2. What you'll hear in the years ahead

3. Children at risk

4. Coping with noise

5. A sorry sight: visual noise ratcheting up

1. HISTORY SPEAKS VOLUMES

A. BEDLAM AND BABEL AS OLD AS CITIES
One of the earliest complaints about urban noise, at least in Western literature, comes from the poet Horace in the late first century B.C., according to Kathryn Gutzwiller, UC professor of classics. Horace said he couldn't write poetry in Rome because of the din created by mules and porters, funeral processions, mad dogs and squealing sows. About a century later another Roman poet Juvenal complained that it was impossible to sleep in Rome because of carts driven through the streets at night on their way to deliver products needed for city dwellers. "The irony, however, is that after a few days in the country, Romans like Horace or Juvenal would get bored and then rush back to the city," Gutzwiller said.
contact: 513-556-1936

B. NOISY NEIGHBORS AT HOME IN COLONIAL AMERICA
Intrusions and noise were common in past centuries when the great outdoors provided the best chance for relief. UC historian Terri Premo explains that colonial homes were very congested, and there was no concept of privacy. The family home included servants, strays (categorized as anyone who happened to be around), and visiting relatives, all packed into two or three rooms or even in the same bed.
contact: 513-556-6612

C. INDUSTRIALIZATION INTENSIFIED NOISE
The Industrial Age increased congestion and noise. Innovations like steam whistles brought new irritating sounds added to the old, familiar ones, according to UC assistant professor of history David Stradling. By the 1900s, urban residents began to organize, attempting to limit the construction of elevated railroads and developing "quiet zones" around schools and hospitals. Most noise then, as now, came from transportation. And although today's cars and trucks are responsible for much of our noise, their rubber tires were actually an improvement over the clomping of the shoed feet of thousands of horses on city streets. Wider use of cars actually diminished noise in cities, temporarily, said Stradling.
contact: 513-556-2057

2. WHAT YOU'LL HEAR IN THE YEARS AHEAD

A. ROAD RACKET TO ACCELERATE
Transportation researcher and Ohio Eminent Scholar in Urban Design David Gosling: "Many studies have shown that traffic-related noise is growing steadily worse. It's the ever increasing volumes of traffic causing this. Individual cars, trucks and even motorcycles are designed and do run much quieter than in years past. Today's turbine-driven motorcycle is much quieter than the chain-driven one of years past. Another example would be Toyota which makes cars that run almost as quiet as a Rolls-Royce, and so, design of the individual car is not at fault. We now have a prodigious volume of traffic on the roads that will continue increasing...as will the noise level."
contact: 513-751-7376

B. JET NOISE REDUCTION RESEARCH TAKES OFF
Among the research efforts by UC Ohio Eminent Scholar in aerospace engineering Ephraim Gutmark is a new one he patented with Israel Wygnanski of the University of Arizona that has been shown to reduce supersonic jet noise by a factor of up to 30 decibels. In last year's International Aeroacoustics Conference, Boeing's CEO called the device "one of the breakthroughs in jet noise reduction technologies." If jet noise isn't reduced, according to Gutmark, high noise levels may limit future airport expansion and force new airports to occupy remote sites.
contact: 513-556-1227

3. CHILDREN AT RISK

A. BEFORE HOLIDAY BUYING, CONSIDER "NOISY TOYS" STUDY
Stuart McLaren, senior lecturer in environmental health at Massey University in New Zealand, is part of a team studying noisy toys. As such, he recently recorded noise measurements of items like cap guns, clackers, cell phones, electrical dashboard, train set, rock guitar and tambourine. These toys were measured against national safety standards that suggest children less than 18 months should not be exposed to continuous (greater than one second) noise louder than 75 decibels while children over 18 months should not be exposed to continuous noise louder than 85 decibels. Similarly, children younger than 18 months should not be exposed to impulsive (less than one second) noise louder than 105 decibels. That figure stands at 110 decibels for children over 18 months.

"We found a number of excessively loud toys in the sample tested. The most offensive were clackers, rattles, and the air horn. The air horn actually caused pain. It sounded at about 130 decibels, about the same as a jet aircraft taking off," said McLaren. Keep in mind that a soft whisper is about 30 decibels, an average conversation is about 60 decibels, a lawn mower is about 90 decibels, a nightclub is 120 decibels; and a gun shot is about 140 decibels. A gun shot can permanently and instantly damage hearing.
contact: S.J.McLaren@massey.ac.nz

Here's a list of toys and how they fared:

