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Brigid Bergin: To end the show today, we're going to talk about noise. We'll open up the phones to anybody who has or needs advice about how to cope with noisy streets, noisy neighbors, construction, traffic or anything else, and we're going to try to offer each other some solutions. The number, 212-433-WNYC, that's 212-433-9692. What's the source of the noise that permeates your home? What do you do about it? And how do you make your home quieter without spending a lot of money on soundproofing? The number, 212-433-WNYC, that's 212-433-9692. You can always text at that number as well.

What does excess noise do to our body because it isn't just about quality of life, it's also about our health. When an elevated MTA train goes roaring outside your window, when a car horns blares, when the cacophony of loud bar noise spills out onto the street and into your apartment, it triggers a stress response in the brain. An interactive piece on The New York Times website details the physiological process. The headline, if you want to check it out, Noise Could Take Years Off Your Life. Here's How. The stress response in the brain, according to The New York Times piece "triggers a cascade of reactions in your body. The endocrine system and the sympathetic nervous system both go into overdrive and the effects can be dangerous. Chronic exposure to loud noise can increase the risk of hypertension, stroke, and heart attacks, and it's just plain annoying.”

How does loud noise make your life worse and what do you do about it? Does calling 311 actually work? Who has advice on how to cope, how to make your home a sanctuary from noisy city streets? The number again is 212-433-WNYC, that's 212-433-9692. You can also text at that number. We're going to take your calls right after this.

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It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin filling in Brian today. Right now, we're talking about noise in the city and how you deal with it. I'll say that what inspired this segment was an article in Gothamist from my colleague, Catalina Gonella, with the headline "Making Life in NYC Less Noisy: How to Quiet Your Home." We'll also give you a few other helpful tips, but first, we want to take some calls from listeners who have problems with noise, who have solutions to those problems. We're going to start with Si in Brooklyn. Si, you're on WNYC.

Si: Hi. I have a problem and I'm looking for a solution. I live above a deli, and they have an industrial fan on the roof. I'm the top floor and so I have a constant hum in my home. Every now and then when they turn it off, we immediately cease all conversation, and we just appreciate the silence for the few minutes that it will last. I'm willing to put in money and effort, and anything I can. If anybody has cracked this problem, if anybody has managed to dampen the noise coming from these giant fans in their own building, boy, would I be interested in that information.

Brigid Bergin: Well, okay, Si, you’ve put it out there to the very smart universe that listens to The Brian Lehrer Show, so keep listening. Hopefully, we're going to find you a solution.

Si: I absolutely will. Thank you.

Brigid Bergin: You're welcome. Let's go to Alex in Park Slope. Alex, you're on WNYC. I see you have some suggestions for how to deal with noise in the city. What do you have?

Alex: Yes. A long time ago, I figured this out. I have three things. One is get air filter machines. There are now great ones that don't cost a lot. They improve indoor air quality, and they blot out noise. Number two is [unintelligible 00:04:36] machine. A lot of people like to get apps on their iPhones, but this is better. These are the small machines that a lot of therapists use. You can also get them on Amazon. Number three is [unintelligible 00:04:51].

Brigid Bergin: Alex, your line is breaking up a little bit on us.

Alex: They're amazing. Sorry. Get their earplugs and safety headphones on top of the earplugs. You won't hear a thing.

Brigid Bergin: Wow. Okay, so Si, in case you missed any of that because Alex broke up a little bit, suggestions for blocking out the noise, number one, the air filter, number two, the white noise machine, number three, earplugs with the noise-canceling headphones, so a triple threat to the noise around you coming from Alex in Park Slope. Thank you so much for your call.

I want to offer a few other tips that were in my colleague Catalina Gonella's article in Gothamist, which inspired the segment. Some of the experts she spoke with suggested curtains and heavy draperies can block and absorb noise entering through windows, as Alex suggested white noise machines can mask unpleasant sounds, and of course, the obvious one is earplugs, so some suggestions there. I want to go to Sal in Queens, who I believe wrote a short story about the noisy world we live in. Sal, you're on WNYC.

Sal: Hi, there. Good morning. It was therapeutic. We have these individuals that seem to think that they need to share their unmuffled cars with the rest of us. I would refer people-- I don't know if it's either Kierkegaard or Schopenhauer wrote a wonderful thing on noise, and why it is inconsistent with a life of the mind. Anyway, the short answer is move out of New York City. The long answer is I go back to that short story in which I fantasized about taking care of the problem myself, and it is quite therapeutic. It gives me a chuckle. I find writing to always be therapeutic. That's all I have. Thank you so much.

Brigid Bergin: Sal, thanks so much for your call. Let's go to David in Brooklyn. David, I think you are here to solve Si's problem. Is that correct?

David: Solve, I don't know.

Brigid Bergin: Respond.

