September 8, 1996
SAMANTHA'S NOISE STORY
On the evening of November 18, 1994 I was out on a date. My friend suggested that we go to a "jazz club" to round out our evening. The club he suggested was a highly prominent and much publicized club in downtown Toronto. This was a club whose name is featured regularly on television entertainment programs and in newspaper articles to this day. The club owner has even hosted a children's sing-along just this past winter which was publicized on the CBC evening news.
I thought about my date's suggestion for a minute and was somewhat concerned, although I did not voice this concern, that it might be too loud. I decided, however, to go along with the suggestion since it was "jazz" and not "rock" music that we were going to. "Jazz" music I believed could not be excessively loud like "rock".
When we arrived at the club a few minutes later, an attendant was there to take our money outside the club. You could hear the music in the distance but since we were in a little lane well outside the club it was not possible to assess the level of sound. We paid a total of $40.00 to get in ($20.00 a head). When we walked up to the entrance doors, I became very uncomfortable. I quickly understood at that moment that my date's idea of "jazz" was not my idea of "jazz" ; the music was quite loud whereas I had expected something more along the lines of a piano bar. I nonetheless made the fateful decision to go in due in large part to a misplaced feeling of embarrassment (my date had paid for my cover charge). I could see that the club was packed, I had heard of the club before, my cousin had had her 27 birthday party there some years early, so, I reasoned, that the worst thing that could happen was that I'd get up the next morning to a big headache and that would be the end of it.
My date then asked me if I wanted to dance. I really didn't want to, but once again, out of a misplaced sense of politeness, I agreed. When we got onto the dance floor, I immediately felt a very, very high surge of sound. I was definitely in pain. The 2 loud- speakers, invisible from the back of the club, stood almost 2 metres in length and 1 metre in width, had been placed directly on the dance floor. Some patrons were dancing within a few centimeters of them. I immediately motioned my partner to follow me to the farthest corner of the dance floor, and I mean "motioned" since you could not talk and be heard. My date followed. We were on that dance floor for the duration of 1 song, no more than 15 minutes.
After that time, we both went back to our seats at the back of the club. I felt sick and in pain. I had noticed that my left ear had popped on the dance floor and although I was scared to admit it to myself, I suspected an injury. I still believed, however, that I would just wake up to a bad headache in the morning and that things would eventually settle down. After all, it wasn't as if I went to nightclubs all the time. This was only the second time I had been to one of these places, the first time having been in Montreal some 10 years earlier.
When I got up the next morning I knew something was wrong but I wasn't panicking. I noticed that both my ears felt sore and that my left ear in particular was very swollen. I still, however, went about my business. As the day progressed, I began to hear noise inside my head. It became a whirlwind of sound about 4 hours later. I could hear drums beating, buzzing, wind blowing, piano notes , every possible sound you can imagine. At this point, I was in a state of mental anxiety. My father, who is a doctor himself, phoned several of his colleagues in the ears, nose and throat department (ENT doctors). They all agreed that what I had was "tinnitus" caused from exposure to excessive levels of loud noise. They did however insist that exposure to levels of sound of 120 decibels for the duration of 15 minutes was unlikely to result in a damage. The audiologist did, however give me the number of a self-help group.
The woman at the other end of the phone to whom I am eternally grateful, began to tell me that I was suffering from a hearing injury due to trauma to the ears. She also said, as had the doctors, that sleeplessness was a very common occurrence after such an injury and that there was no cure or treatment for the condition but that it was rare that the condition would be permanent after 1 exposure of 15 minutes. Further discussion revealed that sensitivity to noise, like allergic reactions, can vary drastically from person to person (my date had not experienced any of the reactions I had). There is no way of determining before-hand who is sensitive and who is not but that regardless of this, all people will have hearing loss if they are exposed to very loud sound.
After 6 weeks a bizarre twitching reaction which had started in my left leg, had progressed to uncontrolled movement in my upper body. I was rapidly losing control of my arms and legs which would flail about without my being able to stop it. At this point, my mother began to realize that there was something very wrong. She telephoned my father at work and told him to come home immediately. By the time he came home 20 minutes later, I was having what looked like an epileptic seizure. He rushed me to the emergency ward of the hospital and asked that the head psychiatrist meet us there. The psychiatrist phoned him in the car and told him to bring me to his office.
When I got to the psychiatrist's office I was in a desperate state. I was literally writhing on the floor. I felt angry towards my parents for having allowed things to have gone so far without treatment of some kind. The psychiatrist then sat me down in private the adjoining room. I will never forget that conversation. I was in extreme mental anguish and it took every fiber in my being to sit in that chair and control as much of the involuntary motion as possible. He asked me 10 questions after which he said that I was suffering from "clinical depression". Unlike regular depression, he went on, clinical depression can result in severe lows which are often accompanied by a drop in the brain chemical "seritonin". This drop in seritonin was resulting in the involuntary body motion. He prescribed sedatives combined with anti- depressants to boost my abnormally low levels of the brain chemical. He also had me admitted to hospital so as to monitor how I was adjusting to his high dosage prescription.
