Loud noise, as unwanted and distinct from ordinary sound, is bad enough. Our cities and towns are full of noise, some of which instantly physically hurts the ears. In time, it can do permanent damage. Low-level noise, interestingly, can do the same thing. Seneca was on to something when he said, “Hey, Miss Boudica chick, sorry about your family, but it’s time to pay up.” No, no, in this context, he said, “Here I am with a babel of noise going on all about me, I have lodgings right over a public bathhouse. Now imagine to yourself every kind of sound that can make one weary of one’s years.”
Doctor Roberts found studies that demonstrate even speaking and listening to the speech of others literally makes one weary of one’s years.
In 2003, Wolfgang Babisch, a senior research officer at the German Federal Environmental Agency, developed the noise reaction model, which describes two pathways for determining the adverse health effects induced by noise. In the first, known as the auditory/direct pathway, exposure to noise louder than 90–100 decibels (such as a jackhammer) causes inner-ear damage that can lead to hearing loss and tinnitus. In the second, the nonauditory or indirect pathway, low-level noise exposure of 50–60 decibels (such as a conversation) interferes with communication, concentration, daily activities, and sleep, resulting in annoyance, mental stress, and subsequent sympathetic and endocrine activation. It was the latter pathway that Babisch suspected was the central player for noise-induced cardiovascular effects.
This doesn’t necessarily mandate a vow of silence. However, given that most of the words most people babble in conversation are empty and meaningless, it does suggest that one’s health might be improved by limiting exposure to such gibbering language. If we’re honest, duller-witted people tend to be louder than their higher-IQ counterparts. Most people are duller-witted, which might explain the evident obsession with exposing the average ear to noise just for noise’s sake. If one wants to keep the arteries healthy and the cortisol levels in check, maybe just shut up every once in a while. Silence is golden.
PERRIN LOVETT 