The effect of noise on the human body.

I'm beyond intolerant where noise is concerned.
When we lived onboard we had a neighbor who woul go sailing, come back and leave all his rigging flapping against the mast ( very bad etiquette)
I asked him several times in a nice jokey way to tie them up... nothing.
I then started to tie them up myself.... nothing.
Then I got angry. I tied the rigging up with those awful sticky fly catcher things... nothing.
Then the red mist came down.... I cut his rigging.
He tied up his new rigging.

if things get too bad on a regular basis, you can involve the council's Environmental Health department who will supply you with recording equipment and advice. When the E.H. people come to collect it,if they think the recordings prove nuisance as defined by their rules, they have powers to act and ensure you (and your neighbours) can go back to having 'quiet enjoyment' - a legal term - of your own home. Worked for us.

We have a Polish family who live across the back of us ( separated by a small car parking area) they are the noisiest family I have ever come across and can't seem to talk to each other without screaming at the top of their voices .On top of that the father runs a small building/joinery business and he obviously doesn't have a premises as he seems to carry out the majority of the very noisy cutting/sawing/planing etc. In the car park opposite his back gate . I am sitting with my door open (Saturday afternoon) as it's very humid, but the noise ( which has gone on now for almost 3 hours) is driving me around the bend ! My DH has been at work himself since 7 and just come home, hoping to have a little rest before dinner. Fat chance. Grrrrrrr

Apparently, the ageing ear starts to lose the upper and middle registers but to compensate we hear the lower registers more loudly. This is one of the reasons we become more sensitive to noise as we grow older. So, in a shop or restaurant we often hear the 'thudding' background music more loudly than young people with good hearing. I detest being forced to listen to someone else's choice of music wherever I go, especially in a medical setting or on a plane where there is no escape. The good news is that some businesses are beginning to recognise the problem. M&S has turned off the background music in all their stores and Waterstones in the vast majority of their branches. All the big supermarkets are experimenting with 'quiet' times at the request of autism groups and Action on Hearing Loss has started a Speak Easy campaign against noisy restaurants. If you hate enforced background music, please consider joining Pipedown, a group campaigning against it!

My neighbour with his petrol driven strimmer (to which he seems permanently attached in the summer) drives me nuts. Restaurants who have their music so loud that you can't hear yourself think, let alone speak and people talking too loudly into their mobiles on trains also irritate me too.

I live in a downstairs flat, and a couple of years ago had noisy neighbours, although the word "noisy" doesn't even come close to describing them
Their flat was basically an open house; music playing all day and night, hoards of people coming round at any time, shouting, hanging out of the windows, thundering around the flat. Arguments, fights, laughing, screeching. It was an absolute nightmare; I had no idea what effect it could have on my mental health. Just a living nightmare!

I've been to the cinema today, I was tempted to take my hearing aids out as was nearly deafened by the adverts. Seems the same with TV at home, need to turn sound down when ads come on

BUG BEAR not big bear - damn autocorrect

My big bear is visiting someone and they don't turn the tv off - or even turn down the volume! One of my lovely neighbours has the tv on so loud that we have to shout to be heard. I wait until she goes to make tea before grabbing the remote control and sneakily turning the volume down.

Why do people play music at full blast in their cars, and then open all the windows? Do they just wish to share it with everyone, or do they do it to drive others mad. And no, it's not just youngsters who do it, a few days ago I swear one driver was about 70. Maybe he had left his hearing aids at home.

Meandashy, I sympathise. I had this next door for almost 9 months at all hours because the girls father had called in favours from all his builder mates. They of course were staying at their mothers.

Also if you go to a wedding reception or any sort of dance/ party ( rare these days for me!) the music seems to be much too loud and prevents any sort of conversation . If you try to talk you have to shout and end up hoarse. At my daughter's wedding we requested not too loud but his idea of not too loud and ours were not the same!
I suppose we are lucky as we live in the country and have quiet nights generally, though lately have been woken up early by loud baaing from the sheep in the field at the end of our garden!

We are lucky with just a moderate amount of noise around us - passing cars but not many, noise from next door who have small children, a sweet little pair aged about six and four, and of course playing is right and healthy and ends at around five or six when they go in for dinner.
However, my absolute hate (apart from building contractor's 'open air' radios) is the moron in a car with all windows down and deafening music belting out as he pulls alongside or stops at the lights. I long for a fire extinguisher to drown driver and music in foam. In fact how about some ready mix concrete tipped in to driver's waist level? That ought to silence the racket and keep said moron busy for a while chipping himself out. Oh dear - the heat is getting to me rather badly this year - sorry!

Having lived with tinnitus in both ears for years, I would love to hear absolute silence again. I have been known to ask for music to be turned down on restaurants/cafes, pointing out that working in it for prolonged periods could be damaging their ears!

