Experts describe ways to turn down the volume, from earbuds to smartphone apps that detect harmful noise levels 专家们描述了降低音量的方法，从耳塞到能检测有害噪音水平的智能手机应用程序
BY JOANNE SILBERNER 乔安妮·西尔伯纳
APRIL 16, 2024 2024年4月16日
Landscape view of winding river at sunset. 日落时分蜿蜒河流的景观
The Niobrara National Scenic River in Nebraska is a place where people can spend a long time hearing only natural sound at low volumes.marekuliasz/Getty Images 内布拉斯加州的尼奥布拉拉国家风景河流是一个人们可以长时间只听到低音量自然声音的地方。
Ten years ago Jamie Banks started working from her home in the town of Lincoln, Mass. 十年前，杰米·班克斯开始在马萨诸塞州林肯镇的家中工作。
After a couple of months, the continuing racket from landscaping machines began to feel unendurable, even when she was inside her home. 几个月后，即使她在家中，持续的园艺机械噪音开始变得难以忍受。
“This horrible noise was going on for hours every day, every week—leaf blowers, industrial lawnmowers, hedge trimmers,” she says. “这种可怕的声音每天都在持续数小时，每周都是如此——吹叶机、工业割草机、树篱修剪器，”她说。
The sound of a gas-powered leaf blower outside can be as loud as 75 decibels (dB) to someone listening from inside a house—higher than the World Health Organization cutoff to protect hearing over a 24-hour period. 室外的汽油驱动式吹叶机的声音对屋内的人来说可能高达75分贝（dB）——高于世界卫生组织为保护24小时内听力而设定的分界线。
“ I started thinking, this can’t be good,” she says. “It’s definitely not good for me. It certainly can’t be good for the workers operating the equipment. And there are lots of kids and lots of seniors around. It can’t be good for them either.” “我开始想，这肯定不好，”她说。“对我来说绝对不好。对操作设备的工人肯定也不好。而且周围有很多孩子和老人。对他们来说也不好。”
Banks is a health-care specialist and environmental scientist who has worked most of her life as a consultant on health outcomes and behavior change for government agencies, law firms and corporations. 班克斯是一位医疗保健专家和环境科学家，她一生中大部分时间都在为政府机构、律师事务所和公司提供健康结果和行为变化方面的咨询服务。
She decided to do something about her situation and got together with a like-minded neighbor to pester the town government. 她决定对她的情况采取行动，并与一位志同道合的邻居一起向镇政府施压。
It took the pair seven years to get their town to do one thing—ban gas-powered leaf blowers during the summer. 这对他们来说花了七年时间才让小镇做了一件事——在夏天禁止使用汽油驱动的吹叶机。
The process was long and frustrating, and it made Banks think about going bigger and helping others. 这个过程漫长而令人沮丧，这让班克斯考虑要做得更大，帮助更多的人。
So she did. In June 2023 Quiet Communities, a nonprofit group that Banks founded and runs, sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for not publishing or enforcing rules and regulations to limit loud sounds. 于是她这么做了。2023年6月，班克斯创立并运营的非营利组织“安静社区”起诉了美国环保局，因为该局没有发布或执行限制噪音的规定。
There is a federal law that calls for the EPA to do this, but it hasn’t been enforced for more than 40 years. 有一项联邦法律要求环保局这么做，但这项法律已经40多年没有执行了。
Banks’s idea that loud noise “can’t be good” is well supported by science. 班克斯认为噪音“肯定不好”的观点得到了科学的有力支持。
Noise can damage more than just your ears. 噪音不仅会损害你的耳朵。
Through daytime stress and nighttime sleep disturbances, loud sounds can hurt your heart and blood vessels, disrupt your endocrine system, and make it difficult to think and learn. 通过白天的压力和夜间的睡眠干扰，响亮的声音可以伤害你的心和血管，扰乱你的内分泌系统，并使思考和学习变得困难。
The World Health Organization calculated that in 2018 in the European Union, 1.6 million years of healthy life were lost because of traffic noise. 世界卫生组织计算出，在2018年的欧盟，由于交通噪音，损失了160万年的健康生活。
The organization recommended that to avoid these health effects, exposure to road traffic noise should be limited to below a weighted 24-hour average of 53 dB (the sound of a campfire from about 16 feet away) during the day, evening, and night and 45 dB specifically at night (the sound of light traffic about 100 feet away). 该组织建议为了避免这些健康影响，应将暴露于道路交通噪音限制在白天、晚上和夜间的加权24小时平均53分贝以下（大约16英尺外的篝火声音），以及夜间特别限制在45分贝（大约100英尺外的轻微交通声音）。
Precise “safe” levels to avoid specific ailments are hard to come by. 要找到避免特定疾病的精确“安全”水平是困难的。
But in general, research shows, reducing loud noise can reduce the risk of harm. 但总的来说，研究表明，减少噪音可以降低受伤的风险。
There are several ways to protect yourself. 有几种方法可以保护自己。
