I wish to complain about the Coca-Cola TV ad about the "great Australian road trip". The ad shows a car driving past a girl who is sitting in a front yard beside a stereo. At the same time the ad shouts "the stereo should be set to 11". This ad continues the trend by Coca-Cola, and others, of irresponsible use of noise and is breeding a sub-culture of neighbourly abuse with noise. I request the ad be withdrawn or modified because such abuse is a great source of annoyance and a serious health concern.
This follows another offensive Coca-Cola ad which stated "your favourite song should be played so loud, neighbours you didn't even know you had ask you to turn it down". I submitted a complaint about this previous ad, but I believe it was not seen by the Board because you had already dismissed complaints from other people.
This is in fact the third such offensive ad by Coca-Cola. The first ad showed a gigantic stereo blasting forth music from a beach-home all the way out to the surf. From memory, I also recall an ad which showed young people assaulting tai-chi practitioners in a park by abusing them with a loudhailer, possibly in the pursuit of "cheap thrills" to sell jeans. All these ads depict reckless firing of noise without regard to whom it hurts, akin the throwing chairs out of a building without looking below.
The current ad shouts "the stereo should be set to 11". The only meaning I can infer from this is, since scales are often 1 to 10, 11 means beyond absolute maximum. This is confirmed by the statement being shouted, not spoken. The ad does suggest that locals should be respected. But this seems a frivolous attempt to laugh off complainers and muddy the waters. Actions speak louder than words, and the action shown is to sit your stereo in your front yard and set it to maximum, thereby annoying the neighbours. Equally it would encourage car stereos to be set to maximum for a road trip and succeed in disturbing the locals, not respecting them. The ad states that the windows should be wound down, thus ensuring a string of locals will be disturbed wherever the road trip should pass through. This is not respect, this is abuse.
Is it acceptable to say "drink as much as you can" or "drive as fast as you can"? Why is it acceptable to use as much noise as you can? They are all reckless and harmful to others. When you add a line from another Coca-Cola ad about music festivals that "your ears should ring" the youth are only getting one message: turn it up to maximum. In fairness to that particular ad, music festivals might be a reasonable use of loud noise. But the total message of Coca-Cola's persistent provocative campaign is simple: PLAY IT LOUD WHEREVER YOU ARE!
The prior ad complaints were dismissed on the grounds it was (a) a fantasy scenario and (b) consistent with "prevailing community attitudes".
There was no fantasy when a grandfather recently shot his neighbour because he was repeatedly tortured by loud music:
"Ernest William Showell had lived for 76 years without a criminal record when he lost his cool and started taking pot-shots at his 26-year-old neighbour. The Supreme Court sitting in Geelong heard he later told another neighbour he would 'never have to worry about that bloke playing loud music again'."
?(Grandpa shoots neighbour over loud music, by Mark Moor, news.com.au, 6 Oct 05)
Neighbourhood noise is not a trivial issue. Witness a recent case of torture by noise pollution in Tasmania:
"A WOMAN who slept on her kitchen floor for more than a year and put her house up for sale because of barking dogs is spearheading a campaign to toughen laws against nuisance barking. Helena Lettau described living near barking dogs as "actual torture" and said there had been hardly a night in 18 months when she had not been woken by barking ... said she became so desperate to have her problem fixed she even threatened to go on a hunger strike unless the council took action ... Lyons Greens MHA Tim Morris, who tabled a petition on the issue in State Parliament yesterday, said noise pollution was a serious health concern." (Greens seek barking dog ban, Tasmanian Mercury, 23 Nov 05)
Fantasy is no excuse, noise pollution is a "serious health concern".
The Board "noted that the focus of the advertisement was the young peoples' exuberant enjoyment of music and not the mindless destruction of property or the ill-treatment of neighbours". Youth do not care what the focus of the advertisement is. They cherry-pick ideas that suit them. Since the prior Coca-Cola ad was run I have personally experienced a complete lack of respect from young neighbours, whom I had previously gained some respect from in regards to keeping-the-peace. Now they turn up the noise and openly laugh in my face as if neighbourly abuse has become an accepted, Coca-Cola sanctioned, sport: "Yay, the neighbours are complaining." , "Go call the f-ing police, I don't give a ....", etc. This is not fantasy. I have better things to do than waste my time writing complaints such as this. I love music as much as anyone else, but I love my sanity, health and job more. There is no fantasy in being unable to get out of bed for work because someone was focused on "exuberant enjoyment of music" at the time I needed to relax for the next day. I grew up on AC/DC, KISS and U2, but I never needed to torture my neighbours in the process.
