Page 2 THE BATTALION
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1977
Opinion/Commentary/Letters
A German hears noisy America
By GUNTER HAAF
l WASHINGTON D.C. — It is
* not yet dawn outside my apartment
here when I am jolted out of my
l sleep by the roar of a diesel engine,
* the shriek of brakes and the clang-
I ing of metal cans. The garbage
* truck has struck again, and I am re
minded despite my grogginess that
this is America, the land of per-
* petual noise.
* Certainly I have been bothered
* by troublesome sounds in my
hometown of Hamburg, in West
l Germany. A car idles at midnight. A
l motorbike sputters past. A neighbor
* tests his new stereo set. But these
- are, happily, only random distur-
I bances. Here in the United States,
l noise is endemic.
' My introduction to American
* noise fitst came in New York City,
where even atop a skyscraper I
- could not escape the hum and the
‘Numerically speaking, the
(noise) problem here in the
United States dwarfs the
problem in West Ger
many/
buzz of the traffic below. But then, I
figured, this was normal for the
world’s most dynamic metropolis.
Things would be different once I
crossed the Hudson and traveled
into the real America.
Out West, however, silence was
not always easy to find. Consider
the trailer camp outside Denver,
where a nearby airport, railroad and
highway intersection combine to
produce an unforgettable technolog
ical symphony. Or take the national
park in Utah, which was majesti
cally quiet until sunrise, when a pla
toon of dune buggies revved up,
vanishing in a thunderous cloud of
pink dust.
Major roads, it almost goes with
out saying, are shaken by huge
trucks, their chrome-plated
mufflers polished like saxophones
for the purpose of producing noise.
I was convinced of America’s
superior work ethic on a Sunday
morning in Miami Beach as a giant
tractor, clashing its gears, hardly
seemed to annoy sunbathers jam
med onto a strip of sand not far
away.
All this — and much more — led
me to ponder on whether we Ger
mans, having been packed into our
tiny country for centuries, finally
lost patience with unnecessary din.
And perhaps it was this impatience
that prompted us to put pressure on
our politicians to pass and enforce
stringent noise controls.
The basic guidelines underlying
the fight against noise in West
Germany were initially set down in
1968 in a regulation that limited,
among other things, the decibel
count to which citizens could be ex
posed, day and night, in commercial
and residential areas.
Under these rules, plastic con
tainers were substituted for metal
garbage cans, and compressors on
construction sites were redesigned
to make them quieter. Airports
were required to cease operations
no later than 11 o’clock at night.
But this was not enough. Ger
mans continued to complain about
too much noise, and their com
plaints were bulwarked by a study
that showed that 10,000 people had
become totally or partially deaf in
1974, and that three million more
were working in conditions that
might endanger their hearing.
Armed with this evidence,
special-interest groups argued for
even tougher measures, and as a re
sult of their lobbying, new regu
lations were introduced last May.
These included compensation for
Germans able to prove that noise
has somehow damaged their lives.
Unless noise levels are reduced, the
claims for compensation could soon
exceed the costs of preventive
steps.
But while the noise is the
“number one environmental prob
lem” in West Germany, as an expert
there told me, it remains a low
priority issue in the United States.
In fact, America only began to enter
the field of noise prevention and
regulation in 1972.
Numerically speaking, the prob
lem here in the United States
dwarfs the problem in West Ger
many. Reading two pieces of
American legislation on the subject
— the Noise Control Act of 1972
and the Model Noise Control Ordi
nance of 1975 — I learned that some
80 million people in this country are
“significantly affected by noise.”
I also discovered in the same
documents that between 22 million
and 44 million Americans have “lost
part of the use of their homes be
cause of aircraft and transportation
noise.” And one of the documents
concluded that “inadequately con
trolled noise presents a growing
danger to the health and welfare of
the nation’s population.”
The text of the Model Noise Con
trol Ordinance sounds strict, assert
ing as it does that “public health”
shall be the “sole determinant” of
noise levels, and that “no person
shall unreasonably make, continue
or cause to be made or continued,
any noise disturbance.” But a closer
look reveals that there are not many
teeth in this law.
For one thing, the
Environmental Protection Agency
spent only $21 million to carry out
the Noise Control Act between 1973
and 1975. Moreover, the standards
here appear to be low compared to
West Germany, where the permiss-
able nighttime noise level is fully 10
decibels less than in the United
States.
