Residents living in an isolated area Louisiana A five-mile drive doesn’t remember the last time they slept well at night.
Hano Road, about an hour northwest of New Orleans, endures deafening noise from 1 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day as garbage trucks and gravel haulers speed down the road to drop off loads at the gravel pit. and the local landfill.
While the small population of around 100 people has long experienced many restless nights, it has also seen an increase in dementia.
Experts believe this could be because excessive loud noises trigger the body’s fight-or-flight response, releasing excess hormones that cause inflammation and death of brain cells.
Along a five-mile highway in Louisiana, residents fear excessive noise could have detrimental effects on their health.
Melvin Jennings, a 77-year-old Vietnam War veteran, said he can’t remember the last time he and his wife, Patricia, slept through the night.
One night in 2019, the Jenningses’ bedroom windows vibrated as a procession of trucks passed one after another just yards from their home.
And the effects can be harmful. Mrs Jennings suffers from dementia and research shows that constantly being startled awake at night by loud noises – known as “noise pollution” – can worsen dementia and increase risk of heart disease.
Mr. Jennings told the Louisiana Illuminator: ‘It’s like torture. Especially when you are in your own home. All night long… It scares you.
Now, 96 residents have signed a petition asking the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) to boost noise regulation.
Louis Nick Joseph, who represents the district that includes Hano Road on the Tangipahoa Parish Council, said: ‘The problem is that because the parish is rural, we don’t have a noise bylaw.
And if we had one, how is it regulated, you know? How would you regulate the noise? is my question.
Jamie Banks, an environmental scientist and founder of the nonprofit Quiet Communities, said noise is “much more than a nuisance.”
Quiet Communities is suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failure to enforce the Noise Control Act, which was enacted in 1972 and aims to set noise standards.
Dave Williams, a retiree who lives on Hano Road, said he called Ms Banks in 2021 complaining about being “serenaded” by gravel trucks at 3am
“You know, people are being abused here,” he had said. “There are people down there suffering, right now… we don’t have anyone to help us.”
The noise had caused Mr Williams anxiety and vomiting, and his wife, Liz, suffered flare-ups of fibromyalgia, despite earplugs and sleeping medication.
Noise pollution is sound louder than 65 decibels, which is about as loud as normal conversation. However, a single truck traveling on the road can reach up to 100 decibels.
The Tangipahoa Parish Council attempted to develop another truck route to and from the gravel pit and landfill, Joseph said.
But the new path would mean acquiring private property and the owner had requested for more money than the city council was authorized to spend, according to the councilman.
Research has long shown that noise pollution has detrimental health effects.
Noise pollution has been shown to cause damage and inflammation to blood vessels, increasing the risk of dementia and heart disease (file image)
A study published last year by the UK Health Security Agency, for example, found that in 2018, around 100,000 years of good health were lost due to road traffic.
Additionally, 13,000 were lost due to railroad noise and 17,000 due to airplane noise.
This was because noise increased the risk of stroke, heart disease, diabetes, depressionand anxiety.
Loud noise is thought to trigger the release of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which control the body’s response to stress.
If activated for long periods of time, these hormones can damage the lining of blood vessels, leading to problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
The graph above shows the ten cities with the highest noise pollution at night.
TO 2020 report For example, a study by the European Environment Agency found that 12,000 premature deaths and 48,000 cases of heart disease annually could be attributed to noise pollution in Europe.
Prolonged exposure to loud noise has also been shown to affect cognitive function.
a review in Frontiers in public health It found that when participants were constantly exposed to noise of about 57 decibels, they were 47 percent more likely to develop dementia than those who had lower levels of noise exposure.
The increased stress response caused by loud noises can lead to inflammation in the brain and cell death associated with dementia.
Noise can also cause mental health effects. Mr Jennings said “it’s bad for my PTSD”, causing him to jump in fear at night before calming his wife.
He said: ‘I don’t have anyone helping me during the night. It’s up to me.
‘I just have to do it without the rest. And then I can barely sleep during the day. That’s what has me ruined.
Now, the family and many others along the road are waiting for help they fear may not come.
Jennings said: “We want to live in peace again and we are getting older.” “We need more peace than we’re getting.”