David: Yes. One of the attempted responses might be to call DEP, the Department of Environmental Protection. You make an appointment. Unfortunately, it's in advance, so if it's a mechanical sound, that's irregular, it's kind of tough, but they will measure the sound. Then if it goes over so many decibels, they will tell the owner of that building or business that their fan or whatever, refrigeration unit is making too much noise. If it turns into a situation in which someone has to deal with that business personally, and it doesn't end up going well or the way we like to imagine, they also started a program in NYC, it's called MEND. That's where they will send or have somebody trying to arbitrate between the person who's having a problem and the person who's supplying the problem.

Brigid Bergin: Sure. David, you sound like you know these issues very well. Have you called DEP? Do you work for DEP?

David: No, no. No, I'm just a victim of sound like everybody else in New York.

Brigid Bergin: Well, thank you so much for your call. Si, hopefully we're getting you some solutions. Let's go to Andrew in Merrick, Long Island. Andrew, thanks for calling WNYC.

Andrew: Thank you, Brigid. Yes, I'm calling from Merrick, which is a densely populated suburb in Nassau County. My issue is that there are probably seven or eight properties immediately around my house, and each property has a different landscaper, which use three or four leaf blowers all day long through spring, summer and fall. It happens Monday through Saturday. It's six days a week of leaf blowing. It seems to be non-stop. I've suggested to our town councilman that perhaps they have should require electric leaf blowers in place of gas leaf blowers as is the law in the town of North Hempstead, but unfortunately, it was dismissed as being too costly an option for the town of Hempstead for some reason.

Brigid Bergin: Do you have a solution yourself to how you deal with it?

Andrew: Well, firstly, it's very difficult because now since the pandemic, I work from home, so I'm subject to it. I guess I wasn't really aware of it before the pandemic when I was going to the office five days a week. The best I can really do is, again, turn on a white noise machine and wait it out or go to the basement where it's somewhat quieter than it is in the rest of my house. It is very difficult, and it's both noise pollution and air pollution. I can actually smell the fumes coming in my house and it's going on as well.

Brigid Bergin: Wow, Andrew. I think that that is probably an experience that a lot of people can relate to, and it sounds pretty miserable. I wish you better luck moving forward. Let's go to Sam in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn.

Sam: Hi.

Brigid Bergin: Hi, Sam.

Sam: Hi. How are you? I'm a housing- -lawyer. I represent tenants for a living. You would be surprised how many clients and potential clients I get who consult me about the noise issue. Let me give you the two extremes. One person was complaining on the show just now about a business beneath her that was causing a lot of noise. I consulted someone yesterday who had a laundromat beneath her that was doing the same thing. What people have to do in that situation is actually go out, hire a sound engineer, get measurements in their apartment and see if the noise exceeds, this would be in New York City, the decibel levels and the vibration levels that are permitted by the city noise code. If so, the landlord has to deal with that and/or the business has to deal with that.

Here's the other extreme. I get many, many people coming in and they say, "The tenants upstairs are making horrible noise." "What's the noise?" "Well, the children run back and forth in the house all the time. They play musical instruments. Chairs, furniture scraping." There's this long line of court decisions in New York state which have said that when you live in an urban environment, you have to put up with the sounds of ordinary apartment living. The pitter-patter of children's feet, the noise a chair makes when you get up from the dining room table, that's the kind of stuff you have to live with. I just wanted to give that perspective in the two extremes.

Brigid Bergin: Sam, thank you so much for your expertise and for listening. I want to share a text that a listener wrote. The listener writes, "I left a great rent-controlled department in Queensboro Plaza I spent years in the lottery to acquire because I couldn't tolerate the train noise echoing between all the glass, steel and concrete in the forest of towers." That listener, the noise did that listener's experience in. I think we have time for maybe one more caller, one or two. Let's go to Gabriel in Macintosh County, Georgia. You're on WNYC.

Gabriel: Hey, there. How you doing? Good morning. Growing up in New York, there was always an unwritten rule, and I'm not sure if newcomers to the city know about it, but I'd like everybody to hear about this old school nugget of New York living, which is the 10:00 to 10:00 rule. That's when you're living in a building and you can make whatever noise you want within reason, between the hours of 10:00 AM and 10:00 PM. Before that and after that, you are considered not to be a good neighbor.

Brigid Bergin: Wow. We only have a little bit of time left, but Gabriel, are you calling us from Georgia? Did the noise drive you out of New York City?

Gabriel: No. Oh Lord, no. The rents and the over-technologization of the city drove me out, because honestly, I'm going to tell you what, LA is more New York than New York is. That's a challenge for the city over the airwaves. I'm living in rural Georgia. It got so bad.

Brigid Bergin: Gabriel, thank you so much for sharing with us the 10:00 to 10:00 rule. Listeners, I don't know if you agree with Gabriel, but apparently, the one thing you can take away besides some great information about how to report your noise complaints, calling 311, potentially getting a sound inspector is maybe just keep it quiet if it's before 10:00 AM or after 10:00 PM. A little takeaway there. We've been talking about noise. I'm Brigid Bergin, and this is The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Thank you so much for listening. I'll talk to you again tomorrow.

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