Various organizations have made maps that indicate quiet and noisy places around the U.S. 各种组织制作了地图，标明了美国各地安静和嘈杂的地方。
Smartphone apps can tell you if you’re in one that’s too loud for safety. 智能手机应用程序可以告诉你是否处于对安全来说太吵的地方。
And noise experts all seem to own earbuds and headphones and use them often to block out the din. 而且噪音专家们似乎都拥有耳塞和耳机，并经常使用它们来隔绝噪音。
For most of human history, the issue with noise was simply how annoying it can be. 在人类历史的大部分时间里，噪音问题仅仅是它有多烦人。
The first noise ordinance on record was drafted by Julius Caesar shortly before his assassination in 44 B.C.E., limiting the times that noisy carts and wagons could be on the street. 有记录的第一部噪音法规是由尤利乌斯·凯撒在公元前44年被暗杀前不久起草的，限制了吵闹的马车和货车在街上的时间。
The modern industrial era brought regulations to protect the ears of workers exposed to steam engines, drop forges, and other loud machinery but little information or action on everyday noises. 现代工业时代带来了保护暴露在蒸汽机、落锤锻造机和其他嘈杂机械中的工人耳朵的法规，但对于日常噪音的信息或行动却很少。
A big moment came in 1970, when psychoacoustics expert Karl Kryter, then at the Stanford Research Institute, published The Effects of Noise on Man. 1970年，当心理声学专家卡尔·克赖特在斯坦福研究所发表了《噪音对人类的影响》时，这是一个重要时刻。
The book focused on what loud sound could do to hearing and touched on work performance, sleep, vision and blood circulation. 这本书着重讨论了响亮的声音对听力的影响，并涉及了工作表现、睡眠、视觉和血液循环。
That noise has biological effects beyond the ear makes sense in evolutionary terms. 从进化的角度来看，噪音对耳朵之外的生物学影响是有意义的。
Noise may signal that a herd of elephants is charging your compound or that a pack of wolves is close by—you need to know, and your body needs to get ready for something unpleasant. 噪音可能表明一群大象正在冲向你的院子，或者一群狼就在附近——你需要知道，你的身体需要为不愉快的事情做好准备。
As noise and sleep researcher Mathias Basner of the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues put it in a 2014 Lancet review, “evolution has programmed human beings to be aware of sounds as possible sources of danger.” 正如宾夕法尼亚大学噪音和睡眠研究员马蒂亚斯·巴斯纳和他的同事在2014年《柳叶刀》杂志的评论中所说，“进化已经使人类意识到声音可能是危险的来源。”
Bar chart shows sounds measured in decibels. 条形图显示了以分贝测量的声音。
Household appliances reach about 70 dB. 家用电器的分贝大约为70。
2 hours of listening to 95 dB—the noise of a motorcycle—may damage hearing. 听95分贝——摩托车的噪音——2小时可能会损害听力。
That can happen after 5 minutes of noise between 105 and 110 dB, the sound of a loud radio. 在105到110分贝的噪音中，这种情况可能在5分钟后发生，这是一台大声收音机的声音。
MSJONESNYC; Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (reference) 纽约证券交易所；资料来源：美国疾病控制与预防中心（参考）
From an evolutionary point of view, sleep was “a very dangerous stage,” a time when you had to maintain attention to your environment, Basner says. 从进化的角度来看，睡眠是“一个非常危险的阶段”，是你必须保持对环境的注意力的时候，巴斯纳说。
But the psychiatrist and epidemiologist, who has spent much of his career studying the effects of airport noise on people sleeping nearby, notes a “watchman function” that leads to night awakenings is for the most part harmful, not helpful, in modern societies. 但是这位精神病学家和流行病学家，他花了很多职业生涯研究机场噪音对附近睡觉的人的影响，指出导致夜间觉醒的“守望者功能”在现代社会中大多数是有害的，而不是有益的。
A lot of people think they sleep soundly despite nearby noise. 很多人认为尽管附近有噪音，他们仍然睡得很香。
They should think again. 他们应该再想想。
Basner has exposed hundreds of people to noise during sleep studies. 巴斯纳在睡眠研究中让数百人暴露在噪音中。
He says many would get up in the morning swearing they’d slept through the night without waking, but the data showed they’d had numerous awakenings. 他说，许多人早上起床发誓他们整夜都没有醒来，但数据显示他们有多次醒来。
By the early 1970s a poll showed that the public considered noise pollution a serious problem. 到了20世纪70年代初，一项民意调查显示，公众认为噪音污染是一个严重的问题。
Formal government recognition came in 1972 with the passage of the Noise Control Act and the establishment of the EPA’s Office of Noise Abatement and Control. 1972年，随着《噪音控制法》的通过和环保局噪音减轻与控制办公室的成立，政府正式承认了这一点。
The act promised that the government would “promote an environment for all Americans free from noise that jeopardizes their health or welfare.” 该法案承诺政府将“促进一个所有美国人都免受危害他们健康或福利的噪音的环境。”
