One day last week the prevailing peace and quiet of our neighbourhood was shattered by a cacophony similar to that caused by overhead planes or a slight earth tremor.

Glass vibrated and the furniture shook to a resonant heavy-base boom! boom! (I am not exaggerating). Like many of my neighbours, I looked out onto the street to see what was causing this disturbance. And guess what?

This high-frequency sound was being generated - believe it or not - by none other than a car stereo! In all my life I had never heard such a high-pitched, discordant, screeching and ear-shattering noise emanating from a private vehicle.

My neighbours were apparently of the same opinion because you could see it in their astonished and bewildered expression. We were all so befuddled at that moment that we didn't take the particulars of the car in question, even if only to check if such a deafening noise was legal. It is a known fact that extremely high-pitched noises can have deleterious consequences. I once read that one can bore a hole in solid matter with 210 decibels. So eardrum piercing is nothing to be wondered at.

But extremely high-pitched sounds do not only affect the ears. They can also have more serious consequences.

We are not speaking only of people who suffer from hyperacusis (extreme sensitivity to sound). Ultra-high sound can often cause anxiety, nervousness and headaches.

Also, it has been established that a very loud noise can trigger a life-threatening disorder known as the Long QT Syndrome (LQTS) - a disorder of the heart's electrical system. In people suffering from LQTS, after each heartbeat, the electrical recovery of their heart takes longer than normal.

G. Michael Vincent, chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, US (founder of the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes Foundation), had this to say about the subject: "This prolongation renders patients vulnerable to a very fast, abnormal heart rhythm... no blood is pumped out from the heart, and the brain quickly becomes deprived of blood, causing the usual symptoms of sudden loss of consciousness (syncope) and sudden death."

Even if we are speaking about extreme cases here, if we were to allow this unrestrained escalation of decibel production in private vehicles roaming our roads we will be risking not only deafness but other health hazards too.

So will the authorities concerned take action by prohibiting extremely loud car stereos from being imported or installed in motor vehicles, and if such legislation already exists, will they stop turning a blind eye (or, in this case, a deaf ear) to those contravening this law?