Why Should You Care About Construction Noise?

For many of us, hearing is a vital part of our everyday lives. We use our hearing for many normal day-to-day functions. It helps keep us safe, allows us to interact with our loved ones, and is a major part of how we experience the world around us. However, we often take our hearing for granted, and because of this our hearing health can suffer.

You may be surprised to know that poor hearing health doesn’t just include hearing loss. In fact, impaired hearing health can have various negative effects on our overall physical and mental well-being. Here are just a few of the conditions correlated to poor hearing health:

• Diabetes
• Dementia
• Chronic Kidney Disease
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Heart Disease

A common cause of hearing loss and impaired hearing health is noise pollution. Noise pollution includes any form of noise that harms, annoys or distracts. Generally, it is human-generated. Some examples are industrial plants, airplanes and construction. All of these things can affect your overall health.

If you live in an urban area, it is likely you have to deal with construction on a regular basis. Not only does construction affect your morning commute, it can also affect your health thanks to the high levels of noise pollution it creates. While construction projects are undeniably necessary for the improvement of urban infrastructure, we should be more aware of how they can impact our well-being.

“Industrialization, urban planning, construction activities, transportation, events etc. all influence noise levels in the places we live.  Noise exposure has been linked to hearing loss, tinnitus, communication difficulties, stress, annoyance, sleep disturbances, hypertension, heart disease etc.  Any creative solutions to lessen noise levels in the places we live would be expected to reduce these effects.”

– Craig Spencer, Audiologist with Widex Canada

Luckily, solutions are available to help mitigate construction noise, achieving a balance between noise attenuation and urban development. If you live in a fast-growing city, it is inevitable that you’ll be subjected to noise pollution. But if we are able to decrease this noise, it can have a significant positive impact on our health and quality of life. As an example, one solution is to use sound blankets. Sound blankets can be implemented to reduce the amount of noise coming from a job site or piece of equipment, thus lessening the amount of noise pollution in our cities.

A more innovative option that is capable of considerably reducing noise is Echo Barrier. Echo Barrier are temporary acoustical panel designed to help mitigate noise and provide sound attenuation. These panels can be hung easily on temporary fence surrounding the job site. Since the panels are temporary and their function can be customized, Echo Barrier is a simple solution for most noise pollution sources. Modu-Loc Fence Rentals is a Canadian supplier of Echo Barrier. To learn more, visit our products page here.

To read more about the negative effects of noise pollution and poor hearing health, please visit:

https://www.chs.ca/blog/linking-hearing-and-overall-health

http://www.chs.ca/position-paper-noise-pollution