At the time, the EPA estimated that 100 million Americans experienced daily average sound of 55 dB or over. 当时，环保局估计有1亿美国人每天平均声音为55分贝或更高。
Fifty-five dB is about halfway between the level of a quiet conversation at home and one in a restaurant or office. 55分贝大约是家里安静对话和餐馆或办公室对话水平的中间。
Any 24-hour exposure average louder than that, according to the EPA, was loud enough to interfere with activities and cause annoyance. 根据环保局的说法，任何24小时暴露平均声音比那更响，都足以干扰活动并引起烦恼。
By this time, studies from universities in the U.S. and Europe were beginning to identify health effects of noise beyond the ear, starting with behavior and learning. 到这个时候，美国和欧洲的大学研究开始识别出噪音对耳朵以外的健康影响，从行为和学习开始。
In 1973 three U.S. researchers, with funding from the National Science Foundation and two private organizations, studied 73 children in primary school who lived in several 32-story apartment buildings clustered over Interstate 95 where it passes through New York City. 1973年，三名美国研究人员在国家科学基金会和两个私人组织的资金支持下，研究了73名住在纽约市95号州际公路上方聚集的几座32层公寓楼里的小学生。
Children on the lower floors, exposed to more highway noise, were less able to distinguish sounds and were reading at a lower level than children on the higher floors. 较低楼层的儿童，暴露在更多的高速公路噪音中，辨别声音的能力较差，阅读水平也低于较高楼层的儿童。
There was even a dose-response relation: the longer the child had lived in the building, the lower their scores were likely to be. 甚至存在剂量-反应关系：孩子在建筑中居住的时间越长，他们的得分可能越低。
In 1975 researchers at the City University of New York looked at school records for 161 primary school students at a school that was 220 feet from an elevated subway, with trains hurtling by every 4.5 minutes. 1975年，纽约市立大学的研究人员查看了一所学校161名小学生的学校记录，这所学校距离高架地铁220英尺，每4.5分钟就有火车呼啸而过。
The records showed a three- to four-month reading lag for kids in classrooms on the noisy side of the building compared with those in classes on the quiet side. 记录显示，与安静一侧的班级相比，吵闹一侧的教室中的孩子阅读落后三到四个月。
Researchers were able to do a natural experiment when the Munich International Airport moved about 25 miles north in 1992. 1992年，慕尼黑国际机场向北迁移了大约25英里，研究人员得以进行一项自然实验。
The scientists found that among children living near the old airport site, long-term memory and reading skills improved after the airport closed. 科学家发现，在机场关闭后，住在旧机场附近的儿童的长期记忆和阅读技能有所提高。
But for kids near the new airport, those changes went in the opposite direction, and their stress hormone levels increased. 但对于新机场附近的孩子来说，这些变化走向了相反的方向，他们的压力激素水平增加了。
In the early 2000s Stephen Stansfeld, then a psychiatrist at the University of London, studied kids aged nine to 11 living and going to school near airports in Europe, comparing their blood pressure and learning ability with those of similar children who did not live under flight paths. 21世纪初，当时伦敦大学的精神病学家斯蒂芬·斯坦斯菲尔德研究了9至11岁生活在欧洲机场附近并上学的儿童，比较了他们的血压和学习能力与那些不住在飞行路径下的类似儿童。
Airplane noise reached 77 dB(A) at several schools; dB(A) is a decibel scale that emphasizes frequencies the human ear hears best. 在几所学校，飞机噪音达到了77分贝(A)；分贝(A)是一种强调人耳最敏感频率的分贝刻度。
“We found a straight-line relationship between increasing levels of aircraft noise and children’s reading comprehension,” Stansfeld says. “Noisy schools were not healthy educational environments.” “我们发现飞机噪音水平的增加与儿童阅读理解能力之间存在直线关系，”斯坦斯菲尔德说。“嘈杂的学校不是健康的教育环境。”
A colleague found the harmful effects lasted into secondary school. 一位同事发现这些有害影响持续到中学。
All the while, the U.S. was getting noisier. 与此同时，美国变得越来越吵闹。
In 2014 Rick Neitzel, an environmental and occupational health professor at University of Michigan who has been researching noise for 25 years, and his colleagues estimated that more than 100 million Americans had a continuous average exposure level in 24 hours of greater than 70 dB. 2014年，密歇根大学环境和职业健康教授里克·奈茨尔，他研究噪音已有25年，和他的同事们估计，超过1亿美国人在24小时内连续平均暴露水平超过70分贝。
Imagine standing next to a washing machine all day or suffering occasional blasts from the gas-powered lawn equipment Jamie Banks could hear inside her house. 想象一下整天站在洗衣机旁边，或者偶尔遭受杰米·班克斯在她的屋子里能听到的汽油动力草坪设备爆炸声。
