Editorial: June 22, 2023
What Did You Say? I Can’t Hear You
Summer is here. Main Street is full. Dreams Park and Cooperstown All Star Village are open. Parking is tight. Lodging is spoken for. And it looks as though this one is going to be very successful for the well-organized, hungry tourist industry. Good for us.
But something else usually happens around this time: The sound level meters (dB) go amuck, all over town as well as all through the countryside. Buses, 18-wheelers, utility trucks both big and small, boat trailers, motorcycles, road-tripping RVs and curious drivers cruising the scenic byways of Otsego County appear in relentless numbers, raising the sound level and challenging our off-season solitude.
Noise, defined as “a sound, especially one that is loud, unwanted or unpleasant, or that causes disturbance,” comes, most interestingly, from the Latin nausea, which means seasickness. Sound is measured based on the amplitude and frequency of a sound wave. Amplitude measures how forceful the wave is. The energy in a sound wave is measured in decibels (dB). For example, a silent study room registers 20 dB; a soft whisper 40; an urban residence 50; a conversation 60; a freight train 80; a construction site 100; heavy equipment 120; and a jet 130. In terms of decibels, OSHA (the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) claims that exposure to loud noise—85 decibels (dB) and above—kills the nerve endings in our inner ear. More exposure will result in more dead nerve endings, which results in permanent, unmitigated hearing loss—which results, in turn, in the impairment of one’s ability to communicate. Noise, in its loud mode, can cause high blood pressure, ischemic heart disease (strokes, clots), sleep disturbance, injuries and decreased school performance. It is also a source of anger and frustration.
More than a quarter of U.S. residences have average outside noise levels exceeding the maximum nighttime outside noise level of 45 dB recommended by the World Health Organization. Some of this excess noise is from necessary town and city equipment and residential maintenance equipment, and one of the most threatening culprits is the ubiquitous leaf blower. Gas-powered leaf blower noise ranges from 64-78 dB at 50 feet; inside 50 feet it’s higher (80-90 dB). Electric models come in at 65-70 dB. This, along with the polluting gas fumes, has been reason to ban future sales of gas blowers in California, in a number of towns and cities in Massachusetts and Vermont, and in Washington, DC. In New York there is a bill banning the use of gas-powered lawn and leaf blowers as of May 1, 2024, which was submitted in 2021. It awaits a vote.
The Village of Cooperstown has a noise ordinance, passed in May of 2019, that limits the decibel level to 80 dB after 9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and after 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, which seems a high bar, given that 80 dB is in the freight train category. Still, no dog can bark longer than 15 minutes; no repetitious horns ever; no audio device from any vehicle that can be heard at a distance of 60 feet; mufflers must be maintained. Church bells and sirens can ring out at will; and fireworks are okay with a permit. Residential property maintenance equipment—lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chain saws and other power tools—may blast away only between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., which seems a trifle late for lawn mowers and chain saws.
The City of Oneonta has its own noise ordinance (Chapter 178 of the city Code, adopted in 2001) with similar restrictions regarding “unreasonable” noise.
If we can keep to these limits, it just might be that we can listen and be heard.