Church bells are a danger to health

In recent letters, Ramon Casha from Qormi stated that he lives close to a church and Matthew Mifsud of Balzan made no mention of any distance, but only bewails the fact that a considerate parish priest has decided to halt bell ringing at night.

Last year, Anna Spiteri from Senglea (The Sunday Times) had complained about the loud quarter-hour bell chimes and, if memory serves me well, she stated they reached 125dBA. If correct, she was right to complain as that level of noise is damaging to the ear, and could cause initial acoustic trauma leading to partial or total loss of hearing. The maximum limit of noise, considered acceptably moderate, for outdoors is 75dBA, while indoors the limit should be no more than 45dBA. Most church bells in Malta are probably much louder, both indoors and outdoors.

In the past, some mediaeval bells needed as many as 24 men to ring one bell, so most were small. When, some centuries ago, the automatic bell ringing system was invented it eliminated manpower, and they could be set to ring in advance at prescribed times, so larger and larger bells were foundered.

With the advent of this mechanism, the "torture masters" of the time caught on to these new torture weapons and "acoustic torture" was born, whereby a victim could quickly be reduced to a jelly-like total compliance to his masters by being exposed to prolonged, or spasmodic loud ringing. Little did it matter to them that the inhabitants living around the belfry were also subjected to the same treatment!

The health risks from noise are manifold and can cause both mental and physical damage. To name a few! Mental: aggression, bad temper, lack of concentration, severe stress, depression, panic attacks, etc. Physical: tinnitus, migraine headaches, impaired hearing, high blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, interrupted sleep or even insomnia, agitation, constant tenseness, etc. A quick browse on the internet for noise pollution will yield more information.

In Malta, not all parish priests indulge in spurious bell ringing, but those that do cause untold damage to the health of their parishioners and give the Maltese Church an uncaring reputation.

Is this reputation warranted? In a way, yes, for, curiously enough, the Curia has given all parish priests virtual total autonomy over their parishes, so that each local population surrounding each church is completely at their mercy (except through recourse to the Curia). Unfortunately, the lesser educated and more bad-mannered among these parish priests get to indulge themselves in an excess of power and control over others, until they are ordered to stop!

Fortunately, the Church in Malta is realising that this may have become a bit of a problem, especially during village feasts with their total noise.

An Environment Commission was set up to look into the anarchic manufacture of fireworks on these Islands. For their report access www.maltadiocese.org/page.aspx?p=1374&l=1 (click on statement on pyrotechnics - January 8, 2008). Their conclusions do not consider the many complaints the public has voiced over the noise factor; but perhaps another Commission report could be initiated to deal specifically with the great discontent the population shows over the unnecessary noise pollution generated by the Church in Malta from both petards and bell ringing.

Writing to the newspapers to complain achieves very little as the long-desired changes need to be made by the Curia themselves from the very top, but it is always up to individual people to write to inform them of their views and experiences and so bring things to change for the better!