Unfortunately with today's high-powered stereos, even someone's innocent exuberant enjoyment of music easily becomes someone else's torture. We already have an epidemic of 'boom' cars prowling the streets with their thumping bass vibrations trespassing into the homes of hardworking people who worked their whole lives for those homes. Countless police resources are already sent to car hoon gatherings where obscenely loud car stereos are a badge of honour. Coca-cola's encouragement of maximum volume ensures that the great Australian road trip will be a thumping nightmare for homes along that trip. Stereos and surround-sound systems today are capable of extreme levels of bass. It is irresponsible to encourage abuse of this technology in the current climate.
The Board "is to make decisions based on what it perceives are prevailing community attitudes". Is the board perceptive enough to consider the following formal surveys/statistics on noise attitudes:
"... 1988 Brisbane Noise survey, when asked about noise in relation to other environmental problems, 66% of respondents were concerned about noise compared to 35% concerned about the next higher response (dust, smoke ...)
... while noise significantly annoys 48% of Brisbane's adult population, 66% of people reporting to be seriously affected by noise did not complain ...
... Annoyance studies have found the loud voices of neighbours, their parties and stereo equipment, though not as highly ranked as transportation sources, are of universal concern ... there appears to be universal concern about the increasing sound power levels of stereo systems, appliances and power tools" (The Health Effects of Environmental Noise, NSW Health Department, 2004)
"Noise epidemic - new regulations needed.
Noise is on the rise and more Australians than ever before are making complaints about rowdy neighbours. According to CSIRO the problem is so bad that it's time regulations were changed to take into account Australia's new residential densities and more consolidated urban development, which are putting neighbours closer together than ever before.
In Sydney, police and councils are called to more than 100,000 noise complaints every year, most of which relate to noisy neighbours.
In Melbourne's City of Yarra, noise is responsible for 35% of all complaints. Following a change in residential density guidelines, noise complaints have increased from 98 in March 1999 to 270 in March 2000. This has forced the City of Yarra to more than double its staff from three to seven, to cope." (CSIRO Media Release - Ref 2000/183 - Jul 16 , 2000)
The human body has absolute standards of health. Is the board ignoring health in favour of prevailing community attitudes (as you perceive them)? Attitudes are worthy of consideration, but history shows that prevailing attitudes do not always protect all of society's citizens. Smoking once prevailed. Have attitudes reached the point of no improvement? I hope not. Please read this evidence from The Australian just last week:
"LIVING with chronic noise doesn't just stress you out, it can also do you in - by raising your risk of having a heart attack. New research has found general environmental noise ... increases the risk of heart attack by almost 50 per cent for men and 200 per cent for women." (Why chronic noise gets taken to heart - Adam Cresswell, 25/11/05, the Australian)
Is the Board going to act now or wait for even more of this horrific trend, as happened recently in New Zealand:
"A radio promotion encouraging loud parties in defiance of noise control laws is being toned down by backers after dozens of complaints. Lion Red was backing Radio Network station ZM's "Amp It Up" campaign offering to pay fines imposed by "those pesky noise control officers" to "keep the party going this summer". It described council officers, who have the power to confiscate equipment as "party poopers who come and take your stereo away and slap you with a dirty fine". But the Auckland-based brewery has withdrawn its support after a string of complaints about the on-air promotion." (Radio promotion withdrawn after noise complaints, www.stuff.co.nz, 2/11/05)
"One person's music can be another person's noise ... The Institute believes the tone of the promotion, which claims to be 'helping you Amp it Up this summer,' is provocative and antisocial." (Press Release: NZ Institute of Environmental Health Inc, 1 Nov 05)
The World Health Organisation, the NSW Department of Health, and the Australian enHealth Council (a subcommittee of the National Public Health Partnership) all acknowledge that community noise is a health concern - see references below for detailed effects of noise on health.
Noise and vibrations hit the nervous system with atoms as real as those in a baseball bat striking the head. They cause a startle/shock response which cascades into a host of potentially harmful physiological stress reactions. Prolonged noise magnifies these into serious health concerns. Noise is used as torture in war time. Noise is theft of energy, concentration, time, rest, relaxation, socialisation, mood, and countless other qualities of life. It is invasion of personal space.
