Present ‘at the Creation’

by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition

Photo credit: lil artsy

This post is prompted by my revising a manuscript submitted to Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics based on my presentation at the 2023 spring meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Ottawa, Canada, about a comprehensive new definition of noise.

In writing the revision, I wanted to update the history of my working on a new definition of noise, one including mention of the harm that noise causes, published in 2020.

Alfonso X of Castile famously said, “Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.” 

I wasn’t actually present at the creation of the idea for a new definition of noise, one that included mention of harm, but I became aware of it shortly thereafter. The idea started with an email exchange between my esteemed noise colleagues David Sykes and Arline Bronzaft.

On March 15 2018, a blog post about needing a better defintion of noise was posted. It was later archived and incorrectly attributed to Quiet Communities, Inc.’s Quiet Empowerment Program without an author credit.

For the sake of historical accuracy, and with gratitude to David and Arline for starting the proverbial ball rolling, I want all to know that credit for the first steps to redefine noise, updating the definition to include mention of the harm that noise exposure causes, should go to David Sykes and Arline Bronzaft back in March 2018.