Noise-Pollution&Health-Impacts

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Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health): NOISE POLLUTION STUDY 1

NOISE POLLUTION A SHORT PUBLIC HEALTH

ASSESSMENTBy Murray Thompson, BAppSc (Environmental Health 1998), Hons I (Social Ecology 1999), Current

Sociology PhD Student, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury2000 (updated & adapted February 2012)

Web Sites: http://poisonedpeople.com&http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au

My name is Murray Thompson. This study addresses the subject ofnoise pollution

and community health stresses arising from this problem. Issues of particular

interest include: Sleep Deprivation, Autonomous Nervous System Impact and

Toxemia.

THIS STUDY CAME OUT OF COMPLAINTS ABOUT NOISE EMANATING FROM

A LEAGUES CLUB IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. I HAVE ADAPTED THE GENERAL

HEALTH INFORMATION DISCOVERED DURING THE COURSE OFINVESTIGATING THIS ISSUE TO THIS ARTICLE

There were originally 3 noise problems identified by residents near the club:

1. NOISE FROM MUSIC, CLIENTS AND THEIR CARS: HEALTH IMPACTS OF SLEEP

DEPRIVATION.

2. THE BEHAVIOUR OF UNSUPERVISED CHILDREN IN AND OUT OF THE

PLAYGROUND AREA AT THE BACK OF THE CLUB.

3. THE UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOUR OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE CLUB AT THECOURT MEETING CONVENED TO ADDRESS COMMUNITY CONCERNS, AND

INVESTIGATION ANOMALIES.

1. NOISE FROM MUSIC, CLIENTS AND THEIR CARS: HEALTH IMPACTS OF SLEEP

DEPRIVATION

I personally lived in a residence very close to the Leagues Club.

Noise Disturbances
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Almost every Friday night and Saturday morning (and sometimes Saturday night

and Sunday morning) the bass beat from the dance music kept me awake until 2 or

3 am. I did, however, normally stay up quite late those nights at the time. I found

this aggravating in the extreme, and distressing from the perspective that my ability

to then take my 8-year-old boy out on a Saturday or Sunday was compromised. If I

slept in, sometimes we did not venture out due to lack of time, and especially

because public transport in the area was limited on the weekend in the evenings.

Health Impacts

The symptoms of sleep deprivation or, simply put, disturbed rest and the

consequent effect of sleeping in, left me with reduced physical and emotional

resources at a time when I needed to focus intently on my child. I noted during this

period an increased predisposition for outbursts on my part with regard to

managing the vicissitudes of child rearing.

Another resident who lived close to the Club also noted that acute nausea

accompanied instances of sleep deprivation. Still another resident noted that a

very sick relative living with them was particularly susceptible to the bass thump

of the music coming from the Club at 2 and 3 am on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

The relative had terminal cancer and suffered immensely from the imposition of the

Club's noise.

In my opinion, disturbed sleep leads to a diminished ability to function effectively,

both physically and emotionally. This is why sleep deprivation is used as a form of

torture in warfare and espionage activities. As well, this tool is used, often, within

religious cults in order to make victims more suggestible and compliant.

Specifically, tiredness makes the use of any equipment, be it a power tool or a motor

vehicle, more hazardous.

The general reason for tiredness, decreased attention span, reduced coordination,

diminished reflexes, and other less specific symptoms can in part be explained by

the toxemia that accompanies interrupted sleep. All individuals, subject to modest

variations in their personal physiology, require uninterrupted sleep in order for the
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liver to properly cleanse the body of the toxins that have accumulated during the

active hours.

Health impacts on local residents experiencing noise pollution therefore take on 3 major

perspectives:

a/ Toxemia, which is a major precursor of degenerative disease. I especially note

this because many elderly live behind the Club in question (which, to their credit,

largely ceased generating noise since the community court appearance). Any

significant interruption to sleep patterns will necessarily promote the morbidity of

any existing medical condition because stress can leave the body unprotected1

Also, disturbed sleep favors the appearance of genetically predisposed conditions,

even in the young, since toxins weaken the human immune system as well as

accumulate within organs to levels where permanent damage can eventuate.

b/ It is now well known that a discordant musical beat is antagonistic to the human

heartbeat (and likely other rhythms and aspects of human physiology). I again note

this particularly in regard to the elderly residents and potential heart problems.

c/ It is also now well known that unresolved anger and tension inflates the heart

rate, increases adrenal and cortisone activity (and therefore the potential for

adrenal exhaustion), and increases muscle tone (and therefore the potential for

fatigue), all via the autonomous nervous system.2

This is often referred to as The

Fight or Flight Reaction. As well, other symptoms and disorders are strongly

associated with distress and anger (I note this because anger is the dominant

emotion that I have seen expressed by myself and other residents near the Club).

