Non-auditory effects of noise
原文
Lesson 25
Non-auditory effects of noise
What conclusion does the author draw about noise and health in this piece?
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.
On the other hand,
those who dislike noise will sometimes use most inadequate evidence
to support their pleas for a quieter society.
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.
One allegation often made is that noise produces mental illness.
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'.
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.
Now the snag in this sort of anecdote is of course that one cannot distinguish cause and effect.
Was the noise a cause of the illness,
or were the complaints about noise merely a symptom?
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.
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.
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.
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.
But neither psychiatric interviews nor objective tests
were able to show any effects upon these American sailors.
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.
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.
译文
第25课
噪声的非听觉影响
作者在这篇文章中关于“噪音与健康”得出了什么结论？
那些对噪音有实际经验的人
那些具有处理噪声问题实际经验的人
认为对这个问题进行任何调查都是浪费时间；
他们甚至不愿意承认“噪音会影响人们”这一可能性。
另一方面，
那些不喜欢噪音的人，有时会使用非常不充分的证据
以支持他们关于营造一个更加宁静社会的诉求。
这真是太遗憾了，因为减少噪音确实是一个非常有益的事业（或：减少噪音是一件很有意义的事情）。
如果这种理论或方法与糟糕的科学实践（即不严谨、不科学的研究方法）联系在一起，它很可能会被人们质疑或否定（即失去可信度）。
一个常见的指控是：噪音会导致精神疾病。
例如，最近一家周刊上发表了一篇文章……
文章的标题配有一幅引人注目的插图，描绘了一位极度痛苦的女士
配文写道：“她只是又一个受害者，被折磨成了一个只会尖叫的废人”。
当人们急切地阅读这段文字时，会发现那位女士原来是一名打字员。
她发现办公室打字机的声音让她越来越焦虑
直到最后，她不得不被送进精神病院。
当然，这类轶事的一个问题在于人们无法区分其中的因果关系（即哪些事件是原因，哪些是结果）。
这种噪音是导致疾病的原因吗？
还是说，那些关于噪音的投诉只是一种症状？
另一个患者也很可能会提出同样的抱怨。
说她的邻居们联合起来诽谤她、迫害她
然而，人们或许会对这一说法持谨慎态度（即不太相信它）。
在噪声环境下，我们需要对大量生活在嘈杂环境中的人进行研究。
为了查明他们是否比普通人更容易患上精神疾病。
例如，不久前美国海军就……
对大量在航空母舰上工作的男性进行了检查。
这项研究被称为“Project Anehin”。
即使住在离机场几英里远的地方，也可能很不愉快；
如果你想象一下：与几支喷气式飞机中队共享同一艘船的甲板，那会是什么样子……
你会发现，现代海军是一个研究噪声问题的理想场所。
但无论是精神病学访谈还是客观测试
都未能显示对这些美国水手有任何影响。
这一结果仅仅证实了此前美国和英国的研究结果而已。
如果噪音对心理健康有任何影响的话……
它一定非常微小，以至于现有的精神疾病诊断方法无法检测到它。
这并不能证明该事物根本不存在；不过这确实意味着……
它一定比，比如说在孤儿院长大，要安全得多
——那才真正是精神健康的危害。