It may come as a shock to think of noise as costing money; however, it doesn't come cheap. Noise puts a multi-million dollar hole in the nation's pocket.
The most common measurement for the price of something is dollars. There have been few attempts to measure what either the individual or society is paying for excessive noise. We must face the fact that it is probably cheaper—in direct dollars—to make noise than to curb it. This is why we must recognize a price in health, and the intangibles discussed in the next chapter.
In industry alone, noise is a huge hidden extravagance. Some authorities are convinced that the potential cost of noise-induced hearing loss is greater than that of any other occupational disease. The Federal Council for Science and Technology has reported that if only ten per cent of workers eligible were to file claims, and the average award were $1,000, the total could reach $450 million.
In actuality, hearing-loss awards average $2,000. In 1962 and 1963, New York State paid $250,870 to 187 workers for hearing losses. When a drop forge plant closed down in Connecticut, the 64 men of the work force got a final settlement of $145,488, an average of $2,298 per worker. In a landmark suit against Bethlehem Steel by 323 shipyard workers, their collective claims totalled $5 million. The company settled for $250,000, plus lost time, litigation costs, and medical fees.
In the military, the tip of the iceberg of noise waste can be measured by such hard statistics as this: By 1968 the Veterans Administration was spending $65 million annually in rehabilitation programs for 90,000 veterans with service-connected hearing disorders.
Noise, authorities agree, causes an increase in errors. The Wilson Committee reported that noise above 90 decibels causes a significant rise in mistakes, particularly after the subject has been working for some time in noisy surroundings. "This effect seems to be produced even in people who are accustomed to noise," the Committee said. When they get around to studying the subject, investigators may discover that one reason for the high incidence of poor-quality manufactured products, whether automobiles or household appliances, is the noise environment in the factory.
Industry's safety programs recognize the economic cost of noise-induced accidents. Noise inhibits the prevention of accidents by obliterating or obscuring warnings or spoken signals and by masking the sounds of mechanical breakdowns. Accidents cost money in time lost, earnings lost, skills lost, medical care, the high cost of death, and the cost of training replacement personnel.
How much productivity is siphoned off by that poor night's sleep, or by that hour of sleep lost because of the 7:00 A.M. jackhammer and helicopter reveille? At the Noise Control Congress, Dr. A. Huwiler of Zurich described the effect on his patients of loss of sleep because of jet-engine warmup in the early morning:
Stress situations are caused; if they occur in the morning they represent an extremely unfavorable start to the day's work...An hour of undisturbed sleep every morning, a normal physiological awakening and corresponding fitness every day for tens of thousands of people living near airports, represents an economic factor of great importance.
An analysis of our Upper Sixth Avenue petition-signers showed that office workers in the nearby highrise office buildings were disturbed, as were the staffs of the pharmacy and other specialty shops in the area.
These petitions were signed in June and July of the second year of the subway project, after the offending compressors had been moved underground. One can only guess at the first year's impact on accuracy, absenteeism, and productivity.
More subtle than errors, but as pervasive, are the work interruptions caused by noise. The whole hierarchy of the corporate office system suffers when noise intrudes.