Some of these more long-term disorders are:

chronic indigestion;

gastrogenic diarrhea;dilated stomach, false palpitations, difficulty in breathing, dizziness and

fainting;

paroxysmal tachycardia (heart racing);

peptic ulcers;

gall-stone colic;

false pancreatic deficiency;

habitual constipation;

spasticity in the latter half of the colon and consequent gas retention;

1 Davis 1976:107.2 (Vayda 1991:47-48).


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urinary bladder inflammation;

acute and chronic diarrhea;

ulcerative colitis;

high blood pressure;

arteriosclerosis;

cerebral vascular accidents;

over-active thyroid;

diabetes;

lumbago;

rheumatism;

gout3

This understanding has been around for decades. These are the classic

psychosomatic responses to emotional distress. I therefore conclude that noise

pollution from the Leagues Club was a major public health issue.

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2. THE BEHAVIOR OF UNSUPERVISED CHILDREN IN AND OUT OF THE

PLAYGROUND AREA AT THE BACK OF THE CLUB

In the 3 years I had lived near the Leagues Club I endured a consistent barrage of

missiles coming over my back fence from the childrens playground area. As well as

tennis balls I have noted handfuls of drink coasters, glass bottles, sticks, small

stones, rocks and pieces of brick strewn over my back lawn.

Specifically, on one evening drink coasters hit the guttering at the back of my unit

sometime between 9:30 and 10 pm, making a dreadful noise. I looked out the

lounge room window and saw a group of children running from the playgroundarea. I have even found 2 switches from a BBQ installation on my back lawn. One

of my initial concerns here was that my child sleeps in a bed under the lounge room

window and that a missile could easily shatter the glass, creating a potentially

deadly situation.

As a result of the missiles, I initially put in considerable effort (and cost) installing

security mesh over my bedroom and lounge room windows. I also installed mesh

over the entire back porch in order to protect the glass sliding door located there.

3 (Simeons 1960).
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Lack of supervision of children at the Club, particularly at night, was an ongoing

problem. I have seen children fiddling with the old gas BBQ equipment, specifically

the gas pipes and connections. Children have broken through the Clubs steel sheet

back fence (since repaired), have climbed on the back fence, climbed onto the

carport structure next to the back fence, lit a fire in a 44 gallon drum at the back

fence, and hurled rocks from the Club's new construction area onto the Clubs oval

for a full 30 minutes while Club officials failed to investigate, long after a warning

phone call from myself.

3. THE UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOUR OF THE CHAIRMAN AT THE (THEN 2000)

COURT MEETING, AND INVESTIGATION ANOMALIES

The court session of the 18th December 2000 concluded rather abruptly after the

bulk of my proposed comments (listed above under 1.) were specifically denied a

hearing by the Chairman. In my and other residents opinions, this was likely

because there was significant potential for a class action to be launched against the

Club for pain and suffering endured by the residents of the area.

Regardless of this point however, I take particular offence at any strategy that

denies the free flow of information and opinion. In this instance the gathering was

not permitted to hear my professional accounting of the public health ramifications

of sleep deprivation. This totalitarian approach is obnoxious in the extreme, makes

a mockery of the concept of democracy, and serves only to nullify any noble

attempt to make the whole process transparentone of supposed full community

consultation and participation. I have conducted extensive studies into religious

and political brainwashing, and fully appreciate how intrusive, inequitable and

obscene is the imposition of inappropriate restraints on the dispersion of opinion.

Authoritarianism favors submission to power structures and conformity, not

diversity4, rather than independently created, analyzed, configured and cross-

referenced thought that generally ensures the appearance of truth and a greater

potential for freedom. The manipulation of human minds is a serious ethical

offence. If there is a singular quality that differentiates this country (Australia) from

so many other blighted regimes around the world, it may well be our relative

4 Enroth 1992:111.
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(though shrinking) freedom to express our ideas and share in the resulting

diversity and safety of broadly extracted knowledge and understanding.

As well, it was noted that the typical political ploy of the accused (in this case, the

Club) sponsoring and funding the very bodyan independent noise assessor

that is to monitor the Clubs own noise levels, was admitted to by the Chairman and

the Club official. I do not need to emphasize how utterly unethical is this kind of

pathetically weighted strategy.

This kind of rigged inquiry is par for the course it seems. Note the following extract

taken from my book, Global Toxicity: Chemicals A Worldwide Nightmare

(Highlighting the Castlereagh Waste Management Centre and its Impact on

Londonderry, Sydney)

An unbiased exposure of truth and a determined will to compensate any

adversely affected does not, however, seem to be on the agenda of any who

might be able to hide culpability beneath pleas of chemical testing ignorance and

expense, or the specific lack of solid and demanding absolute proof.

