UNNECESSARY NOISE

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 82, 31 December 1928, Page 6

UNNECESSARY NOISE

PROTEST TO BRITISH MINISTER OF HEALTH.

The British Medical Association’s memorandum, based on a resolution at its annual meeting at Cardiff, against unnecessary noise, has been sent to the Minister of Health. The memorandum stated that the devastating effects of such noise on the health and efficiency of the community could not be over-estimated. Healthy people were capable of adapting themselves to noxious influences, though at a cost which, in its very nature, was incalculable. The preventable noises were inefficiently silenced motor-vehi-cles, warning instruments carried on motor-vehicles, barking dogs, cries and bells of street vendors, the careless handling of milk cans, and noises on railways. All motor-vehicles were required to be fitted with an efficient silencer, but the law was only too often completely ignored. The chief offenders were motorcycles, and it was a common practice, particularly on country roads, for them to travel at high speed with open exhaust. People living near main roads found it impossible ever to get a sufficient amount of sleep. Fines did not seem to act as deterrent, and it would seem that impounding the machine, as was done in Berlin, was the only effective way of dealing with the nuisance. Owing to the vastly improved lighting arrangements, the need for a strident warning note was diminished and in many eases entirely unnecessary. If warning instruments must be used, a low-toned bulb horn should be fitted.

Barking dogs were often a source of acute distress. The law as it stood left sufferers from the nuisance almost helpless. It favoured the culprit rather than the victims, and a more simple method of dealing with owners whose dogs were a chronic nuisance should be devised. Among preventable noises made by street vendors were the cries of milkmen, the sellers of newspapers, the bell of the muffin man (not yet quite obsolete), and the bells on coal carts. The noises added to the general hubbub and there was no sound reason Why they should net be suppressed. As to the noisy milk-cans, the association thought that in depots where a large number of cans were dealt with some deadening material might be placed on the ground or floor, or employees should be given to understand that careless handling of the cans would be severely dealt with. The noises of shunting and the whistling from locomotives was disturbing. Much of the whistling appeared to be unnecessary, and it was suggested that, with the sympathetic co-operation of the railway companies, that method of signalling from locomotives might be reduced considerably. Perhaps the most diabolic of modern engineering contrivances was the pneumatic road drill, and the manner in which it had been tolerated spoke volumes for the patience of the people of our towns. Spasmodic protests had been made in vain. The association felt justified in demanding that contractors should not be permitted to enter into agreements which necessitated the use of pneumatic drills, excavators, and such like machinery in streets or in close proximity to occupied dwelling-houses during the normal hours of sleep. The association was of opinion that something of an educative nature might be done. It was not uncommon for motorists to start up their engines and to leave them running for some minutes while they made their farewells, and then to start off with horn-blowing and slamming of doors. The Ministry of Health, it was suggested, might play a vital part in stimulating the authorities, and Government departments concerned. to appropriate action. The “British Medical Journal,” commenting on the memorandum, asks the question, “Will noise destroy our civilisation or will our civilisation destroy noise?” The .proposals were modest in scope and should be taken to represent the bare minimum of what was needed to deal with the noise problem.