Posted on 03/29/2006 7:39:52 AM PST by tellw
Our right to peace and quiet is guaranteed by fining taxi drivers from India who honk as they drive: a habit acquired through years of dodging cycles, cows, cars and the carefree in the crowded streets of Calcutta and Karachi. Flights are not allowed to land in Washington DC beyond late evening so that those living around the airport enjoy what is now widely regarded as the human right to undisturbed sleep. Yet, noise pollution, practised with abandon in your face and in your ears, is tolerated in enclosed spaces in buses, trains, restaurants and cinemas and is spreading like bird flu, only more surely and more harmfully to our peace of mind and mental health.
The final straw in the US (followed, presumably, by everywhere else in rapid sequence) is the impending decision to allow the use of mobile phones on flights. In this way, loud passengers will be free to jabber away in a closed cabin, saying “hi” to Joey, Joel and Josie at home just for the heck of it, or conducting their business, which is no concern of yours, by public declamation. What can be done if the US Federal Aviation Administration allows this madness to happen, as it will? I say: we are not out of remedies.
Consider what you can do in the aircraft cabin itself. Before the Good Samaritans came down on smoking, I had a friend who was so annoyed by the smoke getting into his eyes in restaurants – as the smokers at the next table held their cigarette in a Marlene Dietrich gesture, almost under his nose – that he carried a little Sanyo fan that would blow the smoke back into their startled faces. While the stewardesses would not let you turn on a CD player at loud volume to drown out the mobile phone users, how about screaming into your own phone (without, of course, actually dialling and paying) sweet nothings to an imaginary girlfriend or boyfriend? This is worth a try. But frankly, how long and how often can such ridicule and retaliatory noise-making be sustained, without unleashing a competition in steadily higher octaves, one which the vulgar freaks you are trying to drown out are likely to win?
A more effective remedy has to be a collective, legal response. How about encouraging environmental and human rights groups to file lawsuits against the agencies that grant the permission for the use of mobile phones in flight, and against the airlines when they act on such permission? The American Association of Retired Persons might be convinced to join such a class action, in defence of the peaceful journeys sought by the increasing numbers of senior citizens taking discounted vacations from the rich countries.
The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, under Article 8, guarantees that “everyone has the right to respect for his private . . . life” and “there shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as in accordance with the law and necessary . . . in the interests of . . . the economic well-being of the country”. Surely, the “private life” includes a life of peace in which one can snooze without the gaggle of gratuitous talk that certainly does not advance any country’s economic well-being.
But what of the rights of the mobile phone users? These are more frivolous than those of the fellow passengers on whom they impose. Besides, the airlines can readily accommodate their desire to talk without imposing on those who seek a quiet flight. Mobile phone users should be provided, at an extra cost charged to their tickets, with a phone booth at which they can queue for their turn. That would protect their rights without invading ours.
The smoking ban on all flights came along when the science behind the problem of secondary harm from smoking became well-established. But this harm does not have to be physical; it can also be mental. The stress of having to be in an enclosed space with continuous noise is sufficient to produce high blood pressure, fatigue and other ailments, as the plaintiffs complained in their testimony regarding airport noise in Hatton and Others v The United Kingdom at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 2001. It is still not completely clear whether continual emission of radiation from the use of mobile phones on flights could cause secondary brain damage to fellow passengers. If providence were just, it would surely affect the brains of the users. But who believed at first that cigarettes could hurt the smoker’s own family?
So, perhaps the compelling answer may be to threaten the mobile phone companies themselves with ultimate liability, reminding them of the cigarette manufacturers who eventually faced huge financial damages. Eventual retribution could be the most powerful deterrent to the rising spectre of cellular noise.
The writer, university professor, economics and law, at Columbia University and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is the author of In Defense of Globalization
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These days, I'm more annoyed by people using the "walkie-talkie" features on their cell phones in public. Now, I have to listen to BOTH sides of the stupid conversation.
Ring Tone
Yeah?
Where are you?
I'm at Home Depot.
Could you pick up a gallon of milk?
Aww...Jeez...
Well, we're out, and the kids won't have any breakfast.
Crap! All right. What's for dinner?
Meat Loaf.
Man....didn't we just have that?
You like meat loaf.
Sure...but not every other night.
So...you won't forget the milk?
{sarcastic voice) No....I won't forget the [bleeping] milk.
Putting a cell station on the plane itself would fix that.
LOVE IT!
How do you cross large bodies of water?
I'm guessing the directv is line of sight EHF on a 3 ais motor in a dome. We do lose it when we do circles. At any rate, when I accidentally leave my cell on during flight, my emal and voicemails pop up around 5K. Another guess is that I am picking up a tower really far away and not the closest tower.
Are they expensive? What make and model? I would like to purchase one, but haven't found any locally.
Because FLT 93 wasn't at 30,000 ft., dummy.
(Some day I will read the replies before posting)...
My old Lincoln is very, very special.
Why do they announce that it messes up the plane?
Must get incredible mileage too.
Because it does. See Cell phone users undermine airplane safety, says study.
EETimes rocks.
Judging by the replies on this thread, the conservative principles of freedom and self-reliance are absolute unless it's inconvenient - but then it's only okay to stifle other people's freedoms.
I find grumpy babies and toddlers far more annoying than cell phones. Let's ban those from airplanes too.
What a nitwit. The smoking ban came before the first snivel about "secondhand smoke" being a "health hazard", and the computer model used to "establish" alleged harm to anyone's health has yet to be substantiated. BOGUS!
*shrug* I ran the test myself. No signal at angels 30.
I found it very odd that our wonderful government banned cellphones on airplanes after 9/11, especially given that cell phones are the only thing that kept FTL 93 from wiping out, what?, the White House? Congress? the Supreme Court?
Very odd.
Anyway, as others have pointed out Beamer used the seat back phone (All also disabled after 9/11!) and the balance of the calls were made at lower altitude.
I come to FR because I learn things here. Often I learn by asking questions, sometimes by just watching. How about you?
Don't get me started about noise. We live in an exceptionally noisy world. Many people don't even know what real silence or quiet is. Many don't want to know.
As an ex-musician, I'm surprised that I'm starting to hate music. It's everywhere. You can't get away from it. I ask in some "coffee bars" that they turn down or off the music. Sometimes they do it, but never low enough. I thought some places are for quiet, thinking and meditation.
If you think cell phones are problem on trains, you should ride a train in England, the problem there is worse. So much for British manners.
Then there are the train crossing horns near where I live. They are SO LOUD even at 4 AM. I don't know how anyone gets any sleep.
Then there are insane barking dogs with deaf owners.
Like I said, don't get me started. What's wrong with a little peace and quiet?
Wow. You're quite the...(never mind - I promised myself I'd be nicer).
I know what you mean. I used to ride a commuter train every day.
Why in the world, would they think about allowing them? Are they going to change the planes electronics, in order to support the cell phones usage?
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