If it’s one thing that we’re good at doing in our modern environment… it’s not recognizing the effect of noise in our life. I live on a pretty busy road - and I rarely notice the sound of cars driving by. It’s just become part of my environment. At least once a year I get out into the middle of nowhere in southwestern WY… where the absence of modern noise is notable. Is the noise of our modern environment is negatively impacting on our health without us even knowing it? My guest today has co-authored a paper entitled: Noise Pollution: A Modern Plague (http://www.nonoise.org/library/smj/smj.htm).  Dr. Louis Hagler joins me today to discuss noise pollution and the negative health effects of noise. Louis and I discuss what ‘noise’ is, that we can’t ‘turn off’ our ears, we chat about the evolution of noise pollution over time, the noises of our modern environment, the financial and physical cost of noise pollution, we learn that there used to be a governmental Office of Noise Abatement and Control, the 7 categories of adverse effects of noise on health proposed by the World Health Organization, what a safe level of sound is, how to measure the soundscape in your home and environment, how to protect your child’s hearing and to help them succeed in school, our individual rights when it comes to noise pollution, and how to escape the sounds of our modern environment (http://www.listeningearth.com/LE/general.php?pageID=8). And as always – I want to thank my primary show sponsor Mother Dirt (http://www.motherdirt.com/). If you haven’t yet visited their website – give it a view… your ecosystem will thank you (wonder how noise influences your ecosystem? Oh, so many questions).