Lesson 25

Non-auditory effects of noise

Many people in industry and the Services, who have practical experience of noise, regard any investigation of this question as a waste of time; they are not prepared even to admit the possibility that noise affects people.
工业界和服务业中许多拥有噪音实践经验的人，认为对这个问题的任何调查都是浪费时间；他们甚至没有准备好去承认噪音会影响人们的可能性。
On the other hand, those who dislike noise will sometimes use most inadequate evidence to support their pleas for a quieter society.
另一方面，那些讨厌噪音的人有时会使用最不充分的证据来支持他们对一个更安静社会的呼吁。
This is a pity, because noise abatement really is a good cause, and it is likely to be discredited if it gets to be associated with bad science.
这是一个遗憾，因为噪音治理确实是一项正当事业，如果它与糟糕的科学联系在一起，很可能会被抹黑。
One allegation often made is that noise produces mental illness.
一个经常被提出的指控是噪音会导致精神疾病。
A recent article in a weekly newspaper, for instance, was headed with a striking illustration of a lady in a state of considerable distress, with the caption 'She was yet another victim, reduced to a screaming wreck'.
例如，最近每周报纸上的一篇文章以一位处于相当大痛苦中的女士的引人注目的插图为标题，配文为“她是又一个受害者，沦为一个尖叫的残骸”。
On turning eagerly to the text, one learns that the lady was a typist who found the sound of office typewriters worried her more and more until eventually she had to go into a mental hospital.
在急切地转向文本时，人们了解到那位女士是一名打字员，她发现办公室打字机的声音让她越来越困扰，直到最终她不得不进入精神病院。
Now the snag in this sort of anecdote is of course that one cannot distinguish cause and effect.
在这种轶事中，现在的障碍当然是人们无法区分因果关系。
Was the noise a cause of the illness, or were the complaints about noise merely a symptom?
噪音是导致疾病的原因，还是关于噪音的抱怨仅仅是一种症状？
Another patient might equally well complain that her neighbours were combining to slander her and persecute her, and yet one might be cautious about believing this statement.
另一位病人同样可能抱怨她的邻居们正在联合起来诽谤并迫害她，然而人们可能会对相信这一陈述持谨慎态度。
What is needed in the case of noise is a study of large numbers of people living under noisy conditions, to discover whether they are mentally ill more often than other people are.
在噪音情况下，需要对大量生活在嘈杂环境中的人进行研究，以发现他们是否比其他人更容易患精神疾病。
Some time ago the United States Navy, for instance, examined a very large number of men working on aircraft carriers: the study was known as Project Anehin.
不久前，美国海军曾对在航空母舰上工作的大量人员进行了检查：这项研究被称为阿内欣计划。
It can be unpleasant to live even several miles from an aerodrome; if you think what it must be like to share the deck of a ship with several squadrons of jet aircraft, you will realize that a modern navy is a good place to study noise.
住在距离机场甚至几英里远的地方可能会令人不快；如果你想一下在船上与几个中队的喷气式飞机共享甲板会是什么样子，你就会意识到现代海军是研究噪音的好地方。
But neither psychiatric interviews nor objective tests were able to show any effects upon these American sailors.
但是，无论是精神病学访谈还是客观测试，都无法显示这些美国水手受到任何影响。
This result merely confirms earlier American and British studies: if there is any effect of noise upon mental health, it must be so small that present methods of psychiatric diagnosis cannot find it.
这一结果仅仅证实了早期的美国和英国研究：如果噪音对心理健康有任何影响，它必然微小到目前精神病诊断的方法无法发现它。
That does not prove that it does not exist; but it does mean that noise is less dangerous than, say, being brought up in an orphanage — which really is a mental health hazard.
那并不证明它不存在；但这确实意味着噪音比方说在孤儿院被抚养长大危险性要小——这确实是一种心理健康危害。