Leaf blowers are a real nuisance near us from autumn onwards and strimmers also that these contractors use. We live in a road full of very old large trees.Every autumn for weeks on end once the leaves start falling various different contractors ...some council...some private...some sub contracted ..drive us absolutely mad with these damn things. The men who use them are like boys with toys and can always manage to find MORE leaves to blow when to our eyes all leaves seem cleaned up ages before they switch them off. They also go between the pavement cracks with a motorised strimmer ...equally noisy and equally dragged out like a toy. If leaf clearing and weeding the pavements were done manually ie: brush /shovel and a hoe like it used to be we would all feel better for it. No noise pollution and done quicker. They would,nt want to drag the jobs out the old fashion ways.

'Background' music in shops and restaurants! I gave up going into M&S because of the awful noise but thankfully they don't play it any more. Music is so subjective - what one person loves another will hate, so whatever you play you are going to alienate some of your customers. The staff in M&S told me it drove them mad as it was on a loop and played the same thing over and over again all day. And why anyone would want music in a restaurant I don't know - you are invariably having a meal with someone you want to talk to, not shout at over the noise.

I think a lot of noise pollution comes from selfish/thoughtless people. Mechanical noises can sometimes not be on purpose. We have a chap who uses a strimmer in the local public areas. He is terribly considerate and stops the loudest noises when anyone walks past. good lad!
I have tinnitus and, sadly for others, i find that soft music almost negates the buzzing - sorry all but i do object to being on a street corner and having to put up with cars' headbanging noise so loud that one can hear it from at least 30 m away!
So, no, Rosie, you are far from being alone.

We live near a spot that attracts needed rescues or sorting out by the police helicopter. Usually it's in the night just after getting to sleep! I don't notice the sound if they fly over in the day, but at night it's really loud and they can hover near ours for over an hour sometimes.

Sad for the person in need, so I just use builders earplugs (the yellow pellets). All other kinds just don't block the noise.

I love music and play it a lot in the house but not so that anyone else would be able to hear it. My problem though is that our house backs on to a playing field. In the summer it's lovely to sit out in the garden in the evening but teenagers tend to congregate on the field and play rap music. I totally understand their need to get together and they aren't really doing any harm but it's almost impossible to have a conversation or even just relax in my own garden at weekends or evenings in the summer.

The office I used to work in had a constant hum and you only became aware of it when the computers were switched off at the end of the day - then it became ghostly quiet, and it must have affected us in some way.
Now I live near to an intermittently busy road and around two weeks ago I got hearing aids which are fabulous - now I'm more aware of all sorts of sound, traffic, clocks ticking and can even hear the cat purr. Some sounds are good, others not so but I'm just grateful for the chance to hear better.

It seems like every morning there is a siren - police or ambulance I don't know - but I'm getting twitchy about it. Then as we're in a comparatively quiet road, the motorbike learners come with their tutor to practice once a week. We live near a school which doesn't bother me at all but the loud, in fact VERY loud tractor motor does even though it's not regular. I don't want to stand or sit next to someone with earphones; I don't like their choice of music. I do find some of the one sided phone conversations interesting though - good ideas for stories if I were a writer. Overall I think we live in a very noisy society these days or is it me just getting older

I find the drone of someone's tv irritating, especially when the tv is mounted on a party wall. I lived in an apartment in Turkey and our bedroom wall backed onto next door's lounge wall, their massive tv was mounted on the wall where our headboard was. No joke when Turks don't seem to go to bed before 4 am and I had to get up at 7 for work!!

My husband hates my music (heavy rock/metal) and I hate his (easy listening/female vocalists) so we never had the radio on in the car until he got his latest one which has DAB and we've discovered the stations with old 60's or 70's stuff on which we both listen to while out. When he's home we never have it on though and he's quite content to sit in silence which I find very difficult to cope with. When he's at work however I'm ok to have no noise or have the tv on in the background although recently i've rediscovered my favourite radio programme so have that on the pc while I'm working in the other room - it quickly has to go off if someone rings up I guess silence is golden to some and others can't cope without noise. Agree that some sounds are very annoying though - the police helicopter circling overhead, next door's dogs barking constantly, the machinery clearing land behind our house!

I'm also sensitive to too much noise. It's stressful and irritating and I'm known in the family for having acute hearing. I do think women suffer from this more than men. Men seem to like loud music and TV more and I don't personally know any men with this problem.

I can sympathise re mechanical noise. My neighbour is having a house refit apparently! It's the drilling against the adjoining wall that is driving me to distraction! It's been going on for more than a week now ?
Music at a reasonable time I can deal with, I like music myself.