It was a rise of 15 dB in just a generation, which is the difference between normal conversation and a vacuum cleaner. 这仅仅是一代人的时间里就增加了15分贝，这是正常对话和吸尘器之间的差异。
Beyond the brain and cognition, the heart and blood vessels also take a hit from noise—perhaps not surprising given the stressful effects of noise and the impacts of stress on the circulatory system. 除了大脑和认知，心脏和血管也受到噪音的打击——考虑到噪音的压力效应以及压力对循环系统的影响，这也许并不令人惊讶。
A slew of epidemiological studies over the years have linked environmental noise, especially nighttime noise, to high blood pressure, heart failure, myocardial infarction (heart attacks) and stroke. 多年来的大量流行病学研究已经将环境噪音，特别是夜间噪音，与高血压、心力衰竭、心肌梗死（心脏病发作）和中风联系起来。
The association held true even after researchers controlled for confounders such as air pollution and socioeconomic variables. 即使研究人员控制了空气污染和社会经济变量等混杂因素，这种关联仍然成立。
Some of the strongest human data come from Denmark, which is an epidemiologist’s dream country because it collects health data on pretty much every resident. 一些最有力的人类数据来自丹麦，对于流行病学家来说，这是一个梦想中的国家，因为它收集了几乎所有居民的健康数据。
Mette Sørensen, an epidemiologist at Roskilde University in Denmark, Thomas Münzel, a professor at Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany, and others teased apart the effects of noise on types of heart disease such as myocardial infarction, angina and heart failure. 丹麦罗斯基勒大学的流行病学家梅特·索伦森，德国美因茨约翰内斯·古腾堡大学的教授托马斯·明策尔，以及其他人，剖析了噪音对心肌梗死、心绞痛和心力衰竭等心脏病类型的影响。
Looking at 2.5 million people 50 years or older, they found road traffic noise increased the incidence of all three. 在研究了250万50岁或以上的人群中，他们发现道路交通噪音增加了这三种病的发病率。
In a 2021 report on 3.6 million Danes, they showed that an average daily 10-dB increase in sound exposure because of road noise increased the risk of stroke by 3 to 4 percent. 在2021年关于360万丹麦人的报告中，他们表明，由于道路交通噪音，平均每天10分贝的声音暴露增加使中风的风险增加了3到4个百分点。
They’ve also looked at type 2 diabetes, a condition that had already been associated with chronic sleep disturbance. 他们还研究了2型糖尿病，这种情况已经与慢性睡眠障碍有关。
This link makes sense, Sørensen says: stress such as frequent awakening raises levels of glucocorticoids, which inhibit insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity. 这种联系是有意义的，索伦森说：像频繁醒来这样的压力提高了糖皮质激素的水平，这些激素抑制了胰岛素分泌和胰岛素敏感性。
Reducing these two things leads to diabetes. 减少这两样东西会导致糖尿病。
In 2013 Sørensen and her colleagues reported an 8 percent increase in diabetes risk for every 10-dB increase in exposure to road traffic noise. 2013年，索伦森和她的同事们报告说，每增加10分贝的道路交通噪音暴露，糖尿病风险增加8%。
Eight years later, looking at 3.56 million Danes 35 years and older, with 233,912 new cases of diabetes, they calculated that road traffic noise could be blamed for 8.5 percent of the cases of diabetes in Denmark and railway noises for 1.4 percent. 八年后，研究了356万35岁及以上的丹麦人，有233,912例新的糖尿病病例，他们计算出道路交通噪音可以归咎于丹麦8.5%的糖尿病病例，铁路噪音为1.4%。
Sørensen is aware that those percentages don’t sound very high. 索伦森意识到这些百分比听起来不是很高。
But they are meaningful, she says. 但她说它们是有意义的。
In Denmark, more than one third of the population is exposed to average daily sound levels above 58 dB. 在丹麦，超过三分之一的人口暴露在平均每天58分贝以上的声音水平中。
“You have such a huge proportion exposed to this,” she says, “so even though it’s only a really small increase in risk, it’s a large number of people who get diabetes due to noise.” “你有如此大的比例暴露于此，”她说，“所以即使风险增加的只是很小，但由于噪音而患糖尿病的人数是很多的。”
The physical mechanisms behind these links are still being investigated, but animal studies have highlighted possible culprits. 这些联系背后的物理机制仍在被调查中，但动物研究已经突出了可能的罪魁祸首。
(Researchers cannot deliberately expose people to such potentially harmful noise effects.) （研究人员不能故意让人们暴露在这样可能有害的噪音影响下。）
Münzel explored some of these connections in mice, for example. 例如，明策尔在老鼠中探索了这些联系中的一些。
In one study, he exposed the rodents to average sound levels of 72 dB over four days and found that the animals had higher blood pressure and levels of stress hormones and inflammation, as well as changes in the activity of genes that regulate vascular health and cell death. 在一项研究中，他让啮齿动物在四天内暴露在72分贝的平均声音水平下，发现这些动物的血压更高，压力激素和炎症水平更高，以及调节血管健康和细胞死亡活动的基因发生了变化。
