According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.3 billion people are affected by noise. Experts believe that 10% of this number of people are subject to irreversible effects on the body. Marina Potoker, General Director of ROCKWOOL Russia, told RBC about the noise of megacities and ways to protect oneself from it at home and in the office.
Studies show that city noise is stressful and can even shorten life by 8-12 years. Noises affect a person both on the mental, causing nervous disorders and insomnia, and on the physical level. Long-term exposure to sound changes the frequency of contractions of the heart muscle, destabilizes blood pressure, and reduces blood flow to the brain. So, after 10 years of living in a noisy city, people become more susceptible to such serious diseases as hypertension and coronary heart disease. Every 50th heart attack in the world, according to the WHO, is associated with noise pollution.
Residents of large cities suffer most acutely from noise pollution. According to Mimi Hearing Technologies, of the 50 cities in the world, Guangzhou, Cairo, Paris, Beijing and Delhi are the most "sound polluted". In Moscow, according to environmental monitoring services, over the past decade, the noise level has increased by 5-6 dB and reaches 60-70 dB.
“In Russia, the awareness of the importance of acoustic comfort is advancing, but very slowly, therefore, it is most often necessary to protect oneself from the negative effects of noise on the own by owners or tenants of real estate. This is primarily about additional soundproofing of an apartment or office, - said Marina Potoker. - Modern sound-proof materials will only slightly burden the repair estimate, but they will seriously improve the quality of life of the inhabitant of an apartment or office, and at the same time satisfy his desire for environmental friendliness. Such a soundproof solution can be, for example, stone wool - a non-combustible material from rocks. For example, the use of such a solution in the construction of plasterboard partitions can reduce the noise level to 63 dB, which is higher than the sound insulation characteristics of walls made of bricks of the same thickness."
For more details on how big cities “make noise”, as well as how to create acoustic comfort in the office and at home, increase efficiency and significantly improve the quality of life, see the RBC website.
