During a single day, people living in a typical urban environment can experience a wide range of sounds in many locations,

including shopping malls, schools, the workplace, recreational centers, and the home Worldwide, noise-induced hearing impairment is the most prevalent irreversible occupational hazard, and it is estimated that 120 million people worldwide have disabling hearing difficulties Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has long identified transportation as one of the most pervasive outdoor noise sources, estimating in its 1981 Noise Effects Handbook that more than 100 million people in the United States are exposed to noise sources from traffic near their homes Sound intensity is measured in decibels Brief exposure to sound levels exceeding 120 dBA without hearing protection may even cause physical pain In the United States, about 30 million workers are exposed to hazardous sound levels on the job Meanwhile, there is no evidence to suggest things have gotten any quieter for residents since the EPA published its 1981 handbook Secondhand noise is increasingly used to describe noise that is experienced by people who did not produce it Listening to music at a level of 150 dBA would be like standing next to a Boeing 747 airplane with its engines at full throttle 75% of farm workers have some kind of hearing problem, largely the result of long-term exposure to loud equipment Hearing loss is irreversible. Once hearing is lost, its lost forever For many young people, changing their environment and their behavior would be a wise and healthy move An estimated 12.5% of American children have noise-induced hearing threshold shifts in one or both ears Nonauditory effects of noise exposure are those effects that dont cause hearing loss but still can be measured, such as elevated blood pressure, loss of sleep, increased heart rate, cardiovascular constriction, labored breathing, and changes in brain chemistry Exposure to noise caused stomach contractions in healthy human beings As children grow they are exposed to sounds that can threaten their health and cause learning problems human and animal studies also have linked noise exposure to chronic changes in blood pressure and heart rate Noise has also been shown to affect learning ability

Urban cities have many sources of pollution in many different varieties. All of this pollution is dangerous, but at what levels determines how much it affects our lives. The most widely recognized sources of pollution are air and water pollution, but some may go unnoticed but still have detrimental effects. One of these is pollution from noise, where sound can cause harmful effects in humans. Sounds at or above 120 decibels can cause physical pain, and some sounds we hear everyday are at these levels.

Although these sound as though it would be easily noticed, as with all other pollutants, chronic exposure is the most widespread. Chronic exposure to noise pollution can cause certain effects that resonate in the brain or heart, like elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, and changes on brain chemistry. This is from day-to-day exposure from urban activities like construction, planes, and machinery. One of the biggest sources of noise pollution is from transportation, which can be heard almost anywhere within an urban setting. This contributes to large amounts of cases of hearing loss. Hearing impairment is the largest work-related irreversible impairment that can be obtained. This pollution can also cause developmental issues, and some in the early years of life. This pollution can lead to learning difficulty and can lead to children being at intelligence levels lower than average. In our daily lives, sounds of urban life surround us, and we go on with our daily routines. What we dont realize is that the sounds that we hear are actually damaging our ear, hearts, and brains. This is from a sort of pollution called noise pollution, where sounds measured in decibels can damage our hearing, blood pressure, and our brains chemistry. Every day we are constantly exposed to levels of sound measured at 85 decibels, which builds into long-term damage from the chronic exposure. This exposure to sound is mainly from construction, machinery, and, the largest source, transportation. Transportation from buses, cars, trains, trolleys, and planes generates large amounts of sound that is constantly heard in urban environments because of our need to have quick and easy results without worrying about how it may affect us. Some areas that produce large amounts of noise are fighting these pollution levels by reducing their own noise, like hospitals. While it is apparent that noise pollution is a serious issue and could easily be solved with more care, there are almost no policies in place to reduce these producers of pollution. To fix these problems, we could create petitions that require buildings to have anti-noise walls that suppress the noise that resonates outside, or to set a limit on the amount of noise that each machine or product can legally create. So What? This information is important because it revealed how noise is a source of pollution What If? If this information wasnt brought up, some people could have been injured and would have never known what the cause was Says Who? This information was displayed by researchers and scientists that conducted studies on the effects of noise What Does This Remind Me Of? This reminded me of the eutrophication article where something that sounded harmless actually was causing problems that wouldnt have been expected