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Noise pollution

How do you deal with it?
I have sensitive hearing, and really do not like loud noises. Typically, in non-industrial, settings, or places we routinely visit, including, perhaps, business offices, parks, bookstores, etc., decibel levels may hover around 60-70 db. When you get up around 85 db, that is where damage can begin to occur to your hearing. I'll give an example of an uncomfortable situation I have to deal with on a daily basis: one dog in the household barks at virtually anything; delivery trucks, doorbell (even if it's just on TV), me, ad infinitum. His bark measures anywhere from 90 something db, to over 100 db, depending on how far he is from my meter. The only way I can deal with this is to wear earplugs.
Also, as I walk the neighborhood with my dogs, who are actually very quiet dogs, I hear myriad disturbing noises: barking dogs, jackhammers, lawnmowers, loud cars, etc., etc. And this is a very suburban locale, no heavy traffic here. Am I coming off as hypersensitive? Does this stuff bother anyone else? It just seems to be so much worse to me now than when I was young (admittedly, that was a long time ago, but still in the industrial age).

Condor5 8 Jan 30
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9 comments

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1

Muzzle or shoot the dog.
Move to the high desert or a mountain range (I lived at the top of a Sierra Nevada (Scotts Flatt, CA) ridge for a while, it was so quiet, I had trouble sleeping at first)
Problem solved.

And in empathy, I live in suburban LA and the traffic, sirens and especially the little kids SCREAMING gets me stressed out. I can hardly wait to get out of this town.

My daughter lives there, too, and she and her husband are looking for an out. Do you have a plan to leave/resettle elsewhere?

@Condor5 Very loose plan at this time. I have one class to complete this semester in Santa Monica so late June at the earliest.

1

My unfortunate experience of excessive sound [ which led to a lifetime of tinnitus ] was when I was building an amplifier, and on testing it while wearing form fitting earphones, a bypass capacitor whose job it was to prevent feedback oscillations fell off due to my poor soldering. I was immediately subjected to the most ear damaging blast of sound . A single frequency sound wave tore into the appropriate resonating hairs and destroyed them. Since then my tolerance to dogs barking is way off the register.

If only you could have taken the NASA-level soldering class I used to conduct...

Hi Condor5 Well after 66 years as a radio and television serviceman, there always comes a time when while not concentrating on the task at hand, that these things can occasionally happen. Things like accidently installing an electrolytic cathode bypass capacitor in reverse polarity and having it explode in my face, covering the entire chassis with shredded electrolyte soaked aluminium foil. [ while the client is watching and marvelling at my sheer professionalism.]

1

I get bothered by certain kinds of sounds, repetitive in nature, mostly, and little to do with volume: tapping of foot or drumming of fingers, riffling pages of a book, crinkling a flimsy water bottle...even the barely audible shush of a hand against fabric, if someone is repeatedly stroking their leg. These kinds of things are never loud but they somehow dominate my awareness and drive me crazy. "Misophonia" ain't just for chewing, y'all.

My dogs constantly licking...drives me up a wall. I know whereof you speak. Yeah, I've gotten some dirty looks for the finger drumming thing before. Sorry about that, we often don't even realize.

@Condor5 I've never had to remove myself from the room for that sort of thing...but if it came to it, I would. I've looked around enough to know that being that bothered by that sort of noise is my problem, no one else's. Although there comes a point--in loudness--where if you're making repetitive noise for no damn reason, you're just being rude. But it's got to be pretty loud, and I've almost never seen that happen with someone who wasn't developmentally disabled or otherwise out of touch.

1

I'm extremely sensitive to certain kinds of noises. Impossible to concentrate. That is one of the huge perks of winter in my area is the quietness of the season. No lawn nazis wielding leaf blowers, edgers or mowers. No ice cream trucks, no woodchippers or saws.

You might find some relief w/your dog with a bark collar set on low. Garmin makes a reasonably priced good one. We had no choice but to invest in them after having been kicked out of a hotel because our two butts decided to start a symphony in our absence at a most inopportune time, dead of winter, at a horse show for our girl. That was fun taking turns baby sitting them in the back seat with the heater on in freezing temps from 8am-afternoon! >_<

Also came in super handy when it was just NOT going to happen that we were going to be getting mail and squirrel alerts while late dh was terminally ill spending most of the time in a recliner watching tv in the living room.

I'm very careful to not let ours bark incessantly as even ardent dog lovers have their limits. I love them too much to allow mine to become statistics.
I'd dearly love to live in the country because of the noise issue.

In my case deal with it w/an ADD script. One for winter, one for summer. The one I use in Winter just helps me get *** done but doesn't really help with noise, the other is too hard on heart but works great for noise. Dx'd late in life chose to do everything in my power to achieve as much focus as possible.

Unfortunately, the offending canine is a very fluffy long-haired breed, so the bark collar isn't feasible.

@Condor5 What is it? The connectors go in front, maybe a little trim will help in the spot where the stim goes. Also has vibrate setting. I don't ever put them over a 3. After awhile some become "collar wise" which helps curtail 'sport barking".