B. QUIET IS THE BEST STUDY BUDDY
Laura Kretschmer, UC professor of communication sciences and disorders, says research shows that noise interferes with learning. That's why national standards for classroom acoustics are being developed. Quiet is also best for study at home. While some children seem comfortable studying with a radio or TV playing, Kretschmer says a noisy environment is not generally the best setting for study.
contact: 513-558-8514

C. HIGHER NOISE LEVELS MEAN LOWER ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS
Nancy Nadler, director of the Noise Center for the League of the Hard of Hearing, says the impact of noise on learning is well documented, pointing to a study conducted 25 years ago. That study compared reading scores of children whose classroom was located close to elevated trains to those in quieter rooms. Children located in the noisy area tested one year behind the children on the quiet side of the school. For more on the study, click on http://www.lhh.org/noise/children/learning.htm
contact: 1-888-NOISE-88

D. HEALTH ISSUES: PEACE AND QUIET ARE THE BEST MEDICINE
Nancy Nadler, director of the Noise Center for the League of the Hard of Hearing, says research shows that noise affects health, pointing to a study that suggested children living near airports had higher incidents of hypertension. Exposure to noise is also associated with stress-related disorders, gastrointestinal changes and interrupted sleep. "People are coming to the League of the Hard of Hearing at younger and younger ages, suffering from hearing loss. This is contrary to the general trend that we are getting healthier. One possible reason is increased exposure to noise, which causes a permanent but preventable hearing loss.
contact: 1-888-NOISE-88

E. IT'S NOT THE SCHOOL BELL YOU HEAR, IT'S STUDENT CELL PHONES
For the first time this quarter, UC professor of communication Cynthia Berryman-Fink put a prohibition on her course syllabi against pagers and cell phones in the classroom. "I just had to draw the line because the cell phones in my summer class were regularly ringing. Some folks had the sense to turn them off or take the calls out in the hall, but some would just sit in class and talk on the phone."
contact: 513-556-4455

4. COPING WITH NOISE

A. IS IT A NUISANCE? OUR CULTURE OFTEN DECIDES
In Hong Kong, says James Katz, Rutgers University communication professor, people don't mind noise. "On subways, it's not uncommon for the majority of people on the subway to be talking on their cell phones," he says. In Germany, however, subway cars carry signs warning riders to keep their Walkman turned down, because even the slight hum that sometimes leaks from the headphones into other passengers' ears is unacceptable. In some communities in Norway, it's against the law to mow your lawn on Sunday -- not because it's the Lord's Day but because of the noise. In the United States, individual rights to make noise tend to win out. "The small suffering of many is usually not enough to overcome the rights of the producer of the noise. That attitude is typical of America, but not unique to it."
contact: 732-932-7168

B. LEGAL REMEDIES FOR NOISE
"Can noise be a tort? Yes, and probably for a common sense reason," says Marianna Brown Bettman, a UC visiting professor of law and former judge on the Ohio First District Court of Appeals. "Excessive noise is a nuisance, and nuisance can be a tort. Ohio recognizes the common law tort of nuisance." Brown says nuisances can be classified as either public, meaning offensive to everyone, or private, meaning offensive to a particular landowner in a way that unreasonably interferes with the use and enjoyment of the landowner's property. "Often the remedy is an injunction, which is an order to stop or limit the noise," Bettman says.
contact: 513-556-0958

C. NO MORE MOVIES
Today's movie-goers not only get an earful from the movie's soundtrack, blaring with more special effects and sound systems that surround them, but they also must contend with noisier audiences, claims Michael Porte, UC communication professor who specializes in popular culture and film. "I think that the people in the audience are getting ruder. We just talked about it in one of my classes last week and one student...said he will never go to a movie again because of the noise from the audience. He will only watch DVD from now on." At one time, ushers used to exert an influence over misbehavior of audiences, but, according to Porte, they don't anymore. "They are just there to clean up..."
contact: 513-556-4473

D. PIPE DOWN ON WHAT'S PIPED IN AT WORK
Workplace e-mail and voice-mail messages not only demand more of our attention on the job, but they're also encroaching on our home life. UC professor of communication Cynthia Berryman-Fink, author of "The Manager's Desk Reference," suggests the following: limit the number of listservs you sign up for. Don't check e-mail or voice mail from home on weekends or on weekdays, if you've already put in a full day's work. Arrange for a co-worker to handle your e-mail and phone calls during vacations. "I would also recommend that you check e-mail only twice a day on the job rather than constantly the whole day, otherwise it is a constant noise and you'll never get anything else done. If you did that, say at about 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., you would still get a response back to the sender within four hours of the business day." She urges, "We do have to draw the lines. I personally don't, for example, check e-mail or voice-mail when I am on vacation. I don't believe it is a vacation if you're taking time checking email and phone calls."
contact: 513-556-4455

