The most annoying noise to me is the people who talk constantly on their cell phones. The second most annoying noise is the contant 'music' played in stores and their advertising blased out over the intercom. Between the cell phones, the loud music, and the yadda yadda advertising beamed at shoppers I hate shopping now and do most over the internet.

The muzak played in stores with advertising might be called shmoozak.

I can't even go backpacking in my beloved Uintah Mountains of Utah without hearing airplanes overhead every few minutes. More and more, a technophobic society à la Frank Herbert's Dune universe is appealing to me.

The EPA is wrong or they studied the wrong people. Some of us do get used to noise or we tune it out.
The whiny suburbanites moaning about the difficulties of noise is the noise that blares in my ears.
I've lived in the country, I've lived in the city and I've lived in the suburbs.
I now live on a main street in the city with a commuter train whizzing behind me. I don't even notice it.
We live in 2007 not 1807. Yes, the blaring noise in stores bothers me and the cellphone talkers are just plain rude and self-important, but it's the price we pay for modern life.
Just be glad you don't work in a 19th Century factory or have to plow fields all day and die of exhaustion as you watch your family collapse when the crops are killed by drought or overwhelming rain.
Just imagine how noisy it would be to hear your doctor say your child has polio or is dying of small pox or the flu.
Maybe the 40 year olds, which I'm two years away from, need to realize that the world does not revolve around their individual sensitivities.
Imagine how loud it must be in Baghdad when insurgents blow up a car, followed by the screams of the maimed and the shrieking sirens of rescue apparatus, or the cracks of machine guns our men and women fire as they hunt our enemies.
Be glad your noise comes from planes, traffic, cell phones and annoying mall music.
Toughen Up!

Er, Lisa.
You sound a little cranky and stressed out.
Just sayin...
I suggest you go back and reread the part about the lawnmower and people not being nice to each other, and then remove yourself from as many internal combustion engines as possible.

Lisa,

The studies I'm mentioning show that although people may think they are used to noise, their stress hormones are still triggered, even while they're asleep.

There were only around one and a half billion people spread throughout the earth in the 19th century, Lisa, and you sound bitchy enough to deserve to be put back in time into the miserable scenarios you rant about in your off-subject way. You go and be glad about not being involved in those things, don't invite everyone else into your drudge-laden fantasies. The last thing this overpopulated and noisy world needs is snatchy, unsympathetic people such as your foul self. Eight households in my neighborhood were tortured by a group of inconsiderate sonofabitches for one and a half years until we got the law onto them and their subwoofer. They lost their house. The actual, docmented increase in loudness from digital music has been the subject of several recent university and audio engineer & recordist studies, the data of which have appeared in many online and hardcopy newspaper articles in the UK over the last few weeks. Talk about the idiotic and unnecessary Iraq war with your mention of Baghdad - subsonic torture has been documented being used by the US against people in Iraq and at Guantanamo, and it's just as much torture in a passing car as it is when it's 24/7, doll.

Hey Lisa,
Get your hearing checked. You're deaf!

Loud motorcycles are what get under my skin the most. Their noise seems to be the end in itself, not just a by-product.

Amen on the motorcycle noise! I wrote to the CEO of Harley Davidson recently asking what steps they were taking to address the fact that most buyers of their product immediately take the already noisy things somewhere "to make them louder!" It is illegal in my state, the home state of HD to alter a vehicle's exhaust to make it louder! The VP of Noise (yes, they have a person dedicated solely to this issue) assured me that they try to encourage conscientious motorcycle operation. There is nothing conscientious about any motorcycle unless is is as quiet as a factory equipped car! I can not peacefully work the flower garden in front of my house without the seemingly constant summer noise of these monsters. Does that affect my health and stress level? Absolutely! How could it not when I'm constantly mumbling "I hate those ******* things!"

Dear Lisa—OK . . . I too suffer anguish from "oil of them" horrors you cite. BUT—numerous and convincing scientific examinations of this matter have made it it about as "clear" as the earth is to a flight of neutrinos that it IS ". . . necessarily so" that human mental performance and emotional stability, which is it's core, cannot compensate for, let alone overcome distraction, whether aural or other sensed input. There are VERY interesting but apparently limited exceptions to the aforesaid. Check out DANA and other current works in understanding understanding. You too, Cameron, if you hasn't awready. By the way, I run tree Apple Lisa computers—an original Lisa/MacXL, a Lisa II (Lisa's daughter) and a 4X accelerated Lisa w/ 2Mb RAM ("Fast Lisa.") My occasional web page is "Lisa's Lovers."

