NOISE Pollution an Invisible Threat

When you read the term noise pollution, does traffic or construction come to mind?  What about the lawn mower next door when you are on a zoom call?  Or a neighbors music when you are trying to sleep?  Noise pollution comes in all shapes and sizes and is having a dramatic effect not just on humans, but animals and plants.

A 2019 study by Echo Barrier estimates that 72.6 million US residents are exposed to enough noise to cause long-term health effects and the cost of unaddressed hearing loss is staggering.

It is not just people. Animal behavior is affected by increased stress levels due to hearing loss.

 A study conducted in California, Florida, New York and Texas by Environmental Research Letters found there was on average a three dBA decrease in environmental noise during the pandemic lockdown. Such a decrease "likely represents a meaningful reduction in overall risk of sound-related health effects” such as hypertension, ischemic heart disease, and cognitive performance. Sadly levels have surged as the world opens back up. 

As people lean into working from home residential noise pollution can take its toll. If you recently invested in noise cancelling headphones you are not alone, but what else can we do?  Share your best practice for reducing noise pollution in your home by leaving a comment below.  We will explore best practices next week so stay tuned! 

Thanks for reading,

Savvy

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Inspiring Reads - 

Noise pollution is real, but there are ways to reduce it.

More Silence Less Noise: When environmental noise disturbs your living by Dr. Peter Kruse MD  If you prefer silence over noise and value silence as an important part of your life then perhaps this book is written for you. Noise from traffic, construction, machinery etc. is becoming a bigger burden every day for millions of citizens around the world. The World Health Organization has clearly identified significant health risks linked to this growing environmental noise.

The Noise Free Home: The four-step soundproofing method to bring peace and quiet back to your life by Jim Prior Is noise impacting your quality of life? Noise adversely affects many homeowners. The Noise Free Home introduces a proven soundproofing method that will protect your home from unwanted noise.

In Case You Missed It - 

Responsible living is more than just caring about the environment.  Woven into the ethos is taking a stand for social equity and East Fork Pottery has been fully committed to that from day one.  Partnering with community outreach organizations to stretch outside their comfort zone; always paying employees a living wage, they are now working towards increasing wages to a family living wage.  Receiving their Carbon Neutral Certification in April has been another huge milestone.  All these steps and more have earned them B Corporation Certification, read about the journey here. Instead of seeing this accomplishment as the finish line, they view it as an inspiration for making additional changes.  Reading East Fork's About Page was part of our inspiration for starting The Savvy Elephant. AND we haven't even touched on how stunning and beautiful their pottery is!  See for yourself by clicking through to the East Fork Website.  

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