“Did you know that the more expensive a lipstick, the louder the ‘clack’ it makes when you close it? This aims to reassure the consumer about the quality of the product”, explains Jean-Luc Puel, professor of Neurosciences, INSERM research director and president of the National Day of Hearing association (JNA). The same goes for the doors of high-end cars, which might turn out to be quiet, but have an artificially noisy closing. Noise has a major impact on our lives, without us always being aware of it. And if it can be pleasant, relaxing, invigorating, it also has negative effects on health. “It acts as a stimulant that can encourage consumption. For example, in a bar, the louder the music, the more alcohol intake increases. Ditto for the ubiquitous music in stores”, continues the specialist. But like all stimulants, it can induce fatigue and stress, especially because communicating in noise requires a higher cognitive load, and its effects can be even more deleterious.
A study from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, published in 2019 in the European Heart Journal shows that people exposed to noise pollution have a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke. Another, published in 2018 in Antioxidants & Redox Signaling, indicates that chronic exposure to noise induces oxidative stress which alters our cells, modifies corticosteroid levels and weakens the body’s defences. Works revealed in The Lancet in 2013 detail the many consequences of overexposure to noise: in addition to illnesses and sleep disorders, researchers have shown that it reduces the performance of workers, schoolchildren and students. Already in 2006, a study published in Medecine-Sciences suggested that excessive noise exposure causes a reduction in the number and duration of sleep cycles and interferes with the recuperative function of sleep. “Certain leisure noises – music on headphones, nightclubs – are a cause of chronic hearing loss, tinnitus and hyperacusis, a hearing disorder characterized by hypersensitivity to certain sounds”, adds Nicolas Dauman, psychologist clinician, citing a study published in 2021 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Noise costs France 147 billion euros a year
According to the report published in 2021 by the Ecological Transition Agency, the social cost of noise amounts, in France alone, to 147.1 billion euros per year, including 127.2 billion in health costs and 19.9 billion in non-health costs, including loss of productivity at work and loss of real estate value. An amount largely attributable to transport (66.5% of the bill), but also to noise from the neighborhood (17.9%, including 12% noise from individuals). More than 20 million French people are affected by the effects of noise pollution and nearly 10 million experience chronic health effects. Noise causes cardiovascular disease in 115,000 French people, at a cost of 10.1 billion euros, mental health problems for 350,000 of them (6.7 billion euros), diabetes in 50 000 people (327 million) and sleep disorders in more than 3.3 million people. “According to estimates, a poorly tuned motorcycle crossing Paris at night could wake up between 20 and 30,000 Parisians”, illustrates Jean-Luc Puel.
Despite these figures, the subject remains little publicized. Even taboo, since eight out of ten French people never talk to their doctor about noise pollution, according to an Ifop survey for the JNA association. “As noise cannot be seen, it has been neglected for a long time. Noise pollution is recent at the political level, since the first European report on the subject dates back to 2011, points out Nicolas Dauman. But today, we know that it has a tangible health effect, and complaints are increasingly taken into account”. A sign that mentalities are changing, the quest for silence is even coming back into fashion. “People actively seek it in naturalistic practices such as meditation, retreats or cures, which testifies to a growing rejection of noise”, adds the psychologist. The survey for the JNA association specifies that 70% of those interviewed feel attacked by noise at home or outside the workplace, and seven out of ten French people are calling for a national plan to fight against it. Two wheels backfiring, noisy open space colleagues, bars where no one can hear each other, passengers phoning on the train as if they were in their living room or even “the neighbor upstairs equipped with brick shoes” – became one of the recurring memes of the Internet -, the list of inconveniences is long.
The “my upstairs neighbour, complete kit” meme.
“We take very little account of noise pollution and talk more readily about sorting waste, air pollution. However, this is a real environmental issue, because noise has significant impacts on health. , summarizes Caroline Demily, psychiatrist at the Le Vinatier hospital center (Lyon). And the cities are increasingly dense and noisy: cars, metros, people listening to music in public spaces, etc. “. The specialist relies on several scientific studies establishing a link between the hearing of risky music and the occurrence of mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety or even suicidal thoughts, caused, for example, by the appearance of tinnitus. “This type of risky listening would push the brain to reorganize in negative cerebral plasticity, causing diffracted attention, deterioration of concentration, especially in young people, who are increasingly affected by this phenomenon. “It has also been shown that it is the same brain regions – the prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex – that are affected during tinnitus or depression”, adds the psychiatrist.
Noisier modern societies?
In his viewfinder, the “compressed sounds”, ubiquitous because used by online music platforms like Deezer or Spotify, television, computers, mobile phones. “They are very flat, lack relief and do not respect the pause time, which prevents giving density to the music, continues Caroline Demily. So to feel the same auditory pleasure as an uncompressed sound, you have to increase sound volume”. And listening is often done in public transport where they are used to cover an already very noisy environment. “You’ve probably already listened to music on the subway, then listened to it again at the same level in a quieter environment, before realizing that the sound was way too high,” suggests the psychiatrist, who recommends listening to vinyl records, or concerts of classical music, jazz, etc. But according to all the specialists, the best defense against these attacks is to take regular breaks. “Labour law prohibits working more than 8 hours a day in an environment of more than 80 decibels (dB), and no more than 4 hours at 83 dB, 2 hours at 86 dB, etc., explains Jean-Luc Puel. Otherwise, the cells of your ear which make it possible to decode the vibrations are overstretched and die, never to be replaced. This is the drama of the internal cell”. And again, hearing losses are still observed despite the standards in force, which could therefore be reinforced in the future. In the meantime, should we favor short breaks every hour or long breaks more spaced out? “For now, we don’t know, but research is progressing,” adds the researcher. The noise battle has only just begun. But is it because our societies are becoming more and more noisy or are we more and more sensitive, because in search of ever greater comfort?
“Societies were undoubtedly more noisy in the 19th century, with the presence of foundries in apartment buildings, or with the famous cries of Paris, when all the vendors shouted their stalls in the street, not to mention the din of horse hooves on the cobblestones, bells that rang all the time and against which the bourgeois classes took action at the time,” says Alain Corbin, historian of sensitivities and noise specialists. “New noises appeared throughout the 20th century, with the arrival of automobiles, public transport such as the metro, two-wheelers and music in public spaces, notes Caroline Demily. the density of cities mathematically increases the noise”. But since the end of the 20th century, Alain Corbin has described a curious mixture of tolerance and intolerance to noise. “Paradoxically, we actively seek noise – concerts, headphones, etc. – but we have little tolerance for noise that we cannot control”, he analyzes. Would the hell be the noise of others? It is, also, those who are not natural. The sound of the waves near the coast, although intense, rings softer in our ears than that of a jackhammer, which is more repetitive. Our brain is indeed able to distinguish between natural and unnatural sounds and does not process them in the same way. A gift of evolution, which also explains why many city dwellers leave the cities.