People living in the USA have long complained about the problems caused by piped music there. Now the Ann Arbor, Michigan group has relaunched itself with a sparkling new website  http://quietannarbor.org

Although their intention is to focus on local problems first – understandably, the US being a big place – they are very happy to exchange contacts and ideas with Americans from other states. So do contact them quietannarbor@gmail.com

The number of people with a disability that can be worsened or  triggered by loud piped music is large and growing. The category includes people suffering from autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, tinnitus, presbycusis, hyperacusis, ME and misophonia as well as general difficulty in hearing. Added together they make up at least 20% of the population. Up  to now this sizeable minority has been mostly ignored not only by supermarkets and other retailers but also – far more disgracefully – by those running hospitals, health centres, gyms and public swimming pools. This is despite the requirement to consider the needs of people with such conditions under the Disability Act of 1995 and the Equality Act of 2010.

There are signs that the commercial sector at least is beginning to wake up the problem. Some have been trialling quiet hours and/or quiet days, or even thinking of dropping piped music altogether. (See previous posts.)   If you or people you know suffer from any of these, problems, when protesting do mention it, and also the two Acts. Stress that by playing inescapable loud music throughout their premises shops, gyms etc are excluding large groups of people. If it is unacceptable to exclude people on grounds of colour, sexuality, gender, race or religion from public places, it is equally unacceptable, and against the law, to exclude people because of their disabilities mentioned above.  

As the holiday season gets going, people planning a trip start looking at sites such as Tripadvisor www.tripadvisor.co.uk, Booking.com  www.booking.com and Expedia  https://www.expedia.co.uk

If you visit a hotel/restaurant/bar and comment online about it, don’t forget to add whether or not the place concerned has piped music. Do so very prominently. If enough comments – intelligent, polite but pointed comments –  are posted about piped music, hoteliers and restaurateurs should start to take note.  (Some people object to the potential misuse of these sites. Certain comments may be prejudiced, some may be malicious and even orchestrated, but overall they  can still help the prospective traveller – and also the hotelier/restaurateur concerned.)

In a Which? survey of shoppers’ ratings of supermarkets, Waitrose came top, followed by Marks and Spencer, Aldi and Lidl (excluding the on-line shopping service that Iceland offers.) All these chains have their differing virtues of course but all have one thing in common: they are free of piped music. Coincidence? Of course not!

Lidl, the famously discounted supermarket chain, has experimented with piped music in a few branches recently. Finding that it was not proving popular, they have stopped it and promised to keep their branches muzac-free in future. Their sage decision was encouraged by the many letters of protest they received from Pipedowners. And their sales and profits continue to grow – the latter by 9.4%. Proof that giving up piped music can boost profits and that protests can influence shops!

Meanwhile Waterstones, the chain of bookshops, has returned to profit, making £9.8m profit in the year to April 2016 compared to a loss of £4.5m the previous year. Waterstones has been quietly but steadily phasing out piped music from its branches. Yet further proof that giving up piped music helps boost profits!

Moral: protest can and does work!

The Good Pub Guide, long the definitive guide to pubs up and down the UK, is calling for a ban on piped music in pubs in its new 2017 edition. It declares that  ‘piped music, canned music, muzak, lift music, airport music – call it what you will, it’s there and our readers loathe it in any shape or form. It enlists bitter complaints from our readers and has done so ever since we started the Guide 35 years ago. It’s such an issue that we have always asked every main entry pub since 1983 whether or not they have it, and then clearly state this in each review.’

This seasonal good news should encourage all pubs to consider removing piped music if they currently have it. And it should encourage pub-goers to buy the latest edition of the guide. This has always been excellent. Now it is more useful than ever.

Silencity New York is, as its name suggests, a New York-based campaigning website concerned about noise in all its aspects.

Its website https://www.silencity.com/   has interesting articles with some very useful links.

Further publicity and inquiries from the francophone world (Switzerland and Québec as well as France) have led to contacts there. Richard Darbéra, Président du Bucodes-SurdiFrance, Bureau de Coordination des associations de Devenus Sourds et malentendants (the French equivalent of Action on Hearing Loss), is writing about the problems of piped music and would like to hear from anyone interested.  Email him president@surdifrance.org  http://www.surdifrance.org/

And Anna Lietti, a journalist for the Swiss magazine L’Hebdo, is writing a piece about piped music. Contact her Anna Lietti anna.lietti@ringier.ch

An epidemic of man-made deafness may threaten the world. The World Health Organization estimates that 360 million people already have moderate/profound hearing loss with another 1.1 billion people at risk.  In the UK 11 million people have some form of hearing loss. This proportion could rise to one in five by 2035.

It has long been known that noise exposure during work can cause hearing loss. There is no mandated safe noise exposure for the public. Dr. Daniel Fink, in a paper presented to the Institute for Noise Control Engineering meeting in Providence, RI (USA) on 14 June 2016, discussed the fact that 85 decibels (dBA), widely thought safe for the public, is an ‘industrial strength’ occupational noise exposure standard. (Normal conversation is around 60 dB while noise from a jet plane taking off 300m away is about 100 dB, or 16 times as loud – the scale is logarithmic, not arithmetic.)

Because little research has been done on noise and hearing loss in normal life, the work standard has been thought safe for the general public. This may be wrong for two reasons. First, 85 dBA exposure will cause hearing loss in at least 15% of workers exposed to this noise level during their working lives. Second, noise continues outside the workplace. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency adjusted the 85 dBA occupational noise exposure level for the additional exposure time – 24 hours a day instead of 8 hours, 365 days a year instead of 240 days at work- to come up with 70 decibels (unweighted) average as the safe environmental noise exposure level to prevent hearing loss.

Dr. Fink writes: ‘Noise exposure…causes auditory damage. Hearing loss is not part of normal physiological aging. In quieter primitive societies, auditory acuity is preserved into old age.’ He draws analogies between tooth loss and hearing loss. Both used to be accepted as a ‘normal’ part of ageing, so that by their mid-60s many people were almost toothless. Today, thanks to better dental care most older people keep their teeth. Dentures work but natural teeth work better. Similarly, needing hearing aids in old age is not normal either. And hearing aids are no substitute for preserved hearing. They do not correct hearing in the same way that glasses correct faulty vision, because hearing loss involves irreparable nerve and sensory organ damage in the inner ear.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention on 16 May 2016 recommended only 70 dB average noise exposure for the public with only one hour noise exposure at 85 dB.  This recommendation, as it becomes known, should revolutionise overall attitudes towards noise. Noise is like secondhand tobacco smoke: not just a nuisance but a major health hazard causing hearing loss, tinnitus and many other health problems.

From Wednesday 1st  June all branches of Marks and Spencer will be free of piped music, following a decision by its executive. ‘We’ve listened to customer feedback, and the licence to play music in all our stores has now been cancelled with effect from 1st June 2016′  said Gary Bragg. This decision, which will save Marks and Spencer money, is the result of years and years  of determined campaigning by Pipedowners and other people, who have refused to be fobbed off with bland dismissals. Marks and Spencer remains the UK’s biggest chain store, a national institution. So this is a great day for all campaigners for freedom from piped music.

Millions of customers will be delighted by this news. So will thousands, probably tens of thousands, of people working in M&S who have had to tolerate non-stop music not of their choice all day for years. Congratulate the management, especially the new CEO Steve Rowe,  by emailing M&S at chairman@customersupport.marksandspencer.com

Now we can shop in peace!