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Do you hear that?
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Do you know what that is?
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Silence.
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The sound of silence.
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Simon and Garfunkel wrote a song about it,
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but silence is a pretty
rare commodity these days,
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and we're all paying a price for it
in terms of our health,
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a surprisingly big price, as it turns out.
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Luckily, there are things
we can do right now,
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both individually and as a society,
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to better protect our health
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and give us more of the benefits
of the sounds of silence.
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I assumed that most of you know that
too much noise is bad for your hearing.
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Whenever you leave a concert or a bar
and you have that ringing in your ears,
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you can be certain that you have done
some damage to your hearing,
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likely permanent,
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and that's very important.
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However, noise affects our health
in many different ways beyond hearing.
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They're less well known,
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but they're just as dangerous
as the auditory effects.
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So what do we mean
when we talk about noise?
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Well, noise is defined as unwanted sound,
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and as such both has
a physical component, with sound,
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and a psychological component,
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the circumstances that make
the sound unwanted.
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A very good example is a rock concert.
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A person attending the rock concert
being exposed to 100 decibels
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does not think of the music as noise.
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This person likes the band, and even
paid a hundred dollars for the ticket,
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so no matter how loud the music,
this person doesn't think of it as noise.
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In contrast, think of a person living
three blocks away from the concert hall.
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That person is trying to read a book,
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but cannot concentrate
because of the music,
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and although the sound pressure levels
are much lower in this situation,
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this person still thinks
of the music as noise,
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and it may trigger reactions that can,
in the long run, have health consequences.
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So why are quiet spaces so important?
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Because noise affects our health
in so many ways beyond hearing.
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However, it's becoming
increasingly difficult
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to find quiet the spaces,
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in a time with constantly
increasing traffic,
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growing urbanization,
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construction sites,
air conditioning units,
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leaf blowers, lawnmowers,
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outdoor concerts and bars,
personal music players,
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and your neighbors partying until 3AM.
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Whew.
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In 2011, the World Health Organization
that 1.6 million healthy life years
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are lost every year due to exposure
to environmental noise
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in the Western European
member states alone.
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One important effect of noise
is that it disturbs communication.
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You may have to raise your voice
to be understood.
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In extreme cases, you may even
have to pause the conversation.
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It's also more likely to be misunderstood
in a noisy environment,
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and these are all likely reasons
why studies have found that children
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who attend schools in noisy areas
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are more likely to lag behind their peers
in academic performance.
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Another very important
health effect of noise
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is the increased risk
for cardiovascular disease
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in those who are exposed
to relevant noise levels
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for prolonged periods of time.
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Noise is stress,
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especially if we have little
or no control over it.
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Our body excretes stress hormones
like adrenaline and cortisol
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that lead to changes
in the composition of our blood
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and in the structure of our blood vessels,
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which have been shown to be stiffer
after a single night of noise exposure.
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Epidemiological studies show association
between the noise exposure
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and an increased risk
for high blood pressure,
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heart attacks and stroke,
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and although the overall
risk increases are relatively small,
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this still constitutes
a major public health problem
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because noise is so ubiquitous
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and so many people are exposed
to relevant noise levels.
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A recent study found that US society
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could save 3.9 billion dollars each year
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by lowering environmental
noise exposure by five decibels
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just by saving costs for treating
cardiovascular disease.
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There are other diseases
like cancer, diabetes, and obesity
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that have been linked to noise exposure,
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but we do not have enough evidence yet
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to in fact conclude that these diseases
are caused by the noise.
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yet another important effect
of noise is sleep disturbance.
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Sleep is a very active mechanism
that recuperates us
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and prepares us for the next wake period.
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A quiet bedroom is a cornestone
of what sleep researchers call
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"a good sleep hygiene."
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And our auditory system
has a watchman function.
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It's constantly monitoring
our environment for threats,
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even while we're sleeping.
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So noise in the bedroom can cause a delay
in the time it takes us to fall asleep,
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it can wake us up during the night,
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and it can prevent our blood pressure
from going down during the night.
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We have the hypothesis that
if these noise-induced sleep disturbances
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continue for months and years,
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then an increased risk for cardiovascular
disease is likely the consequence.
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However, we are often not aware
of these noise-induced sleep disturbances
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because we are unconscious
while we're sleeping.
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In the past, we've done studies
on the effects of traffic noise on sleep,
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and research subjects would often
wake up in the morning and say,
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"Ah, I had a wonderful night,
I fell asleep right away,
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never really woke up."
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When we would go back
to the physiological signals
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we had recorded during the night,
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we would often see numerous awakenings
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and a severely fragmented sleep structure.
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These awakenings were too brief
for the subjects to regain consciousness
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and to remember them
during the next morning,
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but they may nevertheless
have a profound impact
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on how restful our sleep is.
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So when is loud too loud?
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A good sign of too loud is
once you start changing your behavior.
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You may have to raise your voice
to be understood,
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or you increase the volume of your tv.
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You're avoiding outside areas
or you're closing your window.
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You're moving your bedroom
to the basement of the house,
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or you even have
sound insulation installed.
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Many people will move away
to less noisy areas,
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but obviously not everybody
can afford that.
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So what can we do right now
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to improve our sound environment
and to better protect our health?
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Well, first of all,
if something's too loud, speak up.
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For example, many owners of movie theaters
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seem to think that only people hard
of hearing are still going to the movies.
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If you complain about the noise
and nothing happens,
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demand a refund and leave.
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That's the language that managers
typically do understand.