The ad is completely insensitive to sections of the community who have reduced tolerance for noise, for example, the elderly, those weakened with health problems, the mentally ill, a young mother trying to calm a baby, a war veteran with post traumatic stress disorder for whom thumping bass vibrations trigger shock reactions as real as war-time bombs, those suffering from hyperacusis (increased sensitivity to noise), those with sleep-disorders, or those simply experiencing stress from some life event. Such neighbourly abuse causes great pain to the lives of many people.
The ad conveys no sense of obligation to your fellow citizen, despite it's frivolous disguise, and this can only encourage other forms of anti-social behaviour. It has been suggested that when people break one law with impunity, it will lead to other laws being broken. If the noise is not settled, for example, it often escalates into neighbourhood conflict, with threats, assaults and even cases of murder - all starting from noise.
The effect of such an ad will compound throughout the community, because once one neighbour or vehicle pollutes with noise, often others turn up their own noise, either to copy or drown out the instigator. In effect, noise spreads like fire. Great pain, threats, persecution and assaults are experienced by responsible people trying to police such escalations. It is acoustic arson.
We have responsible consumption of alcohol, responsible use of motors cars, responsible ownership of weapons - where is the responsible use of noise?
I believe this ad should be withdrawn or modified because it encourages assault with noise, is likely to be emulated by many people, and is thereby harmful to community health, and in particular, torturing those less-tolerant of noise.
"Entertainment shapes the land, the way the hammer shapes the hand".
Imagine, it is getting hot, you open a window in the hope of a breeze and, to your surprise, you don't have to slam it shut due to someone's exuberant enjoyment of music - "that's summer, as it should be".
Bring back the giant beach-ball ads Coca-Cola, at least nobody gets hurt. There is no need to offend anyone just to sell soft-drink.
It is time for responsible use of noise in advertising.
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ADVERSE EFFECTS OF NOISE ON HEALTH
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WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION
The World Health Organisation's constitution defines health as:
"A state of complete physical and mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." (Berglund, 2000)
RFS JOB, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
"Community reaction (responses to noise) is of importance for two reasons. First, it is of importance as a factor of human quality of life, in its own right. People who have their daily activities (conversation, listening to music, watching television, reading, sleeping) disturbed, and who are dissatisfied and annoyed clearly have reduced quality of life. Within the World Health Organisation's definition of health (as well-being, not just the absence of disease) community reaction to noise is itself a negative health factor. Second, community reaction may be a factor in other aspects of health. It is possible that high levels of reaction to noise contribute to other putative effects of noise such as elevated blood pressure and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
The possibility exists that noise exposure and community reaction cause or exacerbate other health problems."
THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL NOISE - OTHER THAN HEARING LOSS
(report for the enHealth Council by the New South Wales Health Department)
Commonwealth of Australia, 2004
http://enhealth.nphp.gov.au/council/pubs/pubs.htm
Executive Summary
Environmental noise is increasingly becoming a community concern both internationally and in Australia ... There is now sufficient evidence internationally that community noise may pose a general public health risk. Groups most exposed to this noise (by virtue of where they live, work and recreate) and those most sensitive to its impact, may face even greater risks. They include infants and school children, shift workers, the elderly, the blind, and those suffering hearing impairments, sleep disorders, and physical and mental health conditions. Australian surveys have found respondents were concerned about environmental noise from a wide range of transportation and other sources, as well as noise generated by neighbours' loud voices, loud appliances and pets.
Recommendation - Recognise Environmental Noise as a Pootential Health Concern
The World Health Organisation, European Community members and numerous other countries have determined there is 'sufficient evidence' linking noise with annoyance, school children's performance, sleep disturbance, ischaemic heart disease and hypertension. Currently, there appears sufficient information to merit public health action in Australia to reduce these effects. Cardiovascular health and mental health (two national health priority areas for Australia) have been weakly linked to noise exposure.
... it is possible that some vulnerable groups, who are exposed to noise over which they have no control, may be vulnerable to mental health problems. What is more certain is that those with existing mental health problems, usually either depression or anxiety, are more prone to be annoyed and disturbed by environmental noise exposure than the general population.
There is growing evidence that chronic exposure to environmental noise leads to both impaired cognitive function (reading, motivation) and health (annoyance, blood pressure) in children. Impairment of early childhood development and education by environmental pollutants such as noise may have life-long effects on achieving academic potential and good health.
