Jo M. Solet – Joanne_Solet@HMS.Harvard.edu
Harvard Medical School, Division of Sleep Medicine
Boston, MA    United States

Popular version of paper 3aNS4 Protecting sleep from noise in the built environment
Presented Thursday, June 10, 2021
180^th ASA Meeting, Acoustics in Focus

Recognition is growing over the need to protect patrons from hearing damage caused by high sound levels in stadiums and concert halls. In parallel, attention must be drawn to the health and safety impacts of lower level sound exposures, which contribute to resident sleep loss in built environments.

Those living in aging or poorly built, multiple occupancy buildings are likely to have substantial exposure to site exterior noise intrusions, as well as to noise produced within their own building envelopes. Sleep disruptive noise is very common in crowded, under-resourced neighborhoods; along with limited access to fresh food, poor air quality, and inadequate access to healthcare, disrupted sleep contributes to known health disparities. Older individuals are especially vulnerable, since as we age the parts of the night spent in the deepest sleep, most protected from disruption by noise, continues to decrease. Unfortunately, noise complaints are too often described as “annoyance” without recognition of potential health impacts.

Many localities have ordinances that define day and night sound level maximums, as measured at property lines; these typically apply to noise nuisance produced on one property and experienced on another, excluding noise produced inside a building, experienced between units. In Cambridge MA, noise intrusion enforcement is complaint-driven only. For local government to address the problem, those who are disturbed by noise emanating from an abutting property must first be aware of their rights, then file a complaint and submit evidence and or/attend a public hearing. This requires sophisticated self-advocacy, as well as time free from other responsibilities. Those carrying multiple jobs, doing shift work or having concerns about language skills or residency status, may not act on their rights even when they are aware of them.

It is well known that anticipating needed noise protections before construction is much easier and more cost-effective than retrofitting. Planning and design review for public housing, for example, should include attention to acoustics. Special care must be taken to consider “site exterior noise” such as auto traffic, commuter rail, overhead air flights, air-handling equipment and heat pumps, even local sirens and trash pick-up. Noise generated from “with-in the building envelope” including by elevators, plumbing, footfalls and other resident activities must also be considered in planning design configurations, and in selecting construction materials and finishes.

Insufficient sleep is known to have multiple negative health impacts, including upon cardiovascular health and diabetes risk, as well as impaired antibody production. Supporting the immune system through sufficient sleep has become especially critical during the Covid-19 crisis, both for directly fighting infection and for supporting adequate vaccine response.

By protecting sleep from disruption by noise, acoustics professionals have an important role to play in supporting public health. To address health disparities and other inequities in our society, we must come together, join forces and contribute to problem-solving beyond academic boundaries. I encourage my colleagues to step up and use science to inform policy. As part of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, I welcome your partnership and expertise.

Tae Hong Park – thp1@nyu.edu
New York University
New York, NY 10011

Popular version of paper 2aNS3 A socio-technical model for soundmapping community airplane noise
Presented Wednesday morning, June 9, 2020
180th ASA Meeting, Acoustics in Focus

Airports are noisy. Neighborhoods around airports are noisy. Airports around the world typically rely on theoretical noise models to approximate noise levels around airports. While the models render reasonable noise conditions, when closely looking at geospatial data, a different picture emerges. In Chicago, for example, airplane noise complaints have increased from approximately 15,000 per year in 2009 to 5,500,000 per year in 2017. In urban centers like New York, 10% of persons looking to rent or buy a home in Queens will hear near-constant roar of low-flying planes at their property; and in Flushing, 66% of listings are in “airport noise zones” as of June 2019.

While numbers tell a certain kind of story, they sometimes poorly capture human experiences. In the case of aerial sonic pain, it is perhaps even more difficult to relate to as noise is invisible, odorless, and shapeless. And unless one lives in such a neighborhood, how would one really know? And this is exactly what we were thinking which led us to visit neighborhoods around major airports in Chicago and New York with an open mind (ear?). The experience was shocking (wrote a piece for 140 speakers shortly thereafter!).

Since that first visit, we have been “putting the metal to the pedal” in accelerating the development of a socio-technical sound sensor network called Citygram that would make practicable measuring actual noise levels opposed to theoretical noise levels around airports. The project, launched 10 years ago, has also recently developed into a startup called NOISY to empower communities to track airplane noise around their homes.

Citygram Globe Interface showing sound level bars

Citygram heatmap interface

NOISY is essentially a low-cost, automatic aircraft noise tracking system using state-of-the-art AI and a smart sound sensor network. The NOISY sensor ignores non-airplane sounds such as dog barks, honking sounds, and loud music while identifying airplanes flying near your home, associating it with essential information such time-stamped decibel levels, position, and speed.

One of the key elements, apart from the technological advancements is that the sensors do not archive any audio nor is any audio sent to the cloud: only information such as how loud (decibels) and aircraft probability (0%-100%) is extracted from the audio, thus minimizing privacy concerns.

Theoretical noise models, are just that – models. And not knowing the actual aircraft noise levels that communities experience is problematic, especially in the context of developing meaningful mitigation efforts. That is, “you can’t fix what you can’t measure” and that is precisely what we are aiming to contribute to – a quieter future informed by measured data.

For more information on:
Citygram please visit: https://citygramsound.com
NOISY please visit: https://www.getnoisy.io