The words and phrases below are related to noise and its adverse health effects.
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A-weighting — Filtering sound measurements to focus on the upper mid-range frequencies used in human speech. This originated from occupational health and safety concerns that workplace-induced hearing loss that impeded an employee’s ability to hear supervisors and co-workers could potentially result in a legal claim for compensation. A-weighted decibels (dBA) are one of three noise metrics used in the Noise Project’s sound-monitoring initiative. (See also “C-weighting” below.)
Anthropophonic — Relating to sound generated by humans, as opposed to that made by animals or natural phenomena. In most cases, the former obscures the latter, and impede natural functions.
“Boy racers” — A British term for the small cohort of young men who speed around UK cities in cars with modified exhaust systems, making excessive noise and otherwise threatening public safety (see “decibel masculinity” below). Providence’s variant tends to be more focused on noise than speed.
C-weighting — Acoustic filtering that includes most lower-frequency sound at the lower end of the audio spectrum, such as that produced by internal-combustion engines in motor vehicles and gas-fueled leafblowers, and bass-heavy subwoofer speakers, in contrast to A-weighting, which excludes it. It is much closer to “Z-weighted” noise measurements (i.e., unfiltered sound data).
Low-frequency sound waves travel farther than higher-frequency waves, and more easily penetrate solid materials such as building walls, and thus are more disruptive in urban soundscapes. Most bass-heavy sources measured by the Noise Project’s sound-monitoring initiative register higher levels in C-weighted decibels (dBC) than A-weighted ones, though the two weighting metrics tend to converge as volume levels increase. To see this dynamic in real time, visit our sound-monitoring page.
Decibel (dB) — The most common metric for how loud sound is. Note that decibels are a logarithmic scale, which means they increase at an escalating rate, so that relatively small rises are actually substantially higher volume levels. This differs from a linear scale, which increases at a constant rate, such that doubling a value makes it twice as high, tripling it makes it three times stronger, etc.
Municipal regulations and enforcement procedures often prescribe sound measurements in “A-weighted” decibels (see definition above) that focus on the upper mid-range frequencies of human speech, and de-emphasize other frequencies — especially more disruptive low-frequency bass common to cities — and thus actively skew the data collected by making the values lower.
Decibel masculinity — A performative, anti-social form of male identity in which sound level is used as a metric for how “manly” someone is. This manifests itself by especially younger men competing (both figuratively and literally) to see who can be louder, usually through the use of a vehicle engine or over-amplified audio equipment such as loudspeakers, but also with fireworks and other means, particularly in deliberately transgressive ways such as late at night, close to other residents, etc.1
Deterrence — The idea that a negative response to a person’s behavior will discourage them from repeating it. Thus, fining those who violate city noise ordinances is not intended simply to punish such actions retroactively, but rather to prevent future violations by demonstrating their consequences. Conversely, an absence of repercussions serves to encourage further violations by communicating that people are allowed or even entitled to generate more noise (see “noise impunity” below).
NIMBY — A revised acronym for “Noise In Most Backyards” or “Noise In My Bedroom Year-round.” This definition is an update from its original description of private homeowner efforts to impede public-interest polices such as non-profit social services and affordable housing, on the grounds that they would lower adjacent property values.
That original definition was largely co-opted by the for-profit development sector as a way to dismiss or stifle legitimate resident concerns about excessive noise from lucrative commercial ventures such as bars, restaurants, and performance spaces2 (see “noise denialism” below).
Like historical verbal slurs used against those deemed as ‘other’, the noise-reduction community is taking NIMBY back, and using it to highlight the self-serving behavior of noise denialists.
Noise — Sound at a volume level that 1) compels people to change their behavior and / or 2) adversely affects them physiologically.3 Exposure to excessive noise can be measured by objective criteria such as decibels, blood-pressure level, or hearing loss, and despite rampant denialism cannot be avoided through psycho-social adaptation (i.e., acculturation, etc). In other words, even people who think they’ve adapted to or are unbothered by noise are still adversely affected by it.
Noise bullying — Threatening those who object to and take action to curtail exposure to deliberately excessive and unhealthy noise with violence or other forms of retaliation. Some theorize that this is actually the real motivation for transgressive noise: to provoke a confrontation that allows the bully to demonstrate his power (see also “decibel masculinity”).