Flow chart shows a model of how environmental noise may be linked to increased risk of disease–from exposure, to stress and inflammation, to diseased states. 流程图显示了环境噪音可能与增加疾病风险的模型——从暴露，到压力和炎症，到疾病状态。
Jen Christiansen; Source: “Environmental Noise and the Cardiovascular System,” by Thomas Münzel et al., in Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Vol. 71; February 2018 (reference) 詹·克里斯蒂安森；来源：“环境噪音和心血管系统”，托马斯·明策尔等人，《美国心脏病学院杂志》，第71卷；2018年2月（参考文献）
In the U.S., most research on noise has been done without much help from the federal government, despite the Noise Control Act. 在美国，尽管有《噪音控制法》，但大多数关于噪音的研究都是在没有联邦政府太多帮助的情况下进行的。
In 1981, after Ronald Reagan was elected president on a promise of cutting back the federal government, he appointed Anne Gorsuch as head of the EPA; she eliminated funding for the agency’s noise-control office. 1981年，在罗纳德·里根以缩减联邦政府的承诺当选总统后，他任命安妮·戈尔斯奇为环保局局长；她取消了该机构噪音控制办公室的资金。
“She wanted to show the White House that she believed in small government,” says Sidney Shapiro, a Wake Forest administrative law professor who has studied the rise and fall of noise-abatement laws. “她想向白宫表明她相信小政府，”西德尼·夏皮罗说，他是维克森林大学行政法教授，研究了噪音减轻法的兴衰。
He says noise has never had a well-organized constituency to support it. 他说噪音从未有过一个组织良好的选民群体来支持它。
Responsibility for noise-control research, funding and regulation was left to individual state and local governments. 噪音控制研究、资金和法规的责任留给了各个州和地方政府。
Today the EPA’s noise-control office is still there—on paper. 今天，环保局的噪音控制办公室仍然存在——在纸面上。
“There is no money to enforce regulations or for research or education,” Neitzel says. “没有资金来执行法规或进行研究或教育，”奈茨尔说。
That’s why Quiet Communities is suing. 这就是“安静社区”提起诉讼的原因。
“Not having the EPA doing its job is hugely damaging, not only to the public who are being harmed by noise but also to the research community. We don’t have access to a stream of funding that should be there.” “环保局没有履行其职责，这不仅对受到噪音伤害的公众造成巨大损害，对研究界也是如此。我们无法获得应有的资金流。”
Without that information, noise researchers have long struggled to quantify the overall impact of the American din. 没有那些信息，噪音研究人员长期以来一直在努力量化美国噪音的整体影响。
In 2014 when Neitzel and his colleagues at the University of Michigan wanted to figure out whether reducing noise would have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular disease, they had to resort to prevalence estimates made in 1981. 2014年，当奈茨尔和他密歇根大学的同事们想要弄清楚减少噪音是否会对心血管疾病产生有益影响时，他们不得不依赖1981年的流行率估计。
In 2015 they published their findings. 2015年，他们发表了他们的发现。
A 5-dB reduction in average noise exposure would cut the prevalence of high blood pressure by 1.5 percent and cut heart disease by 1.8 percent. 平均噪音暴露减少5分贝将使高血压的流行率降低1.5%，心脏病降低1.8%。
Again, these are low numbers. 再次，这些数字很低。
But because of the high incidence of these conditions to begin with, an average 5-dB reduction would have an annual economic benefit of $3.9 billion. 但由于这些疾病一开始的发病率就很高，平均减少5分贝将带来每年39亿美元的经济收益。
“I was shocked that the numbers were as big as they were,” Neitzel says. “我很震惊这些数字这么大，”奈茨尔说。
Overall, as with chemical and air pollution, people with lower incomes are being hit the hardest. 总的来说，就像化学和空气污染一样，收入较低的人受到的打击最严重。
Their communities may have highways running through them or have factories and airports nearby. 他们的社区可能有高速公路穿过，或者附近有工厂和机场。
“Folks who are already in marginalized communities may be bearing way more than their fair share of noise exposure,” Neitzel says. “已经处于边缘化社区的人们可能承受的噪音暴露远远超出了他们的公平份额，”奈茨尔说。
In these areas, it’s essential to ground research and solutions in community priorities, says Erica Walker, an epidemiologist at Brown University. 在这些地区，将研究和解决方案建立在社区优先事项上是至关重要的，布朗大学的流行病学家艾丽卡·沃克说。
Walker founded the Community Noise Lab, which works with communities to study and mitigate the effects of noise and other pollutants. 沃克创立了社区噪音实验室，该实验室与社区合作，研究和减轻噪音和其他污染物的影响。
She believes that it’s probably not just the absolute sound level that determines bodily damage—it’s unwanted sound. 她认为，可能不仅仅是绝对的声音水平决定身体伤害——这是不想要的声音。
