‘Noise pollution hurting people’s mental health’

ALKHOBAR: Many people have complained about the noise of vehicles, car recorders, and mobile ringtones, demanding the imposition of financial penalties against those who cause noise-related inconveniences to others in public places.
The various sources of noise at work, in the streets, and even in the house, have direct and negative impacts on the psychological and mental health of people, in addition to its contribution to the increase in traffic accidents, according to Maher Yaqoub, an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) consultant from the Kingdom.
Yaqoub said that recent studies on the noise’s impact on human health proved that the hearing levels of the public are declining faster in recent years with the increase of modern communication means.
According to these studies, there has been a rise in vehicle noise due to the increasing number of cars, trucks and population growth, which exceeds the safety barrier of the human hearing sense, Yaqoub said, indicating that noise might destroy the hearing sense in children as well as the elderly. On the psychological effects of noise on humans, psychiatrist and neurological diseases specialist, Alaa Al-Tabai’, said: “Noise has negative impacts on the physiological, health, and psychological performance of humans.”
He said that noise affects the human nervous system if it continues for a long time and at the same frequency. In addition, anxiety, dissatisfaction, fear, nervousness and mood disorders are results of noises caused by modern technologies.
Additionally, “Psychological research has confirmed that some neurological and psychiatric diseases caused by noise actually raise the rate of accidents by 40 to 50 percent,” the psychiatrist said.
Speaking on the impact of noise on the growth of children, psychiatrist Nora Salman said: “Psychological studies have shown that noise has great impacts on the intellectual development of children; Moreover, sensitive children may suffer from horror and panic after being exposed to noise.”
She said, “Stress affects the mental state of individuals, and it can manifest in various forms of panic, anxiety, confusion, lack of concentration, fatigue, and depression.”