Noise denialism — Dismissing objections to excessive sound levels by asserting that it does not adversely affect human health, contrary to more than a half century of research, because the denier either likes the noise, supports those who make it, and / or has lived in the area longer than those raising noise concerns. Often accompanied by accusations those who object to it are overly sensitive, unfamiliar with urban life, or have an ulterior motive such as gentrification or racism.
Noise entitlement — The self-serving belief that one has a “right” to make noise excessive noise based on one’s personal identity, such as being a member of a certain group, or the duration of one’s residence in an area (i.e., “We grew up here, so we get to decide how loud it should be”), in defiance of local and / or state sound limits. The act of deliberately flouting noise limits is often tied to self-identity, whether it’s performative masculinity or a demonstration of sectarian privilege.
Noise impunity — In the absence of enforcement or other consequences for making excessive noise, the idea that someone can be as loud as they want, whenever and wherever they want.
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) — The permanent diminution of aural acuity caused to damage to the inner ear from exposure to excessive sound levels. The gradual hearing loss over time that most people associate with simply getting older is actually due to the cumulative exposure to noise over one’s lifetime: significant noise-induced hearing loss in the elderly is not a natural occurrence.
”Noise tax” — Direct financial costs to people who are exposed to excessive noise in order to avoid or reduce their exposure to it. Examples include higher costs to buy or rent housing in quieter areas, utility costs associated with being forced to keep windows closed in warm weather (e.g., air-conditioning, fans) and / or to drown out noise (including during the winter), and noise barriers such as personal earplugs, heavier drapes, multi-pane windows, air sealing, etc.
Some of the indirect noise taxes include healthcare costs resulting from the adverse effects of excessive noise, lower property valuations in excessively loud areas and higher housing costs in quieter ones, unrealized commercial revenue in loud areas, municipal and state noise enforcement expenditures, and loss of tax revenue from lower real-estate valuations and lost commercial sales.
Ototoxic — A fancy way of saying “harmful to a person’s ears and / or hearing.”
Sleep deprivation — Preventing others from getting the minimum hours of sleep that humans require to maintain basic health, generally recognized as 6 to 8 hours per night. (Sleep deprivation has historically been used as a torture technique, because it seriously impairs victims without leaving any marks.) Recent scientific research has tied numerous adverse health effects to being deprived of sufficient sleep.
Soundscape — Just as a landscape is what one sees in a given location, the soundscape is the sound one hears in a given environment. And in the same way that humans can alter an existing landscape by changing the natural environment and building things, they change the soundscape by generating sounds at a range of volume levels. Bulldozing a forest would certainly change the landscape for those nearby, and blasting bass-heavy music similarly alters the soundscape.
Z-weighted — An inaptly named way of referring to acoustic measurements that are actually not weighted, i.e., just raw sound-level data. Contrasts with A-weighted and C-weighted data above.
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1 The “masculine overcompensation thesis” is the idea that men react to perceived threats to their masculinity by making extreme performances of it, such as revving vehicle engines, installing modified mufflers, over-amplified speakers, etc. (See “Overdoing Gender: A Test of the Masculine Overcompensation Thesis,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 118, No. 4)
2 The biggest examples of the original definition of NIMBY are actually the commercial property developers and venue owners themselves, who generally don’t live near the excessively loud enterprises they create, and thus aren’t affected by the noise and other adverse conditions they expose neighboring residents to (and then call NIMBYs when they complain) — leading to yet another and far more accurate definition of NIMBYism: “Not Imposed on Me, But on You.”
3 The official definition of noise is “unwanted and / or harmful sound.” The first descriptor is certainly accurate in the social sense of noise, but the idea of ‘unwanted‘ introduces a subjective element — i.e., one’s personal feelings in favor or against a particular sound (e.g., music one doesn’t like) — whether or not it’s excessively loud. This opens the door to unresolvable disputes about who wants to hear it and who doesn’t. The word “harmful” is a far more useful determinant of noise, as it relies on measurable sound levels and discernible physiological effects, such as high blood-pressure, cortisol levels, etc.