Did you hear about all the harm that loud noise is causing us? Probably not because of the construction-induced cacophony that plagues urban India. The deafening drills and loud excavators used in infrastructure and construction projects rip through more than just your ears.
Apart from damaging hearing, regular exposure to loud noise affects heart, sleep, mood and cognition, says Dr. Pawan Kumar Goyal, senior director for internal medicine at Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi. Noise pollution causes hearing loss, tinnitus, stress-related hormone changes, higher blood pressure, and longer-term cardiovascular and mental health problems, say doctors.
Safe noise depends on loudness and duration, usually measured in decibels (dB). While the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies noise levels above 65 dB as pollution, humans can function normally in noise levels of up to 70 dB. Things go downhill when it gets louder than that. Just eight hours of exposure to noise levels of 85 dB starts impacting our health, says Goyal. At 88 dB, humans start feeling the negative impact after just 4 hours. “Exposure to noise of louder than 140dB leads to instant damage. Prolonged exposure to noise of above 70-85 dB permanently damage the inner ear. The cells damage caused due to loud noise is irreversible but completely preventable,” adds Goyal.
Constructing world’s loudest cities
According to an United Nations Environment Programme report from 2022 India is home to some of the loudest towns and cities in the world. With more vehicles on the roads and more construction and infrastructure projects mushrooming in the last four years, urban India has gotten louder with noise levels well beyond the dangerous 85 dB mark. Construction work is the second biggest contributor to India’s noise problem, after traffic snarls. “Construction work is a big contributor to noise pollution since it involves piling, drilling and cutting. The generators used in these projects are loud. Both railway and metro also contribute to noise pollution due to the high-intensity noises emitted during their operation and construction,” says Dr. Rahul Modi, consultant for ENT at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai.
For the last two decades, most of India’s metro and mega cities have been little more than a constant construction site for civic infrastructure such as flyovers, metros, road expansion and private projects including malls, office and residential buildings. These construction projects, are also rampant in smaller towns and cities today. Noise is a problem that both rural and urban India, even once pristine hill stations such as Coonoor and Simla, is faced with.
In Kolkata, where multiple metro and overhead walkway projects are underway, Kailash Rajdev, 47, runs a construction firm. Rajdev says no one at any construction site ever brings up noise as an issue mainly due to poor awareness. “Workers at our sites are used to the sound of machines. The loudest part of any project is the piling under beneath the surface, which frequently happens late at night. While our workers say they aren’t bothered by the sound, sometimes those who live around the sites do complain because they are not used to it,” says Rajdev, who has not once used ear plugs while visiting his sites. Joydeep Ghosh, who lives near Kolkata’s famous Kalighat Kali Temple, lost several nights of sleep for close to five years while construction of a skywalk to the temple was underway. “It started with drilling. Then came the piling. I would wake up to loud bangs in the middle of the night. I spoke to the workers on several occasions but they were said they were merely doing what they were told. Once spoke to the manager or engineer and he said he would look into it. But, nothing materialised. I lived with my windows shut till they finished the project last year,” says Ghosh, a businessman.
In Bengaluru, at Marathahalli crossing where metro construction work has been ongoing for several years now, a street vendor selling fruits off a cart says, “I didn’t even notice it till you pointed it out. This is normal life for us.”
How to protect yourself
According to available data about 60 million Indians suffer from hearing loss caused largely due to noise pollution while latest research shows loud noise stalls development of working memory in children and comes with an increased risk of heart disease, anxiety, stress and more. “Loud noise is known to be associated with increased risks of cardiovascular diseases due to elevated stress levels and blood pressure. In addition to negative effects on the cardiovascular system, chronic exposure to loud noise may affect brain functions causing cognitive dysfunction and lack of concentration especially in places requiring learning or working for an extended period,” says Goyal. The same effects may apply to children and teenagers, who may develop behavioural and mood problems, including depression and anxiety, adds Modi.
All of this is a huge economic cost and burdens our already stretched public health services. While there is no research or data in India to determine the negative impact of noise on its economy, but data from Europe suggests that the health impacts from transport noise could amount to 0.6% of GDP annually.
Both Goyal and Modi say the best way to safeguard oneself from noise pollution is limiting exposure, using protective earplugs, sound-proofing homes where possible or keeping windows shut and keeping the volume down when using personal audio equipment. At the policy level, Goyal sees this as a shared urban exposure problem. According to him the immediate solution is better construction control.
Shrenik Avlani is a writer and editor and the co-author of The Shivfit Way, a book on functional fitness.