As matters turned out, the Penrith Press of 24th July, 1990 said:

The troubled inquiry into problems around the Castlereagh Liquid

Waste Disposal Depot was dealt a blow from within last week by StateMember for Londonderry Paul Gibson.

A member of the community committee of inquiry established by

State Environment Minister Tim Moore, Mr Gibson previously had been

reluctant to comment on its workings but last week he labelled the

inquiry a farce...

As revealed in the Penrith Press last month, the committee is being

funded by the very body which operates the liquid waste depot under

investigation - the Waste Management Authority - which Ms Allan

[Opposition environment spokesman Pam Allan] felt compromised the

inquiry (Bender, Wilmott & Zuel 1990).

The same article quoted Mr Gibson as saying: Its like the WMA investigating the

WMA... the Government will be condemned for not really trying to find a cause

for what is happening in the surrounds of Londonderry (Thompson 1998:9).

In this case, it is a Leagues Club investigating itself...

I also noted a likewise bewildering anomaly wherein, upon receipt of objections

from the audience regarding the above admission of the source of noise evaluation


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funding, the Chairman then attempted to recommend this noise assessor in

strenuously emphasized, detailed and glowing terms. Further, the unusually low

noise emissions noted over the preceding few weeks during a known noise

monitoring phase were not adequately addressed.

It may well be that the noise assessor is a professional, and also a person of

distinguished character, however the Chairmans effusive blundering failed

completely to make this apparent and, really, only managed to highlight the

political likelihood of the opposite. At the very least, the noise assessor has had his

character somewhat obliquely defamed and his investigation laid open to serious

doubts. At the most, this investigation has been characterized as just another

political farce. The revelation of who pays (in other words, the investigated pays

the investigator) was a comedy of errors compounded by the Chairmans

overenthusiastic and unconvincing scramble to paste up a semblance of propriety. I

do not appreciate being hoodwinked first, and then finally censured. It is not hard

to smell a rat in this disappointing issue and the way it played out in court.

When a community is beleagued by negative environmental impacts, it suffers.

People get sick and some even die. What is needed in all this pain is a fully

transparent inquiry that is equitable; in other words, everyone gets a chance to

provide input. What I have seen in the past, however, is just the opposite.

Investigations are all too often manipulated, and community input, if initially

seemingly accepted, is then ultimately hamstrung or ignored.

Above all else, we small people who have to live with the ideas and plans of those

who aspire to higher office demand mediators who inspire confidence rather than

distrust, people who clearly show that they are humble and willing to accept all

views instead of confounding the process. If we cannot trust totalitarian dictators

who deal with the much larger issues of their corrupted visions of nationhood and

racial destiny, then we cannot trust smaller individuals who work within the moreconfined, though no less important, realms of social equity and environmental

health on small community scales.
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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The problem of excessive noise from the Leagues Club has been compounded by a

seriously flawed community consultation process. It is not too much to ask an

organization to treat all residents with respect. It is also not too much to ask a

court hearing to respect all opinions and the capacity of people to understand.

As a person with at least half a brain, I recommend that all community Clubs and

the like recognize their broader Public Health responsibilities and Duty of Care. The

Club should be professionally and extensively sound proofed. As well, it should be

air-conditioned to a point where there is no temptation to open the back door of

the Club during the summer months (as has occurred) in the evening while the

music is potentially harmful to surrounding residents.

If these remedies are not possible, then the venue for the dances must be relocated

to a more isolated area.

REFERENCES

Bender, J., Wilmott, M. and Zuel, B. 1990, The human side of Londonderry: no-one

has any answers, Penrith Press, April 10.

Davis, A. 1976, Lets Eat Right To Keep Fit, George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd,

London UK.

Enroth, R.M. 1992, Churches That Abuse, Zondervan Publishing House Academic

and Professional Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan USA.

Simeons, A.T.W. 1960, Mans Presumptuous Brain, E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. New York,

NY, USA.

Thompson, M.S. 1998, Global Toxicity: Chemicals A Worldwide Nightmare

(Highlighting The Castlereagh Waste Management Centre And Its Impact On

Londonderry, Sydney), M. Thompson (Publisher), PO Box 605, New Norfolk TAS,

7140 Australia.

Vayda, W. 1994,Attack Asthma: How to conquer environmental illnesses and

allergies without drugs, Thomas C. Lothian Pty. Ltd, Port Melbourne, Australia.

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Noise-Pollution&Health-Impacts