Out of curiosity, I also examined
studiously the rules covering “re
fuse collection vehicles,” or garbage
trucks, finding that the shattering
explosion that catapults me out of
bed at dawn actually stems from
ambiguities in the law. So, it seems,
the U S. drive toward silence is
more theoretical than real, and
perhaps I ought to return here in
five years for a good night’s sleep.
Haaf, a West German science
writer, is currently on a Harkness
Fellowship in the United States.
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Editor:
Re: “Football tickets to rise; Stu
dent price may reach $4” in Tues
day’s Battalion.
I was upset at first to read of the
price hike until I realized that the
new tennis courts and baseball com
plex were probably funded with
some of that same football revenue
and our student service fee. My only
complaint is that once again a stu
dent is forced to buy tickets for an
entire season. If prices go up, I
would not mind the extra hassle of
presenting an I. D., activity card and
four dolloars for the games that I am
able to go to AND want to go to. Get
rid of the ticket books and give us a
choice.
— Bill Rafferty ’78
A&M crowd
is interested
The Battalion
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used. Texas A&M fans are genuinely
interested in their team. And what a
team it has been this year.
— Tim Stanfield
Thank you, team
for determination
Editor:
I, too, was at the TCU-Texas A&M
basketball game on February 1,
1977. While there were very few
cheers organized by either school,
there were several instances of some
for both sides.
It seems to me that this business of
organized cheers is far and away
blown out of proportion. Genuine
enthusiasm can be created by cheer
leaders, but not maintained unless
the fans really care.
And that’s why I think this flap is
nonsense because the fans around
me were interested in the game. The
actual level of noise was sparse, but it
was that kind of game: basically dull.
In the first half, Texas A&M played
badly but lead, 40-23, because TCU
played worse than my high school
team. The second half brought roar
ing cheers from the home fans, be
cause their team finally discovered
what its purpose was (to score). The
A&M fans cheered occasionally
which was a reflection of how the
team played.
I do feel that true spirit cannot be
forced on a crowd nor is noise any
thing more than just that if force is
Editor:
I would like to personally thank
the 4,500 Ags who attended the
Texas A&M-Texas Tech basketball
game, and yelled their guts out in
support of the fightin’ Texas Aggie
Basketball Team.
In my four years of attending
Texas A&M University, I have never
seen a basketball team play with
more intensity than our present
group of young players. As a team
they were picked to finish no higher
than seventh or eighth in the confer
ence, yet, surprisingly, they are now
in fourth place.
Tuesday night they lost a hard-
fought game to Texas Tech by a slim
one point margin. I cannot help but
think that the vocal support of a few
thousand more students might have
been worth one more Aggie basket.
One which would have provided the
winning margin.
Texas A&M University has always
had a reputation as having (the
loudest student body at any sporting
event. But anyone who has been to
any of the other top Southwest Con
ference schools can tell you that
A&M is rapidly losing that reputa
tion. By not attending Aggie basket
ball games, not only are students
tarnishing the university’s pride, but
they are missing one of the most ex
citing aspects of their four years here
at A&M.
To the three thousand students
who attend every game and to the
Fightin’ Texas Aggie Basketball
Team, I would like to say that I am
extremely proud of you. Your de
termination and spirit make me
proud to be an Aggie.
—Kurt Lobpries, ’77
Battalion needs
visual variations
Editor:
Just once I would like to turn to
the Battalion’s sports section and see
pictures of some other events be
sides basketball and football.
Granted these are the two most
popular sports at A&M, but their
visual coverage is too often run into
the ground.
Last Tuesday’s Batt ran a picture
of the Rice-A&M basketball game
which had been played over a week
earlier. And every picture in the
sports section the week before was
also of this same game.
The Batt treated football the same
way last semester, frequently run
ning pictures of Saturday’s game as
late as Thursday and Friday of the
following week. Such extensive cov
erage of one sport while ignoring
others is hardly the mark of good
reporting.
Tennis, track, swimming,
gymnastics and other sports
serve visual recognition but
often overlooked. Picturesofi
other than football and bail
would stimulate the students
est in more sports, and
these forgotten teams the pi
they need and deserve.
—Carolyn Blossfil
The A&:
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