E. NOISE SAFEGUARDS PRIVACY
When Leland Person, head of UC's English department, was a high school senior, he listed "noise" as his pet peeve for an entry in the yearbook. He observed, "One of the ironies of our modern society is that many people create privacy for themselves with noise -- headphones, high voltage car stereos, boom boxes and the like. The delight of listening to the silence -- that is, to the small noises that register only when the loud noises die down -- seems missing."
contact: 513-556-5924

5. A SORRY SIGHT: VISUAL NOISE RATCHETING UP

A. BLAME "JOE AVERAGE"
Peter Lyman, professor and associate dean, School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California-Berkeley, recently conducted a study – along with university colleague Hal Varian – that looked at the amount of data generated worldwide: appearing in print, via radio and television or stored digitally. Who's producing the most information? The "average Joe." For instance, office workers are writing more than 80 percent of all original paper documents.

And the future looks bleak. "The TV airways are now passing by as signals and then lost. But soon, digital storage of TV shows or whatever will be more common by the average person. More will be archived and searchable. That's because whenever a price comes down on a medium, it booms. And the price on digital storage is now falling dramatically."

Go to http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/how-much-info for a look at the study. It is available as a two-sentence summary for the "information overloaded," as charts for the moderately overloaded, as an executive summary for the "normally overloaded" and as a 100-page detailed report for the "informationally deprived."
contact: 510-642-1087

B. TECHNOLOGY IS THE CULPRIT
Robert Probst, UC professor of graphic design, explains that desktop publishing technology has enormously increased the number of "instant designers and printers." This resulting mind-numbing blizzard of visual noise, while especially overwhelming for older generations who didn't grow up developing a "thicker visual skin," has been a boon to the graphic design industry. "Smart companies quickly realize it's not about a visual whiz-bang. It's all about effective communication. That means a consistent message achieved by using the right text with the right graphic. It's about rising above the noise level, not adding to it with message on top of message."

Probst, a long-time member and fellow of the Society for Environmental Graphic Design, is also a member of the Alliance Graphic International, a worldwide group of 300 of the best professionals in graphic design. Membership is by invitation only, and Probst is one of 50 Americans in the group.
contact: 513-556-0255

C. WE "SHUT UP" OUR EYES
In a recent study, Peter Lyman, professor and associate dean, School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California-Berkeley, found that though we're producing more information as a society, we're not receiving more information as individuals. "We're pretty good at triage," said Lyman. "We [as individuals] make 'delete' decisions constantly and quickly. We know how to make these rapid decisions even though we've never been trained to do so. We don't passively receive information anymore."
contact: 510-642-1087

D. SIGNS (LITERALLY) OF THE TIMES
Leslie Gallery-Dilworth, executive director of the Society for Environmental Graphic Design, a national professional organization of graphic designers, planners, industrial designers, architects and landscape architects, says public space, Web space, mailboxes – in fact all avenues for communications – are becoming increasingly packed with information, information that is not necessarily communication. "Have you tried to park your car? On one pole in the city, you can find a number of conflicting parking regulations. People have the concept that if one message is good, a whole lot of messages must be better, all in as many typefaces as you can find. In the civic realm, if one sign is good, three must be better. Roads with strip malls are virtual 'sign cities.' People don't understand that good communication is a real skill. Now, with technology, messages are so much easier to produce. So people don't think as carefully about what they put out, how much or where."
contact: 202-638-5555

E. ADVERTISING GOES OFFBEAT TO BEAT THE VISUAL CLUTTER
John Koenig, president, Water Closet Media, Portland, Ore., specifically cuts through today's overwhelming visual noise for clients by placing magazine-type advertisements in the restrooms of nightclubs, sports bars, restaurants and health clubs. He's also worked with affiliates in the business who similarly place ads in the restrooms of stadiums and movie theaters as well as in the dressing rooms of department stores. The venue, though it takes some people aback, definitely cuts through the clutter. "It's right-on target marketing. Ads are gender specific, placed on the stall doors or above the vanity in women's restrooms and above the urinals in men's restrooms. We have your undivided attention. There's no switching the channel, turning the page. It targets lifestyles, from the 21-35 year-olds who have the disposable income to frequent nightclubs to the family at Fuddruckers."

Expect to see more of these "indoor billboards" as the restroom ads are called. The Indoor Billboard Association was formed only two years ago; however, through the association, Koenig is now able to place "indoor billboards" nationally, something he was not able to do before. This has meant new clients, including television networks advertising upcoming programs. To view sample "restroom" ads, go to Water Closet's home page at http://www.waterclosetmedia.com
contact: John Koenig, 503-221-9893

Subscribe to "e-briefings."