I stayed on the 10 floor of the psychiatric ward of the hospital for 1 week. The doctors, particularly the ENT's were perplexed to say the least. Highly sensitive hearing tests had revealed no hearing loss and no nerve damage. My reaction had been extreme. They had never seen a case like mine before, they went on. I therefore had to be suffering from a "psychiatric problem". I knew that their diagnosis was incorrect. I knew that I had been just fine before I had stepped into that nightclub on that fateful evening. There was no "psychiatric problem" but nonetheless, urged on by my parents, I played the game.
For the next 3 months I reluctantly went to see another designated psychiatrist for follow- up. This is where the story starts to get funny. Hold on to your seat because he asked me every question under the sun that I felt had nothing to do with my condition. But of course I was "depressed" and the "depression was now causing the head- noise to linger". According to him, the solution was to determine why I was depressed and then, having found the reason, my head-noise would then disappear. Forgive me for sounding flippant but these sessions were ridiculous. Endless questions about my past boyfriends, the fact that I wasn't married I that I didn't care about that stuff anyway, figured prominently in the conversations. Despite this man's best efforts to reveal the raison d'etre of my ubiquitous situation, his frustration would become visibly palpable when I would invariably and steadfastly insist that my condition was the result of a sustained injury and not due to the harbouring of bad feeling regarding a soured relationship with some ex-boyfriend.
A Complacent Medical Establishment
The doctors irritated me all the more because I had seen ENT offices literally littered with people who were suffering from hearing damage due to rock concerts (many children in this category), construction workers who had sustained damage on the job and so on and so forth and yet doctors had said next to nothing on this issue to the newspapers or the news. Chats with the audiologist also confirmed that such injuries are extremely common and that although she herself knows enough to wear earplugs at rock concerts, many people do not. When I suggested that the problem was lack of knowledge on the subject because people like herself were not informing the public on such matters, she volunteered no response. Added to this anger was my increasing frustration with local politicians, a situation I will outline presently.
Where the Politicians Stand (or Fall)
Shortly after my injury, I had called office of the city councillor in whose ward the club was located. I informed the secretary of the councillor that the club noise level had been barbarically loud and that I had been injured as a result. When I requested that she find me the legislation that regulated noise emanating from commercialized units she said she did not know of any such legislation and told me to find it. I was of course flabbergasted that she would ask me to do her job. Further investigation on my part led to the shocking discovery that THERE IS NO LEGISLATION WHICH REGULATES THE SOUND LEVEL WITHIN CLUBS OR DISCOTHEQUES. The legislation which does exist is weak and pertains only to residents living outside the club whose sleep is being affected from the noise "after hours". The other body of legislation regulates noise when on the job. In other words, the same noise level which is not allowed on construction sites can occur in a club and you have no legal protection. Most clubs and discotheques are frequented by young people so once again, adults receive protection under the law but young people do not.
Several months later, I wrote a formal letter of complaint to the councillor himself. I was sent another letter from his office a week or so later saying that I would do best to write a letter to the commissioner of health. I did so and got no reply. The fact of the matter is the law views the situation as being my fault because I walked into the club. This was explained to me by a city health worker who has received dozens of calls from people who have walked into bars and clubs just as I did. I quickly realized that this was "blame the victim" time since it is much easier to blame the victim than to deal with the situation. That's not justice, it's just expediency.
Where the Music Industry Plays no Part
As for the music industry itself, the next bit of information is very interesting. I had been to a wedding several months after the injury (I was of course wearing earplugs). During a break in the music I got a chance to speak privately to the lead singer of the hired band. I told her my story. She was very familiar with the club in question and told me that it was known to be extremely loud amongst singers and musicians and that she herself refused to work there for that reason. She described it as a "stoner club" (i.e. frequented heavily by drug abusers). When I asked her how it is that club employees and bands manage to work there every night, she said to me that they all wear earplugs, the kind you cannot see. These earplugs are available from specific locations and cost hundreds of dollars. They fit directly into the ear canal. She then motioned to the group of band musicians sitting in front of us and said "see all these guys, they're all wearing earplugs". Of course the hypocrisy in this is obvious, musicians and singers know that the sound amplification they are producing is dangerous to the human ear but they won't tell you that nor will they tell you that they themselves protect their own hearing.
Putting Noise into Context
The fact of the matter is that public safety is a very low priority. Only if an injury results in death does the cause of that injury become scrutinized and eventually regulated. Because hearing damage and the stress associated with noise do not directly result in death, noise pollution has not, until very recently, commanded much attention. As for specific groups taking it upon themselves to educate the public on the issue, there are very few namely because, in the words of an acoustical engineer I later encountered, "there is no money in it". As a consumer, the name of the game is therefore buyer beware. No government organization, no medical group, no one is looking out for you, and this message applies to all sorts of other health issues as well. Eventually, when the problem becomes an absolute crisis and thousands of people are complaining, then something is done. Complacency is unfortunately a widespread human trait. Lack of resources in tough economic times also slows down the ability of local governments to react even when council members are convinced they should.
Fighting noise pollution is similar to the early days of fighting cigarette smoking; there is going to have to be a grass roots movement. Stories on the issue from the media are going to have to be key. As for myself, I have become much more cynical about the medical and governmental establishment. I see these groups as just another business both of which react to situations rather than preempt them and which will do so only if there is a direct financial reward to be gained or large scale votes to be had. In the end, fighting noise pollution is going to be a political game in which only the victims who have been directly affected, will be doing the real muscle work.