mumbai for an entire academic year sevenyearold tarun name changed threw such temper tantrums on wednesday mornings that his mother simi would let him skip school that afternoon tarun who was diagnosed with a mild form of autism and couldnt process sensory inputs easily would be too petrified of the din raised by his peers during the art and craft periods every wednesday to attend school tarun isnt the only young sufferer most special children react with bewilderment and anger to noisy settings and there is now a growing school of thought among paediatricians that children are increasingly being affected by noise pollution that bawling baby in a crowded supermarket or cinema hall could just be unable to bear the high decibels sound waves coming hisher way most children with sensory integration issues face a lot of trauma due to incessant noise it worsens their behaviour said dr samir dalwai president of the mumbai branch of the indian academy of pediatricians an editorial in the indian pediatrics medical journal in february 2016 for the first time stated that it is time to make a noise about noise harmful effects of noise in children may start from the intrauterine period during pregnancy in variance with adults neonates and children are passive consumers of harmful noise and are more susceptible to its damaging effects said the editorial titled noise as a health hazard for children experts point out that children are subjected to noisy assaults throughout the dayfrom highpitch videoconsole games to noisy tv shows as well as household machines such as washing machines and airconditioners apart from the vehicular and construction noise that the entire population is exposed to ent specialist dr divya prabhat who runs the pediatric department at wadia hospital parel said the biggest threat were new age devices such as computer tablets game consoles and phones in wadia hospitals icu i recently saw a mother showing her 28dayold baby images with sound on her ipad the child was clearly used to this form of entertainment but people dont realise that such sound levels can be construed as noise pollution for such young ones said dr prabhat in fact doctors now say the exposure to noise pollution begins very early for childrenright in the womb that fetus is able to hear is indicated by observations of blinkstartle responses to vibroacoustic stimulation during antenatal ultrasonography around 24 weeks of gestation said the indian pediatric article sources of sound in the maternofetal unit include heartbeat of mother placental flow mothers voice and vibroacoustic stimulations from antenatal ultrasonography sources of sound outside the womb depend on the environment in which the mother is living or working it can be from traffic signals or from workplace machinery household sources of sound to fetus include sounds from vacuum cleaner mobile phone washing machine televisions radios and loud conversations said the article the us epa website states that exposure to noise can interfere with speech and language development of children impair their learning cause hearing