The man gave a wounded glance. Noise has been recognized as an irritant for a lot of years. In their training literature, noise inspectors are told that Julius Caesar banned chariots from the streets at night because the sound annoyed him. Studies of the physiological and psychological effects of noise are hardly definitive, but they suggest striking links. They indicate that protracted noise can impair one's hearing, dry the mouth, dilate pupils, raise cholesterol, elevate blood pressure, burden the heart.
Constant noise can bring on irritability, depression, aggression.
It can interfere with the learning ability of children. Arline Bronzaft, a professor emeritus of environmental psychology at Lehman College did a study in 1974 of Public School 88 in Washington Heights. The reading scores of the children on the noisy side lagged behind the students on the quiet side by up to 11 months. In 1978, after parents complained, rubber padding was put on the tracks next to the school, and in 1979 the school added sound-absorbing ceilings in the noisiest rooms. We stick some earplugs in our ears when we get on the subway and then take them off when we get to our destination.