Brady Rivkin
Disclaimer: This article and any other opinion articles published by the Daniel Wright Voice are not endorsed by the Daniel Wright Junior High School, nor do they reflect the views of the school. These articles are solely the opinions of the students at the school.
Music is music only when it isn’t noise, but many don’t ever regard music as noise. Noise can easily cause hearing loss because it is typically too loud for the given situation, but if somebody is playing loud music, they are not liable to stop if someone asks them to because they don’t regard the music as noise. It is even more difficult to eradicate nearby noise if one is not near the source, and this situation comes into play very often at parties, especially when indoors. The situation could be as simple as one person sitting in an apartment while a group of people is having a party in the next. That person’s sleep could be deeply affected by the noise, and if they can’t persuade the partiers next door to turn down the volume, the partiers essentially are prioritizing their happiness on one day over another’s hearing ability for their whole life. According to the WHO (World Health Organization), the average sound level that one should experience at night should not be higher than 40 decibels (euro.who.int). However, in late October, I heard noise that seemed too soft to be coming from my house, but loud enough that I could barely understand many of the words. This kept me awake for nearly three hours, and by the time I decided to take a short decibel measurement, it was almost 11:30. The graph of the noise level varied, but it was mostly over forty decibels, and for much of the time over fifty. Fifty decibels is very significant because it is ten times the noise level of forty. Unfortunately, there was no way to communicate with the people at the noise source, but hopefully, armed with new evidence, those in the troubling situation of having sleep disturbance from noise will assert themselves and their rights. It is the only way to empower others to pursue justice for all.
Decibel 10th has not been verified as credible, and the measurements are very likely to be inaccurate. However, because the measurements were averaging over ten decibels of the level that is recommended as the highest for sleeping, it can be derived that the noise level in the room could cause damage.
Bibliography:
“WHO Night Noise Guidelines for Europe.” WHO/Europe, World Health Organization, 20 Dec. 2017, http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/environment-and-health/noise/policy/who-night-noise-guidelines-for-europe.
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