Could we have a bit of ciunas out there please….?

I once won a 'Topics' competition in Toastmasters when the question; 'What is the greatest threat facing mankind today' was fired at me and I went on to speak for the required two minutes on 'noise'.I was steeped in luck as I had just had this conversation with a friend who told me that some medical students were failing because they could not hear an unborn baby"s heartbeat with a stethoscope due to ear damage from loud disco music.I don"t know if this is true as I worked in the mines with three drilling machines in a confined space, no ear-plugs and yet a certain lady has only to give one gentle snore in the middle of the night and it wakes me!Seriously though, noise pollution is the greatest scourge of our age and it appears to me as if the younger generation cannot function without loud music and much noise no matter what they are doing. At least people who wish to listen to music blowing the head off them have made that choice, but what about the people next door? Sound is essential to our daily lives but unwanted sound becomes noise and it is a source of irritation and stress to many people; in other words a nuisance. A nuisance factor can be difficult to establish, as what is music to one man"s ear can be noise pollution to another - but generally speaking if something sounds unreasonable to the average person people should not be subjected to it. Very little can be done about some noise such as noise in the street and road traffic which is one of the most widespread sources of noise. It is estimated that 40% of us are bothered by noise from road traffic and of course people living near an airport are severely affected by takeoff and landing noise from aeroplanes. The same is true with trains if you live near a railway line or station. Naturally night time noise is more objectionable and this is the argument against the people who claim road works should be engaged in at night when traffic is lighter. To some extent people become accustomed to noise like city traffic and then amazingly to us country folk, people will move from Dublin to Westmeath and complain about the nuisance of cows bawling for their calves!Those of you who know Spain will not be surprised to hear that it is one of the nosiest countries in Europe. Blaring television sets, all-night parties, music from pubs (ahem!!) screaming children, screaming adults and mad motor-cyclist are just some of the nerve-jangling neighbourhood noises that millions of Spaniards have to put up with on a daily basis. 52% of Spaniards are bothered by the noise caused by their neighbours. Loud conversations and arguments top the list of unwelcome sounds filtering through the thin walls of modern apartments. However, Spain is still only the third nosiest, behind Russia and Italy, according to a survey conducted in 2006; with Norwegians being the least noisy. Not surprisingly, all nationalities seem less aware of the noise they make themselves with only 10% admitting to making more noise than their neighbour.Across Europe, 113 million people are believed to be exposed to sufficiently high levels of noise pollution to cause health problems, which in a third of the cases take the form of stress, insomnia and other mental health afflictions. No later than yesterday while out for my walk in Spain, I met a young couple whom I thought were still my neighbours: 'No, we had to move,' Anita and Ed told me; 'The couple next door had a row every night and whilst the house was lovely, we couldn"t stick it any longer.' Many noise problems are serious enough to force people to move. That same 2006 survey found that as many as 900,000 people in Spain, equivalent to 2% of the population, are estimated to have packed up in search of a more peaceful abode.Sound intensity is measured in decibels which is a manner of determining the vibrations that the human ear detects. Sound can also be measured by its frequency; a high frequency sound usually has a high pitch, while a low frequency sound produces low pitch, such as vibrations. Millions of people work in noisy environments that can be damaging to their hearing and this covers a wide variety of professions and industrial workers. It can be difficult to know how much noise we are being exposed to that isn"t safe for our health. If your daily work levels exceed 80 dB you should be using hearing protection such as ear muffs or plugs, the experts tell us.There is EU legislation on noise pollution and Ireland brought such regulation into force in 2006, which is meant to be enforced by local authorities. At the time Environment Minister Dick Roche said; 'We live in an increasingly busy and noisy world, and noise can often be overlooked as an insignificant environmental issue. The reality is that it can be a real and significant problem and change is needed to protect the quality of life for people who live in major urban areas or near national infrastructures such as major roads and airports.' Within a month of this statement of intent Mr Roche and his ministerial colleagues had cut noise pollution in Ireland by half; Just joking...Just joking!!It is recommended that each of us should set aside ten minutes of total silence for ourselves every day. This can be difficult for some people who live in cities but those of us who are blessed with the privilege of walking a quiet country road or down a field should appreciate that gift every day. One noise I love being awakened to, which will soon be here, is that of 'the dawn chorus'.Yes, my friends silence is golden and we should cherish it for as long as we can but not all noise is bad: I am thinking of the deafening roar of 80,000 voices as the ball lifts the back of the net. Now, if that is to be accompanied by maroon or green flags - I can live with that!!Don"t ForgetIf you feel a need to intrude on someone else"s privacy, you have to take a long hard look at yourself and fathom out why. (The Rules of Life)