If the sound is a welcome one, does prolonged exposure to, say, 75 dB (about the volume of street musicians playing trumpets 30 feet away from you) raise stress levels the way that large studies have shown? 如果声音是受欢迎的，那么长时间暴露在比如说75分贝（大约是你30英尺外街头音乐家吹小号的音量）是否会像大型研究显示的那样提高压力水平？
“We need to know what the difference is between sound and noise from an individual point of view and from a community perspective,” Walker says. “我们需要了解从个人角度和社区角度来看，声音和噪音之间的区别是什么，”沃克说。
She points to the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C., which has been undergoing gentrification. 她指向华盛顿特区的肖恩社区，该社区一直在经历中产阶级化。
“The cultural practice was to play go-go music. As the neighborhood began to become gentrified, newcomers had their own acoustical expectations of what the neighborhood should sound like,” Walker says. “文化习俗是演奏go-go音乐。当社区开始中产阶级化时，新来者对社区应该听起来怎样有自己的声学期望，”沃克说。
“If I’m going into a community and I’m measuring noise and I’m saying it’s really loud (based strictly on decibels) and harmful to health, that might be a misclassification.” “如果我进入一个社区，我测量噪音并说它真的很吵（严格基于分贝），并且对健康有害，那可能是一种误分类。”
People already in the community might perceive that noise as comfortable. 社区中已有的人可能认为那种噪音是舒适的。
Walker and her colleagues are now trying to tease apart unacceptable noise and acceptable sound. 沃克和她的同事们现在正试图区分不可接受的噪音和可接受的声音。
In an ongoing study, they’ve been asking volunteers how they feel about different kinds of noise. 在一项正在进行的研究中，他们一直在询问志愿者对不同种类的噪音有何感受。
Then the researchers deconstruct those noises by rearranging them, making them unidentifiable as a specific sound but maintaining the decibel level and frequency spectrum (think high notes and low notes). 然后研究人员通过重新排列这些声音来解构它们，使它们无法被识别为特定的声音，但保持分贝水平和频率谱（想想高音符和低音符）。
By the end of this summer, Walker hopes to know whether the deconstructed sound matches up with the recognizable sound. 到今年夏天结束时，沃克希望知道解构的声音是否与可识别的声音相匹配。
Such information could help distinguish the roles of sound intensity and cultural connotation in human harm. 这些信息可以帮助区分声音强度和文化内涵在人类伤害中的作用。
Whatever your community’s sound tolerance, you can protect yourself from noise that’s intolerable. 无论你的社区对声音的容忍度如何，你都可以保护自己免受无法忍受的噪音。
The simplest way, of course, is to avoid it. 当然，最简单的方法是避免它。
Sørensen’s data show that sleeping on the quieter side of a building, away from the street, makes a difference. 索伦森的数据显示，睡在建筑物较安静的一侧，远离街道，是有区别的。
Or you can move to a quieter area. 或者你可以搬到一个更安静的地方。
That is easier said than done, and all the experts I spoke with noted that moving to a more peaceful place, as many of them have, is possible only for people who can afford it. 说起来容易做起来难，我交谈过的所有专家都指出，搬到一个更和平的地方，像他们中的许多人一样，只有负担得起的人才能实现。
If you plan to move, Basner advises visiting the new area at different times of day. 如果你计划搬家，巴斯纳建议在一天中的不同时间访问新区域。
For noise that can’t be avoided, science may offer some promise, at least for ear effects. 对于无法避免的噪音，科学可能至少对耳朵效果提供了一些希望。
Sudden loud noises (think concerts, jet engines, leaf blowers and loud machines) stimulate the delicate hair cells and nerve fibers in the inner ear, resulting in the release of damaging free radicals. 突然的响声（想象一下音乐会、喷气发动机、吹叶机和嘈杂的机器）会刺激内耳中微妙的毛细胞和神经纤维，导致释放有害的自由基。
Animal work has identified some promising chemicals to sop these molecules up, says Colleen Le Prell, a psychologist and head of the department of speech, language and hearing at the University of Texas at Dallas, who is working on several candidates. 动物研究表明，有一些有希望的化学物质可以吸收这些分子，德克萨斯大学达拉斯分校言语、语言和听力系主任、心理学家科琳·勒普雷尔说，她正在研究几个候选物质。
There is already a drug for children to prevent chemotherapy-induced hearing loss, but it has significant side effects and isn’t approved for general use. 已经有一种药物用于儿童，以预防化疗引起的听力损失，但它有显著的副作用，并未获准普遍使用。
The Montello Foundation’s artist retreat in Nevada has been identified by the nonprofit Quiet Parks International as a community without irritating noise.Stefan Hagen 内华达州的蒙特洛基金会艺术家休养所被非营利组织“安静公园国际”认定为一个没有烦人噪音的社区。
