Noise deafness

Press, 2 August 1985, Page 16

Noise deafness

Sir,—A medical consultant says that noise deafness is the most serious occupational hazard in New Zealand; we are creating a “race of deaf old men.” This phrase could properly be amended to read deaf people as, quite apart from the hazards of occupational hearing loss, never have certain categories of incidental noise seemed so insistent and so unnecessary. Chainsaws, barking dogs, air and ground traffic, are bad enough, but to these one can add motor horns which play hideous tunes and music at cinemas and other public places where the volume goes up as the perpetrators become deafer. Another appalling manifestation of the theory that more noise equals more jollity is the intrusion of pulp music into waiting rooms, restaurants and shopping complexes. This hideous aural intrusion on one’s inner harmonies should be banned and its adherents put in the stocks, to be exposed to a judicious number of eight-hour tapes.—Yours, etc. JANET R. HOLM, President, N.Z. Clean Air Society. July 31, 1985. .