The Tyranny of Noise

Robert Alex Baron

Part IV — Chapter 10 — It's Up To All Of Us

If you become desperate, explore "personal protection," the euphemism for inducing voluntary partial deafness by means of ear protectors.

The most common device is the earplug, recommended if one has trouble hearing acoustic signals, if vocational noise exposure warrants ear protection, and if local noise is extremely irritating. Originally designed to minimize the danger of industrial and military hearing loss, it has been claimed that more than 18 million Americans wear earplugs on the street and in bed. Manufacturers throughout the world are producing earplugs that are hard, soft, or malleable. England's KIFA, which is like a tampon, comes complete with a tassel for removal. Another company has Muffles. A Swedish variety is the glass-wool Billesholm Horsel-Skydd (mott buljer), which is sold in English-speaking countries as Billesholm's Anti Noise. In Germany one finds Ohreschutzer. In the United States, Flents and Nods are examples of the malleable (wax) type of earplug. Although most earplugs are sold directly to industry, some varieties can be purchased in local drugstores.

Besides some physical discomfort and inconvenience, earplugs are expensive. What do plastic earplugs cost individuals who buy them for non-factory wear? A whopping $1.50, at least. Industry and the military, accounting for a substantial amount of the sales, buy them in quantities of 500 pairs or more at a time, and may pay as little as 75¢ per pair.

The acoustic earmuff is somewhat more comfortable than the earplug, because the cup covers the ear and the pressure is on the side of the surface of the head rather than in the ear itself. Earmuffs, if ordered in large numbers, can be found at something like $5. At this low, low price, one researcher estimated it would cost industry something like between $27.5 and $89.1 million per year to substitute ear protection for noise reduction. This estimate is based on the assumption that there are 34 million workers in noisy jobs, and that all must be protected from above-damage-risk noise exposure.

Since I had to buy at retail, my sundry collection of earplugs and two pairs of earmuffs cost me about $50. The irony is that not only does the non-occupational public have to pay the higher retail prices, it receives less value, because both plugs and muffs are designed to protect from hearing loss, and not from annoyance. The annoyance is reduced; it is not reduced enough.

Earplugs do not provide good protection from the sound energy of lower frequencies, and the rumble of traffic noise is most often of low frequency. Although the whine of the jet compressor is high frequency, the bulk of jet-engine noise is also in the lower frequencies. Nevertheless, for a modicum of relief, earplugs are almost mandatory for individuals living near airports.

Check with your doctor before wearing earplugs. I wore half-a-dozen varieties during the siege of upper Sixth Avenue, until my ear doctor told me not to, that I was irritating my ear canal. Earplugs must be carefully fitted: the two human ears differ in size. The Public Health Service recommends that earplugs for industrial use be issued only by a plant physician (or nurse) who is qualified to select the proper plug, as well as instruct the user on how wear and care for these devices. The agency further recommends that earplug users be spot-checked to insure that these safeguards are being correctly employed.

Caution: do not use the type of earplug that has a metal valve, which is supposed to stay open in low-noise situations to allow conversation. The metal valve represents a potential hazard if one receives a blow on the head.

Solid earplugs require care. The softer the device, the more comfortable it is to use; however, the soft ones are less durable. Ear wax, dirt, perspiration, and other foreign matter can cause the plugs' resilient constituents to harden, crack, or expand, and become too soft. On the other hand, harder plugs, although more durable, are less comfortable and more likely to irritate the ear canal. Travelers should be aware that earplugs are especially likely to cause ear canal inflammation in tropical climates.

Cotton is worthless as an earplug.

One other precaution: do not wear earplugs while brushing your teeth; the effect is not unlike chalk rasping over a blackboard.

Paradoxically, earplugs make it more difficult to hear speech in quieter surroundings than in noisier ones, such as a factory. Speech comprehension is difficult in areas of low background noise if one is wearing earplugs. Worn while sleeping, earplugs could muffle a child's weak nighttime call, some sounds of danger, and other "noises" that one wants to receive.

After years of educational programs to promote hearing conservation, factory workers continue to resist protecting their ears with earplugs. Apparently the certainty of discomfort overrules the threat of deafness. These earplug resisters must also know from experience that, in some intense noise situations, plugs afford little or no relief or protection.

Developed by the military to protect "aircraft guiders" on carrier decks from hearing loss, acoustic earmuffs are minimally effective in screening out the annoying lower-frequencies of everyday noises.

Any effectiveness of muffs that are available for general use must be weighed against these devices' shortcomings. There is the discomfort from perspiration that develops between the muffs' tight seal and the side of the head. Their use makes telephoning a comical operation. It is quite a feat to clamp one of the cups over the telephone receiver and keep one's eyeglasses from falling off, while trying to hold a pen! (Wearers of glasses who are subject to a "temporary" spell of construction noise might consider obtaining contact lenses.) Because of their protruding cups, earmuffs cannot be used while sleeping. They interfere with lovemaking, and a careless passionate kiss between two persons wearing earmuffs could leave one partner with a mouth full of plastic or a black eye.

To appeal to women, manufacturers have developed a model earmuff that has a rotating band that can be worn under the chin, leaving coiffures unscathed. Earmuff manufacturers are also getting away from the drab gray of their initial product, and offering models in orange and blue.

Your hands are the most natural form of ear protection. At the Human Engineering Laboratories of the U.S. Army, a study was conducted of the comparative effectiveness of fingers, palms, tragi (the prominence in front of the external opening of the ear), and earplugs as noise blockers. The tragi won, hands down—or up, rather. At 34 decibels attenuation, the tragi were found to be quite superior to earplugs, which averaged only 21 decibels attenuation. Moderately effective were fingers for attenuating low-frequency sounds, and palms for high frequencies.

These findings would suggest that tragi should be drepressed over the ear canals for jet flyovers, fingers stuck in the canals for traffic noise, and the palms of one's hands placed over the canals for construction noise. Earplugs and earmuffs have the advantage of leaving one's hands free, however. Perhaps Mother Nature will respond to the plight of modern urban man, and create a mutant with self-closing tragi.

One serious threat of intense noise is that sound energy can penetrate the soft tissues of the body. To protect particularly vulnerable flight-deck personnel, a British manufacturer has developed an anti-noise suit. Resembling a suit of chain mail, it covers one from the top of the head to the bottom of the torso.

If your noise is not intense enough to penetrate your abdomen or groin, you may be satisfied with the completely enclosed acoustic helmet developed for spaceship launching. Equipped with its own oxygen supply, telephone jacks, and built-in radio transmitter/receiver, it makes possible communication with one's loved ones, while at the same time solving the air pollution problem.