Sound, Noise and Human Response
Hearing has evolved from our need to alert, to warn and to communicate.? As a result, sound, wanted or unwanted, directly evokes reflexes, emotions and actions, which can be a stimulant and a stressor. The extent to which noise can act as a stimulant and stressor is related to the noise source, onset of noise, duration and characteristics of the sound and whether noise exposure is voluntary or involuntary.
Our response to noise is linked to the sound characteristics. Physiologically, we may reflexively orient to and away from a sound, startle or demonstrate a defensive response depending on the nature of the sound and our rapid ability to localise and interpret the sound and attribute meaning to it.
Noise stimulates the brain's reticular activating system. Neural impulses spread from the reticular system to the higher cortex and throughout the central nervous system. Noise can, therefore, influence perceptual, motor and cognitive behaviour, and also trigger glandular, cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal changes by means of the autonomic nervous system.
Adverse Health Effects of Noise
Children, people with existing physical and mental illness, and the elderly are most susceptible to noise.
- Annoyance and Quality of Life
The most widespread subjective response to noise is annoyance, which may include fear and mild anger, relating to the belief that one is being avoidably harmed ... Noise is also seen as intrusive into personal privacy, which may be particularly important in urban settings ... Annoyance is the general term used to describe individuals' responses evoked by a loud noise. It is also related to the effects of noise in disrupting conversation, activities requiring attention, rest and relaxation activities ... Approximately nine percent of residents surveyed who were seriously annoyed by the noise also indicated they had become aggressive due to the extent and nature of noise impacts ... Noise annoyance is clearly a reflection of impaired quality of life.
- Sleep Disturbance
Noise interferes with sleep in a number of ways: awakening; altered sleep pattern; reduce the percentage and total time in REM sleep; increase body movement; change cardiovascular responses; cause effects on slow wave sleep ... These changes can affect mood and performance the next day.
Sleep loss reduces cognitive function and can affect physiology, behaviour and subjective outcomes. Statistically significant reductions occur in vigilance, memory, learning and speech and increases in divergent thinking with varying amounts of sleep loss as well as with different 'forms' of sleep loss, such as acute total sleep loss and cumulative partial sleep loss.
Noise affects people's ability to gain the appropriate amount and type of sleep needed for maintenance of good health and there are suggestions of disturbed sleep leading to more serious health problems.
- Performance and Learning - School Children
There is sufficient evidence supporting a conclusion that chronic noise exposure at schools affects child health and performance. The importance of those impairments of early childhood development have been recognised by the United States Federal Interagency Commission on Noise; the World Health Organisation and the European Commission.
- Cardiovascular Disease
The relationship between annoyance to noise and increased relative risks of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) merit further attention given the increasing levels of community concern and annoyance and the significant prevalence of cardiovascular conditions within the Australian adult population.
Noise, acting as a stressor, is thought to have an impact on the cardiovascular system through certain stress response mechanisms such as the release of cortisol, adrenalin and noradrenalin which have cascade effects including raising blood pressure and increasing vasoconstriction ... a cross-sectional study found as association between noise, annoyance and cardiovascular disease.
Given the seriousness and the costs to society of cardiovascular disease through early deaths, disability, days lost to work, health care costs and deterioration in quality of life, small changes in risk, such as provided by environmental noise, might have significant population health effects and societal costs.
- Mental Health
Mental health is one of seven national health priority areas designated by the Australian Government and the State governments. Mental health relates to emotions, thoughts and behaviours ... even minor mental health problems may affect everyday activities to the extent that individuals cannot function as they would wish, or are expected to, within their family and community.
Sensitivity to noise and annoyance from noise is possibly related to certain types of mental disorders such as depression ... It has been suggested noise can be a source of stress of a psychological, behavioural or somatic nature ... Noise exposure predicts annoyance, psychological symptoms and impaired quality of life in both adults and children ... certain people, such as those already stressed, are more sensitive to noise than other, less stressed, people.
Noise and Neuro-Physiological Stress - Main Effect
... sudden or impulsive noise bursts resulted in stress reaction changes that included changes in cardiovascular blood pressure and volume, breathing, pulse rate, gastrointestinal motility, endocrine gland secretions and neural activity changes in animals and people.
Certain neurological disorders result in a failure to filter out background noise, such that the sufferer experiences stimulus from even distant sound.
Noise Sources and Impacts in Australia - Neighbourhood Noise
Within the neighbourhood environment, in addition to road and air traffic, a number of noise sources are raised in surveys of community annoyance. These include a range of activities from the neighbour's barking dog, stereo or car alarm to local government garbage collection.
