪音有切身体会，他们认为对这个问题进行任何调查都是浪费时间；他们甚至不愿承认噪音可能对人有影响。另一方面，那些讨厌噪音的人有时会用很不充分的证据来支持他们希望有一个较为安静的社会环境的要求。这很遗憾，因为要求减少噪音确实是件好事，但是如果与拙劣的科学掺杂在一起的话，就不会被人们所信任。常见的一种指责是，噪音能引起精神病。例如，最近一家周报刊登了一篇文章，文章开头是一幅引人注目的插图，图中是一位表情相当痛苦的女士，文字说明是：“她是又一个受害者，成了只会尖叫的可怜虫。”当人们急切地读完正文后，了解到这位女士是个打字员，她感到办公室里打字机的声音越来越让她受不了，最终不得不进了精神病院。这类奇闻轶事的疑难之处在于人们无法分清因果关系。也许是噪音使这位妇女得病的呢？还是她先已患病因而对噪音特别敏感呢？另有一位病人可能同样有理由抱怨说，她的邻居们正在联合起来对她进行诽谤和迫害，不过，人们对这种说法是不会轻易相信的。对于噪音问题，需要对大量生活在噪音中的人进行研究，看一看他们是否比其他人更易患精神病。美国海军多年来一直在按非常相似的思路进行一项实验。他们在考虑制造一种噪音很大的新式武器，并且想知道能否把噪音用作战争武器。所以他们现在正在研究高强度噪音对大量人群的影响。为了这个目的，他们在太平洋上的一个岛屿上建立了一个人类豚鼠群落。几个月来，他们一直在研究噪音对这些人的影响。这项研究的一个结果表明，噪音不会使人生病，但会使人变得非常易怒。事实上，越来越多的证据表明，噪音是许多疾病的一个致病因素，但不一定是病因。噪音的另一个影响是降低效率。有许多记录在案的事例表明，有些人由于运气特别好，能在噪音环境中工作而不受干扰。但这样的人是少数。噪音降低效率的原因是它使人分心。它使人们去想噪音而不去想工作。例如，在一个噪音很大的工厂里工作的人会一直想着噪音，这就会使他效率降低。噪音对人的睡眠也有不良影响。生活在噪音环境中的人很可能睡眠不好，这是常见的现象。他们可能根本无法入睡，或者可能在夜间多次被吵醒。这是因为噪音打乱了他们正常的睡眠模式。总之，噪音对人有许多非听觉方面的影响，这些影响是重要的，应该予以考虑。