工业界和军队中许多有噪声实际经验的人，把对这一问题的任何调查都视为浪费时间；他们甚至不愿承认噪声会影响人这一可能性。
Many people in industry and the Services, who have practical experience of noise, regard any investigation of this question as a waste of time; they are not prepared even to admit the possibility that noise affects people.
另一方面，那些厌恶噪声的人有时会使用极为不充分的证据来支持他们对一个更安静社会的诉求。
On the other hand, those who dislike noise will sometimes use most inadequate evidence to support their pleas for a quieter society.
这是一件憾事，因为降噪本是一项正当的事业，而如果它与劣质科学沾上边，就很可能会遭到质疑和声誉损毁。
This is a pity, because noise abatement really is a good cause, and it is likely to be discredited if it gets to be associated with bad science.
一项常被提出的指控是：噪声会导致精神疾病。
One allegation often made is that noise produces mental illness.
例如，一份周报上近期的一篇文章，配有一幅引人注目的插图，描绘一位处于极度痛苦状态的女士，图注写道："她又是一位受害者，已被折磨得崩溃不堪。"
A recent article in a weekly newspaper, for instance, was headed with a striking illustration of a lady in a state of considerable distress, with the caption 'She was yet another victim, reduced to a screaming wreck'.
当人们急切地翻到正文一看，才得知这位女士是一名打字员，她发现办公室打字机的声音越来越令她困扰，最终她不得不住进了精神病院。
On turning eagerly to the text, one learns that the lady was a typist who found the sound of office typewriters worried her more and more until eventually she had to go into a mental hospital.
这类轶事的症结当然在于：人们无法分辨因果关系。
Now the snag in this sort of anecdote is of course that one cannot distinguish cause and effect.
噪声是导致疾病的原因，还是关于噪声的抱怨仅仅是（疾病的）一种症状？
Was the noise a cause of the illness, or were the complaints about noise merely a symptom?
另一位患者同样完全可能抱怨说她的邻居们正联合起来诽谤她、迫害她——然而，人们对于相信这番陈述是会持谨慎态度的。
Another patient might equally well complain that her neighbours were combining to slander her and persecute her, and yet one might be cautious about believing this statement.
在噪声问题上，真正所需要的是对大量生活在嘈杂环境下的人进行研究，以查明他们患精神疾病的频率是否高于其他人群。
What is needed in the case of noise is a study of large numbers of people living under noisy conditions, to discover whether they are mentally ill more often than other people are.
例如，不久前美国海军对大量在航空母舰上工作的人员进行了研究：这项研究被称为"安纳欣计划"。
Some time ago the United States Navy, for instance, examined a very large number of men working on aircraft carriers: the study was known as Project Anehin.
住在距机场数英里之外尚且令人不快；若你想象一下与数个喷气式战机中队共享一艘军舰甲板是何种感受，你便会意识到，现代海军正是研究噪声的绝佳场所。
It can be unpleasant to live even several miles from an aerodrome; if you think what it must be like to share the deck of a ship with several squadrons of jet aircraft, you will realize that a modern navy is a good place to study noise.
然而，无论是精神病学访谈还是客观测试，都无法在这些美国水兵身上发现任何（噪声带来的）影响。
But neither psychiatric interviews nor objective tests were able to show any effects upon these American sailors.
这一结果不过是再次印证了早期美英两国的研究结论：噪声对精神健康若有任何影响，其程度之微小必定使当前的精神科诊断方法根本无从检测。
This result merely confirms earlier American and British studies: if there is any effect of noise upon mental health, it must be so small that present methods of psychiatric diagnosis cannot find it.
这并不能证明（噪声的影响）不存在；但它确实说明，噪声的危险性要低于——比方说——在孤儿院中长大，而孤儿院的成长环境才真正是一种精神健康危害。
That does not prove that it does not exist; but it does mean that noise is less dangerous than, say, being brought up in an orphanage -- which really is a mental health hazard.