International Best Practice Noise Management - Residential Noise
Annoyance studies have found the loud voices of neighbours, their parties and stereo equipment, though not as highly ranked as transportation sources, are of universal concern ... there appears to be universal concern about increasing sound power levels of stereo systems, appliances and power tools.
Responding to Environmental Noise in Australia - Recommendations
Community concern over environmental noise is growing, particularly as a result of increasing urban density, significant shifts in inner city land use and growing residential use of rezoned industrial areas.
While environmental noise may have previously been largely viewed as an amenity issue and not associated with significant public health consequences, this report indicates that this is unlikely to be the case. Indeed, it would now appear prudent to view environmental noise as a growing public health problem, and one that deserves more attention than it currently receives.
Suggested actions:
- Promote awareness of the non-auditory impacts of environmental noise on health, in particular, the need for State and Territory and Australian Government agencies to include noise as an important environmental health issue for strategic and local planning.
- Adopt the WHO Guidelines for Community Noise.
- Develop a national environmental noise education program.
- Examine measures to reduce noise generated by consumer goods, including amending consumer protection legislation and policies.
WILLIAM H. STEWART (former U.S. Surgeon General)
"Calling noise a nuisance is like calling smog an inconvenience. Noise must be considered a hazard to the health of people everywhere."
ARLINE L. BRONZAFT PhD
Environmental Psychologist
Professor Emerita, Lehman College, City University of New York
Chair of Noise Pollution Committee,
New York City Council for the Environment
League for the Hard of Hearing, Rehabilitation Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2000:-
Noise Not Just an Annoyance, but a Health Hazard.
"There are a number of investigative studies that indicate noise is not simply an annoyance but rather a hazard to one's physical and mental well-being. Despite the many stories appearing in the media and the data indicating that noise is harmful to health, too often people who complain about noise are told to cope with or adapt to the disturbing sound. When some respond they can't, they may be called peculiar or labelled as suffering from a psychological disorder. They are also told that their neighbours who are exposed to the same noises have learned to live with the noise. Such responses to noise complaints tend to lessen formal complaints to legal authorities, and, eventually, these people stop talking to others about the bothersome noises. This does not mean that they are no longer upset by the offensive sounds.
What happens to the individuals who are overwhelmed by invasive noises but have been told to stop complaining? Some adjust their sleeping schedules so that they won't have their sleep disturbed by their noisy neighbours. Others find that they are constantly thinking about the noise and it assumes a dominant place in their lives at the expense of other activities in which they were once interested and involved. Many people, after failing to correct the noise problem, believe that they can't do anything to stop the noise. Such people often assume a posture of learned helplessness and behave as if they have adapted to the noise.
However, if you were to tap into their inner feelings, they will express a hatred of the noise and a disgust for themselves for allowing the noise to win out. All of these people have one thing in common - they have lost control over their lives."
WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION: ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION OF THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT: GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNITY NOISE, 1995-2000. (Extracts downloaded from the internet).
... an adverse effect of noise is defined as a change in the morphology and physiology of an organism that results in impairment of functional capacity, or an impairment of capacity to compensate for additional stress, or increases the susceptibility of an organism to the harmful effects of other environmental influences. This definition includes any temporary or long-term lowering of the physical, psychological or social functioning of humans or human organs. The health significance of noise pollution is given in this chapter under separate headings, according to the specific effects: noise-induced hearing impairment; interference with speech communication; disturbance of rest and sleep; psychophysiological, mental health and performance effects; effects on residential behaviour and annoyance; as well as interference with intended activities.
Noise Management
The Precautionary Approach. In all cases, noise should be reduced to the lowest level achievable in a particular situation.? Where there is a reasonable possibility that public health will be damaged, action should be taken to protect public health without awaiting full scientific proof.
Noise Policy and Legislation
If governments implement only weak noise policies and regulations, they will not be able to prevent a continuous increase in noise pollution and associated adverse health effects. Failure to enforce strong regulations is ineffective in combating noise as well.
Effects on Physical Health
Exposure to noise may result in a variety of biological responses.? Most of the information has been derived from short-term studies on animals and human subjects, but it has been postulated that, if provoked continuously, such responses would ultimately lead to the development of clinically recognisable physical or mental disease in human beings. Numerous clinical symptoms and signs have been attributed to noise exposure including nausea, headache, irritability, instability, argumentativeness, reduction in sexual drive, anxiety, nervousness, insomnia, abnormal somnolence, and loss of appetite (Jirkova & Kromarova, 1965).
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