Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health): NOISE POLLUTION STUDY

NOISE POLLUTION A SHORT PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT

By Murray Thompson, BAppSc (Environmental Health 1998), Hons I (Social Ecology 1999), Current Sociology PhD Student, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury 2000 (updated & adapted February 2012) Web Sites: http://poisonedpeople.com & http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au

My name is Murray Thompson. This study addresses the subject of noise 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 OF INVESTIGATING 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 THE COURT 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

Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health): NOISE POLLUTION STUDY

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

Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health): NOISE POLLUTION STUDY

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 2

Davis 1976:107. (Vayda 1991:47-48).

Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health): NOISE POLLUTION STUDY

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 playground area. 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).

Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health): NOISE POLLUTION STUDY

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 transparent one 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 crossreferenced 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

Enroth 1992:111.

Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health): NOISE POLLUTION STUDY

(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 body an 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 24 th July, 1990 said: The troubled inquiry into problems around the Castlereagh Liquid Waste Disposal Depot was dealt a blow from within last week by State Member 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

Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health): NOISE POLLUTION STUDY

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 more confined, though no less important, realms of social equity and environmental health on small community scales.

Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health): NOISE POLLUTION STUDY

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.