New Year is definitely a great day to celebrate as we start another calendar year with big hopes and promises. Dhaka’s noise pollution due to New Year’s celebrations, however, crosses a line sometimes; often to the point of harming someone. Still, we hope we’ll do better in the years to come just as we hope to keep our air pollution at bay, too.
I’m often startled by sudden loud noises and I’m pretty sure it’s possible to find quite a number of people to join my team. Then again, I enjoy festivities and New Year is a great occasion to celebrate. Sure, if we didn’t have a calendar system, we wouldn’t see a difference, but that’s where civilization did its magic. We created hope out of thin air as if a different number on a calendar page will change our lives. Luckily, it often does because we convince ourselves that the new year will go great and, perhaps unconsciously, we work towards that end. Maybe that’s why we put in so much effort to celebrate the event.
However, these celebrations, in Dhaka, most often disrupt other people’s lives. People like me are somewhat lucky, as we only get startled or have a headache because the elderly and infants don’t always stop there. Their risks are much higher.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), noise above 65 decibels (dB) is considered sound pollution. It’s harmful when the measure gets to 75 dB. Fireworks typically register at 150 to 170 decibels in close range. Well, what can be closer than the rooftop at spitting distance from your windows?
Less than one second of exposure to this level of noise pollution can result in permanent damage, says the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). It also recommends keeping children away from fireworks as they are often the most vulnerable. It’s a hazard that causes 12,000 premature deaths in the EU each year. In America, 100 million citizens are in harm’s way because of sound pollution.
In the neighboring country, India, a research found that sound above 45 dB can cause a newborn to experience:
- Increased blood pressure
- Decreased oxygen saturation
- Increased respiratory rate
- Increased heart rate
- Increased caloric consumption
In the case of older children, the effects include attention difficulties, hypertension, stress ulcers, insulin resistance, learning disabilities, and cardiovascular diseases.
There’s hardly any building in Dhaka that doesn’t have an infant or young children living. So, when we decide to hold a fireworks display on the roof, what are we thinking? Are we even thinking? When even traffic noise harms children, why are we putting them through this?
The elderly are also more prone to the harm loud noises can cause. It can disrupt sleep, cause hearing loss, and increase stress levels. In Bangladesh, I believe it’s already hard to find elderly people without these health issues, and we’re just pushing them to the edge. Close proximity to such noise levels can also cause cognitive decline and exacerbate existing health conditions such as cardiovascular disease. It’s also severely concerning for those with heart disease. This impacts their well-being and overall quality of life.
It’s not that fireworks should be banned or something but we really need to stop shooting them from every other building. How hard can it actually be to hold the displays on open fields like civilized people should do, keeping people out of harm’s way? I mean the displays aren’t adding to people’s joy or anything. It just simply annoys people and I found more than a hundred Facebook posts—and that’s just from one small friend list.
It’s not my original idea to hold fireworks displays at open fields. Sensible people came up with that as soon as they put two and two together and found out how harmful the noise can be. What gave me hope was people on socials not just condemning those who shot fireworks. People were actually discussing ways to minimize the pollution. As a society, we are realizing that banning a celebration is never civic, but keeping others safe is. That’s when I remembered An Essay on Man:
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”
–Alexander Pope
