To the Editor:

Neighbors, students, teachers and staff are regularly exposed to high-intensity gunfire noise from training exercises at the Cranston Police Academy Training Complex. The facility is located across the street from Cranston High School West, close to the Western Hills Middle School and near residential neighborhoods. The noise is loud, persistent, unpredictable in onset and duration and intrudes into homes and schools.

Peak noise levels of 82 decibels in nearby residential neighborhoods were recorded by researchers from Brown University’s Community Noise Lab. These far exceed levels known to be safe for hearing, for non-hearing health, and for children’s learning. They also exceed the maximum limits of 55-75 dBA specified in Cranston’s noise ordinance. For children in classrooms, the maximum safe level for prolonged exposure in schools is 35 dB – a level more than 20 times quieter than the levels measured by the researchers.

Chronic noise is not simply an annoyance or nuisance. It is a cause of chronic stress known to be harmful to health. It damages hearing and negatively affects mental health, physical health, children’s learning and the ability to work productively. Those with sensory sensitivities such as autism and PTSD, including military veterans and survivors of gun violence, are particularly vulnerable to noise. It is known that the adverse effects of noise on the body occur even while people are fast asleep.

Noise was first declared a public health hazard more than 55 years ago, in 1968, by U.S. Surgeon General William Stewart, who spoke of the detrimental effects of noise on hearing as well as cardiovascular and endocrine health. Since that time, nearly 2,500 scientific articles on the harm from excessive and chronic noise have been published in the medical literature.

Research, starting in the 1970s by Arline Bronzaft, shows beyond any doubt that noise interferes with schoolchildren’s learning. 

“Scientific research strongly links noise to adverse physical and mental health effects, and to impaired children’s learning,” Bronzaft said when asked about the Cranston noise issue.

The normalization of gunfire noise in the school environment is also especially concerning in regard to active shooters. As one of our student interns asked while watching a video taken at Cranston High School West, ‘How will those students and teachers be able to differentiate an active shooter from the police training exercises?”

Arline Bronzaft, PhD, co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Honorary Chair, Quiet American Skies 

Dan Fink, MD, chairman, The Quiet Coalition

Jamie Banks, PhD, MSc, president and founder, Quiet Communities