The world is getting noisier, and it’s making us ill. I’ve certainly played my part

It only needs a handful of people to raise their voices and suddenly all eight billion of us are in the middle of a shouting match. And here I am, booming out from the radio

The sound of the penny dropping was so loud it hurt. This was upon learning how noise knackers you, mentally and physically. Charlotte Clark, a professor of environmental epidemiology, didn’t put it quite like that, but I heard her loud and clear. She points out that our emotional response to sound is an aspect of our fight-or-flight response, evolved to get us up to speed when danger announces itself. A big noise equals big danger, possibly.

Back in the day I suppose this might have amounted to a lion roaring, or an angry neighbour clubbing the door to your cave, swearing vengeance about nicking his kindling or something. I can’t think of many other loud noises our ancestors would have had to endure. Thunder must have scared the bejesus out of them – but otherwise, when it came to noise, I think they had it rather easy.

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