If you want to get a snapshot of the sound around you, the Internet can help. 如果你想了解你周围的噪音情况，互联网可以帮忙。
The National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety has a national map, but it works only on Apple mobile devices right now. 国家职业健康与安全研究所有一张全国地图，但目前它只在苹果移动设备上工作。
The U.S. Department of Transportation has a map for transportation noise, but it doesn’t include workplace noise or inside noise. 美国交通部有一张交通噪音地图，但它不包括工作场所噪音或内部噪音。
You can see noise across the entire country, albeit at pretty low resolution, on a National Park Service sound map. 你可以在国家公园服务的声音地图上看到全国的噪音，尽管分辨率相当低。
To measure sound directly, there are plenty of smartphone apps. 要直接测量声音，有很多智能手机应用程序。
Don’t be surprised if the numbers are high. 如果数字很高，不要感到惊讶。
Data from Apple watches suggest that one in three adult Americans is exposed to excessive noise and daily averages of 70 dB(A) (the sound of an older washing machine or dishwasher) or greater. 苹果手表的数据显示，三分之一的美国成年人暴露在过度噪音中，日常平均为70分贝(A)（老式洗衣机或洗碗机的声音）或更高。
Those levels are considered by both the World Health Organization and the EPA as dangerous to the ear. 这些水平被世界卫生组织和环保局认为是对耳朵有害的。
You can see state-by-state results on Apple Hearing Study U.S. maps. 你可以在苹果听力研究美国地图上看到州与州之间的结果。
Apple watches and iPhones can be set to alert you when sound reaches a particular level. 苹果手表和iPhone可以设置在声音达到特定水平时提醒你。
The data collected from Apple watches come from the Apple Hearing Study, begun in 2019 by Neitzel and his colleagues at the University of Michigan and funded by Apple. 苹果手表收集的数据来自苹果听力研究，该研究由奈茨尔和他的密歇根大学同事于2019年开始，并由苹果资助。
The study shows that a quieter world is possible. 研究表明，一个更安静的世界是可能的。
It took the lockdowns of COVID to prove it. 这需要COVID的封锁来证明。
The researchers got smartphone data from about 6,000 volunteers, covering a period from just before the pandemic began in January 2020 through late April of that year, when many businesses and activities had shut down for safety, and lots of people were staying close to home. 研究人员从大约6000名志愿者那里获得了智能手机数据，涵盖了从2020年1月大流行开始之前到当年4月底的一段时间，当时许多企业和活动为了安全而关闭，很多人待在家里。
The data showed a 3-dB(A) drop in noise exposure. 数据显示噪音暴露下降了3分贝(A)。
Because decibels are measured on a logarithmic scale, that’s a halving of sound energy, easily noticeable by the human ear. 因为分贝是以对数刻度测量的，那是声音能量减半，人耳很容易察觉。
Sørensen moved from a city out into the country and checked a noise map first. 索伦森从城市搬到了乡村，并首先查看了噪音地图。
Neitzel is very intentional about his exposure. 奈茨尔非常注意他的暴露。
“One thing that I absolutely try to do is make sure I’ve programmed periods into the day that I’m not going to have noise exposure,” he says. “我绝对尝试做的一件事是确保我在一天中安排了我不会暴露在噪音中的时间段，”他说。
That means a bike ride through a quiet area or turning the TV off. 这意味着在安静的区域骑自行车或关掉电视。
If he’s at a bus stop, he stands back from the street as much as he can, and he routinely wears noise-blocking earplugs or earmuffs—sometimes both—when he’s checking out industrial sites. 如果他在公交车站，他会尽可能远离街道，当他查看工业场所时，他通常会戴防噪音耳塞或耳罩——有时两者都戴。
Neitzel protects his ears at concerts as well. 奈茨尔在音乐会上也保护他的耳朵。
“There’s a bit of social stigma around wearing ear protection at a concert,” he says, so he wears clear plugs, much like many musicians use. “在音乐会上戴耳部保护装置有点社会污名，”他说，所以他戴透明的耳塞，就像许多音乐家使用的那样。
And he’s got noise-canceling headphones and earbuds. 他还有降噪耳机和耳塞。
They seal the ear to limit outside sound, which permits listening at a lower volume. 它们密封耳朵以限制外部声音，这允许以较低的音量听。
He and his family wear noise-canceling earbuds on planes. 他和他的家人在飞机上戴降噪耳塞。
You can ask others to turn sound down. 你可以要求别人调低声音。
Sharon Kujawa, an audiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear hospital in Boston, and her colleagues did an experiment to see whether people in spin classes preferred louder or softer sound. 波士顿马萨诸塞州眼耳医院的听力学家莎伦·库贾瓦和她的同事们做了一个实验，看看人们在动感单车课上更喜欢大声还是小声。
They liked softer. 他们喜欢小声。
The facility managers were reluctant to make a change, but eventually customer requests got them to agree to a 3-dB decrease in volume. 设施经理不愿做出改变，但最终顾客的要求让他们同意将音量降低3分贝。