Well said TampaGuy. I too sense a hardened soul . . . not necessarily a bad adaptation to local reality. Ste. Exupery (Citadel/Wisdom of the Sands) speaks of his beloved enemy, who tempered him as water hardens steel. It is arguably better to survive with the help of personally distasteful accommodations to reality than not to survive. I hangeth by fingernails from the long side of 70 thanks (?) to modern medical interventions which themselves are adaptations to unnatural longevity. I had never thot to live to watch America dying.

Thanatopsy . . . you is a lucky foo. There could'a been barking dogs too.

Gosh yes Phil—as a long time licensed pilot (check out the Volksplane and such.) and (well muffled) motorcyclist I am reminded of an old frontier joke about some assembled indians commenting on the fort's cannon, accidentally fired while still mounted on a pack animal. "Paleface jackass fart!")

Most of my work life was related to educational and industrial applications of audio/visual technology. From sonic modulus of carbon forms for the original Oak Ridge reactor to POTENTIAL evolution in educational methodology if mass smothering in audio/visual diarrhea (particularly the malignant form, marketing) can be overcome to hi-fidelity audio reproduction (remember little wooden boxes stung with silver wires?) before quad, multi-dolby and digital. God does NOT play dice. God does not even DO digital. God is not that simple. Why do we settle for the half-assed—and then, by God, admire it (Mckinley Kantor/Old Jack?) Like Albert I am a reverent agnostic, most awaredly dumber than a stump . . . but still faintly THINKING.

Friends . . we're talking about learned civility, the social hormone upon which democratic cooperation lives or, lacking which, turns to "democratic" coercion as in " . . . but some animals are more equal than others." Mother Nature gives the test first and then the lesson(s.) Survivors MAY choose to retest. What's we gon'ta do . . . kill off enough outgroups to get some peace and quiet? Or start teaching and modeling and rewarding civility? The Golden rule of Buddha, Confusius, Lao Tse, Rabbi Hillel, Jesus et.al: DO NOT DO unto others what you do not wish them to do to you and DO unto others as you would have them do unto you. Or the capitalists golden rule: Them as' got the most &^%#$%# gold gets to squeeze the rest out of anyone else who has any and rule his/her sorry hindparts too—or just kill the losers to clear the real estate.

In order to remain calm and avoid sensory overload, I now wear earplugs just about everywhere I go. (Not while I'm driving, though.) Especially useful at the gym, where televisions blare in great multitudes. Granted, I despise television as a soul-sucking waste of time, but when did it become socially acceptable to publicly bludgeon us with this crap?

Stress is cumulative. Background noise pollution that contributes to daily stress load: blaring music in all settings, communications media including TV and cell phones, 24/7 traffic from cars and trucks, small engines, persisant barking dogs, planes and the sounds of living in an increasingly crowded world. Even travel to more remote areas for camping is no longer guarantee of quiet - we carry our noise with us in our home-away-from-home camper trailers.

Noise pollution is akin to light pollution: both are capable of disrupting sleep - aggravating chronic stress. Modern lifestyles do nothing to decrease stress and much to increase and propagate its effects. Therefore, it contributes to mental and physical health deterioration from unhealthy living habits.

I live in a small rural town, where it's still difficult to escape the jake-brakes of passing tractor-trailer rigs in the wee hours, to ignore the required warning whistle of passing trains at all hours and neighbors returning home in their noisy cars after the bars close. In the hot summer months, early risers ignore the noise restrictions and fire up yard equipment, or run them later in the evening while its still light out at 10pm. The constant grind of noisy air conditioners and the barking of neurotic dogs at all hours is tolerated as 'normal'.

It all adds up. I, too, now wear ear plugs to reduce the noise load. Why does this constant noise pollution pose health problems? Because it must be sorted out in our overly busy brain, strains our concentration and disrupts concentration. It's not the historical experience of hundreds of thousands of years of human habitation. Loud, persistant noise levels used to be exception, rather than the rule.

Gripe all you want about Harleys and other motorcycles but they are far more gas efficient than cars, for the most part, and the noise is necessary for the safety of the driver. Motorcycles are overlooked to the point of near-invisibility to other drivers. The noisier the safer. I'm sure that's not the total motivation for many drivers, but it's a simple fact.

A note to "sick of it all" -

"The noise is necessary for the safety of the driver?" Hogwash! I ride every day and commute in heavy traffic five times each week. I've added extra driving lights to make me easier to see and I swapped out my dinky little horn for one that sounds like a large car.

