One man’s meat, another man’s poison

Occasionally at JTA Noise we carry out assessments where we find that the noise is well within occupational and environmental standards and even best practice and yet the problem remains in that the complainant continues to be aggravated by the offending noise.

This has occurred recently with air conditioning noise in an office environment and with noise from a suburban spa pump. Both were barely audible noises that caused a level of distress totally out of proportion to what would be expected based on our assessment against the relevant standards. In the past we have had a similar experience assessing noise from drills used in an operating theatre.

How is this possible? Are our assessment criteria too lax? Are the complainants acoustic malingerers? The answer is probably none of the above.

Noise is subjective

The root cause could be the nature of noise which, by definition, is subjective due to the nature of people who are, by biological necessity, almost infinitely variable in their perceptions. An observation recognised by Lucretius in 100 BC in the saying originally attributed to him and now commonly known as “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”.

Most people reading this will appreciate that the difference between 40 and 110 on the logarithmic decibel scale represents an intergalactic escalation - from 10 nanowatts to 100,000,000 nanowatts.

In the operating theatre example mentioned earlier, concern with noise from the small drills used was exacerbated by the extremely low background noise and the irritating tonal quality of the noise – factors which are adjusted for in environmental standards but not occupational standards.

Have you heard about Misophonia?

In the office air conditioning noise and spa pump cases, the affected people were responding to noises that did not bother others in the same or more affected areas running the risk of them being flagged as whingers. They may however have a condition known as Misophonia, literally "hatred of sound".

Misophonia is a neurological disorder in which specific, loud or soft sounds trigger “immediate and extremely negative emotional responses”. The disorder disrupts daily living and can have a significant impact on social interactions. One man’s meat, another man’s poison indeed!