By Vanessa Cort
THIS is not the first time I am writing about noise nuisance created by loud music and its eventual effect on those subjected to it.
Last Thursday evening I was sitting at my friend’s home in Sixth Street, Alberttown, when a vehicle announced its presence with blasting music so loud that it set off car alarms.
It was not the first time and probably will not be the last time that this has happened.
It is certainly not the first time I have heard passing vehicles sounding like moving discos and vibrating the ground under the feet of passersby.
In fact, on one occasion, I was about to get into a minibus, headed for Timehri, when the youthful conductor warned me, “Mummy, this bus got nuff noise”.
I knew he was referring to the volume of music in the bus. I responded, “I have no problem with loud music, once the equipment is good”.
He laughed and stepped aside to let me board the bus, taking up my favourite seat behind the driver
As soon as the bus was in motion, the driver began to play the music. It was noise. The bass caused the whole bus to vibrate.
I immediately said to the driver, “This is noise because your speakers can’t handle the volume and the bus vibrating”.
“Mummy is not de speakers is de doors”, he defended. Astonished at his rebuttal, I asked, “Are you telling me that the doors are causing this vibration?” “Well, you must be a politician, to come up with that explanation”.
Everyone in the bus began to laugh, including the driver himself.
However, he did lower the music, the vibration stopped and I enjoyed the rest of the journey, because his musical selection was actually quite good and not the usual sex and guns songs played in these buses.
But what loud music does to a person’s ears in a confined space is no laughing matter. There is something termed ‘acoustics’, a word which has two meanings. One is ” The branch of physics that studies sound” and the other, “The specific sound related qualities of a room or space”.
The latter definition deals with how, “…the shape, size and material of an enclosed space…reflect, absorb or transmit sound”.
Experts say that loud music in confined spaces affects human ears through two main mechanisms, acoustic amplification and direct structural damage to the inner ear.
In confined spaces, like a vehicle, the sound waves reflect off the vehicle’s interior and the trapped acoustic energy builds up, increasing the overall decibel (dB) level compared to the same music played at the same volume outdoors
Very loud music over stimulates hair cells in the inner ear, causing them to bend, fracture or die. Once these hair cells are destroyed, they do not grow back, leading to permanent hearing loss.
There are immediate and long-term symptoms caused by loud music in small spaces. They all result in eventual damage to the ear, especially when this occurs repeatedly.
What this also means is that, not only the driver of the vehicle, but also the passengers are affected.
So, drivers and passengers take note. Loud music in a small area breaches the decibel limit and can cause deafness. And as we Guyanese say, “Wuh doan happen in a year does happen in a day”.
For it is continual exposure to excessively loud music which will make you deaf. Maybe not in a couple of weeks, but years later.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.