Loud Noise-Slow Reaction

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Recent studies conclude that loud noise decreases reaction time and decision-making ability, which could put drivers and workers at risk.
  People who work in loud places without protection should be concerned for themselves and co-workers, says Dr. David Behm, a professor of human kinetics at Memorial University in Newfoundland. He also noted that decibel-loving drivers should heed the research as well.
  "If it's noisy, and really loud ... we would expect that your reaction time and your movement time would be decreased and your ability to concentrate on a complex task would also be decreased," he said.
 
The study had people perform physical and mental tasks while listening to levels of noise varying from 53 decibels (about the level of background noise in an office) to an industrial-strength 95 decibels (the equivalent of an oil rig).
Researchers measured physical and mental abilities over the course of an hour and found that reaction time decreased at higher noise levels.
 
At office level, it was depressed five per cent. At 95 decibels, the ability to perform physical tasks decreased about 10%.
  For complex tasks that require decision-making, in this case playing a video game, reaction times decreased an average of 20% at the highest level of noise.
 Depending on the task, a worker could make the wrong decision which could result in injury or even death, he says. As for drivers, they may just be “zones out”.
  It translates into mere fractions of a second that on the road can make a big difference.
  "You have people and vehicles and pedestrians and stop signs and lights all coming at you at one time. You have this noise blasting in your ear. You have your kids behind you," said Duane Button, who performed the study while a master's student at Memorial. "If you lose a bit of reaction time then that .035 seconds can be the difference between an accident or not."
 
On the job, the study proves that loud work environments without the proper ear protection could mean more accidents, Behm said.
  Workplace regulations limit the amount of exposure to 95-decibel noise to one hour, but the length of exposure to the noise didn't make a difference in the study. The effect was immediate and ongoing.
"What we thought was that perhaps over time you'll get what's called accommodation," Behm said. "If you're sitting in your car and you turn on your radio and the traffic around is loud so you turn up the radio a bit more. Then a good song comes up and you turn it up a bit more. You keep on turning the radio up. The next day you get in the car and the radio is blasting and you wonder how the hell did I have the radio up so high? What happens is your ears accommodate to noise."

Your ears may accommodate to noise but it appears your brain doesn't.
  "Reaction time stayed depressed the whole time," Button said.
  But there is some hope for teenaged drivers for whom blasting urban beats are as important as gasoline or turn signals.