@Qualia he's a Sheltie, Shetland Sheepdog, and barking is in his job description. The real problem is that he's not my dog, and his momma doesn't see it as a big deal, so I just have to live with it, and wear my earplugs (much of the time).

@Condor5 Ah that's rough 😟 Yeah think barking a great deal is in sheltie's dna.

@Qualia no doubt about it.

1

I get it.

I used to play base and keyboard in rock bands, and lost most of my hearing.

When I was reduced to reading lips, I decided I wanted to hear again. That was in the 1990s, I think.
Soon after deciding that, I was coming down the mountain when I heard a loud thudding sound behind me..sounded like footsteps on the pathway.

I was terrified, whipped around..but nobody was there. I could also hear this loud rushing sound, like water in a pump. I finally realized I was hearing my heart beat and the blood rushing in my veins.

I tried to block the sound, and when I reached the house, and my kids started to talk to me, I covered my ears and told them to stop shouting. I then turned down the TV to a noise level I could tolerate.

Then I noticed they were all staring at me. Finally, my daughter said that now they couldn't hear the TV at all.
I had to wear ear plugs for years, and still do, even here in Thailand, when I'm riding public transportation, to block the engine noise.

But when I lived on our Morehead farm, even when I was out roaming the wooded hills, I was tormented by the roar of passing trucks on the interstate, three miles away!
I could hear everything..like a wall of noise, even at night.

That's one BIG plus about living in Songkhla, Thailand..blessed peace.

Some nights before I fall asleep, I hear my heart beating, and what sounds like the blood flowing through my heart valves; it's unsettling at first, then comforting.

2

I can handle babies crying as long as they are ok, and not having a tantrum, I HATE NOISY CHILDREN, other than that my area is quiet. Everything in my place is electric, so when a neighbor uses a mower or such it sounds so loud to me.

Oddly, I enjoy loud children, IF they are just playing and laughing, I can't abide screaming, though, especially little girls' high-pitched screams anywhere close to me.

1

I also detest unnecessary loud noise, whether from barking dogs, somebody banging on something, or people playing their radios way too loud.

Prolonged hammering, yes, that's unacceptable. And the radio thing; those people seem to be totally oblivious, eh?

0

When you measure and document db levels of everything you hear... I think you are obsessive. I could be wrong. I heard of people that can hear an insect crawl and can hear the inside movement of organs in another's body. You can get ear devices that instead of enhancing sound will muff sound. Time to see a doctor.

You are mistaken in your notion that I document and measure everything I hear. It's called "curiosity." Last year, I acquired a small handheld decibel meter out of curiosity about the environment around me. Sound levels, and noise in general, is something that has fascinated me for quite some time, as I believe it can have a direct bearing on one's well-being. I also acquired a small, portable anemometer to test wind velocity in various places and at various times; mainly up on ridges where I mountainbike. I'm quite curious about the world around me, and like learning/knowing these things.

@Condor5 everything you mentioned could be seen as obsessive. It does fascinate you isn't it? Obsessive do not necessary means a mental health problem but most here are not worried about noise pollution like you. And I record music on computers, my daughter record garage bands in Jax and we talk shop all the time and here you are measuring noise pollution and wanting to discuss it with us. I may be mistaken though. My curiosity never goes that far. Do whatever you need to do to be happy.

@GipsyOfNewSpain once again, I think you are mischaracterizing what I am saying. I am concerned about excessive noise levels in my environment and was curious if anyone else on this forum had similar concerns. I value my hearing and don't want to degrade it if I can do anything to prevent that. And it's not a matter of happy or not happy, it's simply taking a look at something that is around us every day but doesn't get discussed a lot. I may be mistaken, but I thought that was one of the points of this forum.

@Condor5 Pardon me if I turn you down now. But to answer your question... Yes, you coming across as hypersensitive. I have no problems with noise pollution. Noise do not bother or pester me. Not interested on your concerns other than recommend you to see a doctor for your obsession. Vegas or Maryland, both are pretty quiet to me and neighborhoods very to my liking.

@GipsyOfNewSpain fair enough. I did ask the question.

@Condor5 I am just too old for crusades. This is my "Me TIme". My Selfish "I" time. So this is the world we live in... world we created with all the nuisances that technology provide us for convenience of some kind or another. I did 20 years in the Navy... the enlisted staff accomodations in the carrier "Ike" were next to the catapult machinery room. There are launches 24/7 in a carrier. Is a floating living/working city and every sound is available to you at one point or another. I adapted and learned to tune sound out, the other option was never sleeping. So you complaining about level of noise is like me complaining to my son because I heard gunshots last night... my son is a veteran of Afghanistan. But you never stop trying to make a better place for you and your love ones.

@GipsyOfNewSpain well, it was a productive discussion (at least for me), and I learned something, so this probably won't be my last "complaint." Thank you for your contributions.

@Condor5 Me too... you make break out my hearing aids and put them on to listen to the water in the pipes. No problem with complaining for your sake and curiosity. Not at all.

1

As far as noise is concerned, dogs are my biggest irritant, but what can you do?

Sometimes absolutely nothing.

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