Fellow ear researcher Le Prell had her children use volume-limiting headphones. 同样是耳朵研究者的勒普雷尔让她的孩子使用限制音量的耳机。
The kids were in marching bands in high school, in the percussion section, and she donated earplugs to the entire group. 孩子们在高中的行进乐队中，在打击乐部分，她向整个团体捐赠了耳塞。
As for specific levels to aim for, that’s a tough one. 至于要达到的具体水平，这是一个棘手的问题。
There’s no formula that says x hours of exposure to road traffic noise will raise your risk of heart disease y percent. 没有公式说暴露于道路交通噪音x小时会提高你患心脏病的风险y%。
The EPA, which established its noise standards in 1974, before the full health effects were so clear, indicates that a 24-hour exposure level of 70 dB or less will prevent any hearing damage, and 55 dB outdoors and 45 dB indoors will prevent activity interference and annoyance. 环保局在1974年制定了其噪音标准，当时还没有完全清楚健康影响，它指出24小时暴露水平在70分贝或以下将防止任何听力损伤，室外55分贝和室内45分贝将防止活动干扰和烦恼。
For lack of anything more current, that’s the standard used by many noise researchers today. 由于没有更更新的东西，这是今天许多噪音研究人员使用的标准。
In terms of protective devices, there are only limited federal regulations on headphones, and there’s some concern that the devices go up to volumes that can damage the health (ear and otherwise) of children. 在保护设备方面，对耳机的联邦法规有限，而且有人担心这些设备的声音会上升到可能损害儿童健康（耳朵和其他方面）的水平。
Volume limiters on headphones generally have an upper limit of 85 dB, but what the limit should really be, and for how long, is anybody’s guess. 耳机上的音量限制器通常有一个85分贝的上限，但真正的限制应该是多少，以及多长时间，谁也说不准。
There’s also no solid research on whether devices that produce masking noises help. 也没有关于产生掩蔽噪音的设备是否有帮助的可靠研究。
Clear, consistent standards for how much is too much, and what works, are unlikely without a revitalization of the EPA’s noise-control office. 如果没有环保局噪音控制办公室的振兴，就不太可能有明确、一致的标准来说明多少是过多的，什么有效。
An agency spokesperson wouldn’t say whether the lawsuit by Quiet Communities will spur any change. 一位机构发言人不愿说“安静社区”的诉讼是否会促使任何变化。
The two sides in the suit “are currently in the midst of filing motions and cross-motions,” says Quiet Communities lawyer Sanne Knudsen of the University of Washington. “诉讼双方目前正在提交动议和交叉动议，”华盛顿大学的“安静社区”律师桑妮·克努森说。
When we spoke, Knudsen expected some kind of agreement would be reached by April and hoped it would be one that got the Office of Noise Abatement and Control up and running again. 当我们交谈时，克努森预计到4月份会达成某种协议，并希望这是一个让噪音减轻与控制办公室再次运行的协议。
Jamie Banks now spends most of her time in a quiet town in rural Maine, which, she says, is blissfully free of loud lawn equipment and other noise. 杰米·班克斯现在大部分时间都待在缅因州的一个宁静的小镇上，她说，这里非常幸福地没有吵闹的草坪设备和其他噪音。
She is optimistic that a newly active federal noise-control office will establish data-based noise limits and regulations and that the EPA will ensure regulations are enforced. 她乐观地认为，一个新活跃的联邦噪音控制办公室将建立基于数据的噪音限制和法规，并确保环保局执行法规。
In 1972, when the noise office was established, the Los Angeles Times opined that it wouldn’t mean an instant reduction in harmful sound, “but at least a start has been made.” 1972年，当噪音办公室成立时，《洛杉矶时报》评论说，这并不意味着有害声音会立即减少，“但至少已经开始了。”
Fifty-two years later Banks hopes for not just a start but real progress. 五十二年后，班克斯不仅希望开始，还希望真正的进步。
FROM OUR ARCHIVES 从我们的档案中
Hidden Hearing Loss. M. Charles Liberman; August 2015. 隐性听力损失。M.查尔斯·利伯曼；2015年8月。
Scientific American.com/archive 科学美国人.com/档案
JOANNE SILBERNER, a former NPR health correspondent, has been covering medicine and public health since the start of the HIV epidemic. 乔安妮·西尔伯纳，前NPR健康记者，自HIV流行开始以来一直在报道医学和公共卫生。
A co-founder of the Association of Healthcare Journalists, she lives and works on a quiet island in Puget Sound. 她是医疗记者协会的联合创始人，她在普吉特海峡的一个宁静的岛屿上生活和工作。
Scientific American Magazine Vol 330 Issue 5 科学美国人杂志第330卷第5期
This article was originally published with the title “A Healthy Dose of Quiet” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 330 No. 5 (May 2024), p. 58 这篇文章最初以“安静健康的剂量”为标题发表在2024年5月的科学美国人杂志第330卷第5期，第58页
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0524-58
