Noise Talk

   The world is getting noisier–from loud car stereos, leaf blowers, motorcycles, honking horns, car alarms, train horns, airplanes, barking dogs, and Muzak.

 And there are new sources of noise all the time.  Hornblasters, for example, is an excruciatingly loud car horn, designed to shake the earth and traumatize the ear.  They blast at levels greater than 150 decibels–louder than a jet taking off 80 feet away.  The unexpected Hornblasters noise causes grown men to jump in the air.

   Matt Heller, the 25 year-old adolescent proprietor of Hornblasters, had made a full-length, hidden-camera video showing people startled by the Hornblasters noise.  He laughingly calls it “terror on the streets.”

   To deal with these numerous threats to peace and quiet, Representative Nita Lowey (D., New York) has repeatedly introduced the “Quiet Communities Act.”  The bill would reestablish the Office of Noise Abatement and Control (ONAC) within the EPA.

   ONAC was created by the Noise Control Act of 1972.  Unfortunately, the agency was defunded by the Reagan administration in 1981; no subsequent administration has restored funding.  The Reagan administration claimed that noise enforcement was purely a state and local matter.  Despite eliminating ONAC’s funding, Congress never repealed the Noise Control Act.

   According to Representative Lowey, the Quiet Communities Act would authorize ONAC to  “coordinate federal noise activities, provide technical assistance to local communities, update or develop new noise standards, and promote research and development on the impacts of noise pollution.”

   Noise is physically and socially damaging.  The EPA estimatesa that at least 130 million Americans live in areas with dangerous decibel levels.  Excessive noise is associated with hearing loss, sleep deprivation, chronic fatigue, and aggravagted behavior.  A Census Bureau study found that noise is American’s top complaint about their neighborhoods, and the major reason why they wish to move.  Last year, New York City’s quality of life hotline received 41,856 calls about noise.  A Department of Justice report indicates that “boom cars” are linked to crime, drugs, and gangs.

   Numerous municipalities are responding the public’s demand for peace and quiet.  The St. Louis Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance that authorizes the confiscation of vehicles that exceed certain decibel levels.  Denver recently passed a law that requires all motorcycles to use only stock exhaust systems.  New York City ha adopted a ”plainly audible” standard for noise violations and dramatically increased fines.

   Congressional resistance to reinstating the federal anti-noise office is partly due to the “noise industrial complex,” a powerful set of pro-noise corporate interests.  For example, the Echo Manufacturing company employs a full-time lobbyist to defend obnoxious leaf blowers.  The American Motorcycle Association (with 250,000 members) lobbies against restrictions on thunderous motorcycles.  The Mobile Enhancement Retail Association pressures city councils on behalf of car stereo “enthusiasts.”

   The poster boy of the noise industrial complex is Congressman Darrell Issa, a California Republican who owns VIPER audio, VIPER car alarms, and Directed Electronics.  He is the former chairman of the powerful Consumer Electronics Associaiton.  The “boom car Congressman” is one of 78 members of the Congressioanl Automotive, Performance, and Motorsports caucus.  The Specialty Equiopment Market Association, which represents the $26 billion hot rod industry, calls Issa “one of our own.”

   Issa’s commitment to aggressive noisemaking can be seen in his company’s advertisements:

   -Orion High Performance Car Audio: “Powered by Hard Core Attutide.”  “Subwoofers That Will Command Respect on the Street.”  “Be Loud.  Be Onnoxious.”

   -VIPER Audio: “Cold Blooded.”  “Violent Fury and Mult-Channel Mayhem.”  “No Escape from the Hellacious Pounding of the Subwoofers and the Aggressive In Your Face Power.”

   There truly is no escape from the hellacious pounding for millions of people across the United States.  Thousands of neighborhoods have been ruined by pounding boom cars, motorcycles, hot rods, and car alarms.

   Congress should reject the power of pro-noise corporate interests and pass the Quiet Communities Act.