I don't agree that obnoxiously loud pipes are safer for the rider and I would argue that they piss so many people off that they are actually counter-productive. They also startle the car drivers to the degree that they respond with sudden and dangerous steering adjustments.

And to be fair to HD, they don't sell cycles with loud pipes. It's law-breaking riders who buy illegal after-market pipes that are the problem, not motorcycles themselves.

I guess I hit a few nerves. Yes I'm bitchy, Thanatopsy, but you've become snatchy-me with your rant. Welcome to the noisy, foul, overpopulated world you helped make!
Common sense will tell you noise will drive people crazy, as Thanatopsy shows, and as a means of torture it has been well documented from the Gulag to Abu Ghraib, but everyday noise is not an interrogation.
John Bland is getting closer to reality. Civility and community are gone and, while I contributed to their degradation in my post,in part to push buttons, and in part because everyday noise doesn't bother me. I don't care what the studies say.
All due respect to the studies, my stress and crankiness revolves around other things, like worries about paying the mortgage, filling the tank with gas, keeping food on the table and praying that neither me nor mine has a medical issue that puts us in the poorhouse.
Maybe the EPA could cut a chunk of money from its noise study and give it to my girlfriend who is battling breast cancer. Anyone want to contribute to her "pay the bills" fund?
Noise? It's the last stress-causing thing on my list.
I feel bad for those who have to wear earplugs and no matter what Thanatopsy thinks, I am sympathetic, but are we to ban automobiles, trains, trucks, car alarms, stereos, televisions and cellphones?
What's the answer?
Some are easy. Stores, bars and gyms don't need to play the music so loud or you can just go somewhere else, but those aren't the big problems, are they.
Obnoxious neighbors like Thanatopsy's experience happen. They're not the norm and the law eventually resolved it, as it does with barking dogs and other noise nuisances.
Maybe there are too many people. Some like loud stereos while others can't stand it. Some love televisions everywhere and others would rather there be none.
If someone lives in the country and the plane overhead or train whistle is bothersome, there's no solution for that person--at least until a quiet engine or other means of travel is found.
My soul isn't hardened. I just don't mind the noises around me.
I love my neighbors' barking dogs. It lets me know if someone is in the area-friend or foe. I love the train behind my house. It reminds me I can go anywhere at just about anytime. I love the countless birds that make my backyard home and start singing at 4 a.m. When my neighbor mows the lawn--it doesn't bother me--at 6 a.m. or midnight. I sit on my front step and watch, and listen to the hundreds of cars a day that go by my house.
When I work I listen to the radio or have a ball game on the t.v. in the background.
Wait--there's a police siren. I wonder what's happening?
When is the EPA's next million dollar study? I want to be in their control group.

sick of it all: Nice try on the loud bike safety connection. If safety were a concern for the "loud" motorcyclists, I wouldn't notice the vast majority riding without helmets. Specious logic at best.

One huge source of noise pollution that has been neglected in the discussion here is sirens. I live in San Francisco, a city of 700,000 inhabitants, and we hear sirens at least once an hour. Certain times we hear multiple sirens from different directions. The worst is in the middle of the night. Why are we waking up entire neighborhoods? What about young children and babies who are really upset by the sound of sirens and have trouble falling asleep? Sleeping with ear-plugs can be dangerous as you don't hear your child crying or you may not hear the intruders. I have contacted the Fire Department and the Mayor's office on several occasions to understand why we have so many sirens and to ask if the fire engines could forego sirens at night, but I am only told that fire engines are exempt from city ordinances governing noise pollution and that they must sound their siren when they are responding to emergencies. There seems to be no willingness to rethink how sirens should be used to not upset everyone. When I discuss the issue with friends or acquaintances in the city, they all say they are used to it. I should tell them about the study mentioned above. Does anyone else have the same issue with sirens?

Jeff, I couldn't agree more, I never hated Harleys until I lived on a fairly busy street. Now I realize how utterly inconsiderate those people can be to get their bikes to be louder. Sometimes its so loud it sets off car alarms. A stream of curses comes out of my mouth every time one passes. Whoever is in charge of enforcing this really needs to crack down on the shops that customize those bikes.

Karl (San Diego)

Karl, you are right, it is usually the lower social economic classes that drive such noise makers. You should move out of this depressed neighborhood. My Benz S600 V12 is so quiet that I don't know that I am in the car.