Noise Is The New Secondhand Smoke
Woman have tinnitus,noise whistling in her ears
Summer is here, and so is the seasonal surge in sound, urban noise, social noise, and even the quiet missing from our homes and workplaces. But noise is not just a nuisance. Increasingly, it is a measurable health and business risk.
This June series explores how we are rethinking noise not just through avoidance but through innovation. From ear protection to haptic sound and emerging wellness experiences, a new market is emerging. Call it the Noise Economy. It is louder, more disruptive, and more threatening to our health than we realize.
Noise is everywhere in my world. As someone who has worn hearing aids for most of my life, I am acutely aware of sound and noise. It is the constant companion I did not invite. Background noise has quietly crept up in volume and impact in restaurants, airports, stores, on the street, and even in my home.
And I am not alone. Spend time with younger cohorts today, and you will see that noise is becoming their normal, too. A generation raised on personal digital devices and open-office culture now moves through the day surrounded by an array of auditory factors—alerts, conversations, video conferences, background noise, and personal audio streams. Many attempt to tune out one layer of noise by adding another. The body still takes it in, and the mind still fatigues.
Twenty years ago, noise looked different. If you worked in a corporate office, chances are you had walls, a door, or a cubicle providing acoustic separation. Many meetings took place face-to-face or over the phone, not on video. Background chatter was limited. When you left the office, your auditory environment changed again—perhaps the street was noisy, but your home was primarily a place of quiet.
Life provided more moments of auditory relief. Today, that relief is harder to find.
The way we carry sound has evolved alongside this rise in background noise. The original Sony Walkman, launched in 1979, gave people their first taste of portable music. It was a dedicated device used with intent. In 2001, Apple launched the iPod, making it possible to carry an entire music library in your pocket. Microsoft introduced the Zune in 2006, bringing its vision of portable digital music to market. Then came the iPhone and a wave of Android devices, collapsing music, communication, and constant connectivity into a single screen and pair of earbuds. Now, for many people, audio is an always-on layer of life. We are surrounded by noise and often add more of it ourselves.
Today, we live in an always-on auditory environment. Devices chirp, alerts ping, and voices echo across open-plan spaces. In urban environments, construction noise is no longer confined to daytime hours. The piercing sirens of police, fire, and emergency vehicles add another layer of stress to our environments.
Restaurants have long been noisy, and in many ways, they remain unchanged. Today, that experience is layered on top of an already noisy lifestyle. Many now intentionally amplify the buzz through background music, believing that more noise equals more energy and revenue. Yet for customers and staff alike, it often leads to the opposite: auditory fatigue and disengagement.
At home, HVAC systems hum, and appliances chime. Even wellness spaces, meant to calm us, often rely on background music and brand-driven sound.
But here is what is missing from the conversation. Noise is no longer just about how loud it is. It is about how much our brains must process to navigate modern life. The cognitive load of unmanaged sound is becoming one of our time's least discussed health and productivity challenges.
Humans evolved in environments where sound signaled something important. Now, we live in a world of meaningless noise, forcing our brains to sort through an endless stream of irrelevant sound. Every notification that pulls your attention, every video meeting layered with background chatter, and every conversation forced through a wall of ambient noise. That constant filtering burns energy, creates stress, and weakens focus and clarity. Over time, it can trigger fatigue, anxiety, and even cardiovascular strain.
The World Health Organization classifies noise pollution as Europe's second most significant environmental health threat after air pollution. In the United States, the CDC links chronic noise exposure to sleep disruption, hypertension, and impaired cognitive performance. For employers, this translates to rising workplace fatigue, decreased productivity, more frequent errors, and higher health-related costs. Yet, in most organizations, noise remains an unexamined variable. As leaders examine it, they will find that unmanaged noise carries real costs and clear opportunities for those who act first.
For businesses, unmanaged noise is no longer just an operational annoyance. It risks customer experience, employee well-being, and brand value. Leaders who understand this are beginning to gain an edge, and those who ignore it risk falling behind.
These impacts are not hypothetical. The data is mounting and tells a clear story that leaders can no longer afford to overlook.
The data is clear. Noise is not just affecting personal well-being. It is shaping customer choices and workforce dynamics in measurable ways.
Akoio partnered with Chute Gerdeman on the Auditory Experience Will Shape the Future of Retail report. It highlighted that many stores peaked above 80 dB, hindering shoppers, staff, and internal communications, even in luxury environments.
Supporting that, Quiet Mark's 2023 UK National Noise Report found that 84 percent of respondents across home, workplace, and hospitality settings consider it essential to have quiet moments. Quiet Mark's 2022 United States study revealed that 68 percent of Americans factor workplace noise levels into their job decisions.
In short, noise is not an abstract issue. It is influencing real business outcomes today.
Every organization has an opportunity to rethink how it manages auditory health. For leaders ready to take action, these are the first questions to ask:
The answers to these questions will shape well—being, brand loyalty, workforce resilience, and competitive advantage.
So, where do we go from here? That is where the opportunity lies.
We are witnessing the emergence of what I call the Noise Economy. It is an ecosystem of products and experiences that help people manage noise and improve auditory wellness.
It spans categories such as:
This is no longer a niche. Growth is fueled by aging populations and younger consumers prioritizing sensory health and mental well-being.
Over the next few weeks, I will explore these categories in depth, highlighting innovators, opportunities, and what businesses need to know.
If your company has not started managing noise as part of its workplace or customer experience strategy, now is the time. For the next generation of customers, employees, and communities, how companies manage sound may prove as critical as how they manage air and light. In upcoming articles, we can begin to understand how to counteract noise by mitigating it and using sound to support our auditory health.
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It is also being studied as a potential treatment for obstructive sleep apnea and hypertension in adults with obesity. About ACHIEVE-1 and the ACHIEVE clinical trial program ACHIEVE-1 (NCT05971940) is a Phase 3, 40-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial comparing the efficacy and safety of orforglipron 3 mg, 12 mg and 36 mg as monotherapy to placebo in adults with type 2 diabetes and inadequate glycemic control with diet and exercise alone. The trial randomized 559 participants across the U.S., China, India, Japan and Mexico in 1:1:1:1 ratio to receive either 3 mg, 12 mg or 36 mg orforglipron or placebo. The primary objective of the study was to demonstrate that orforglipron (3 mg, 12 mg, 36 mg) is superior in A1C reduction from baseline after 40 weeks, compared to placebo, in people with type 2 diabetes who have not taken any anti-diabetic medications for at least 90 days prior to visit 1, and are naïve to insulin therapy. Study participants had a HbA1c between ≥7.0% and ≤9.5% and a BMI of ≥23 kg/m2. All participants in the orforglipron treatment arms started the study at a dose of orforglipron 1 mg once-daily and then increased the dose in a step-wise approach at four-week intervals to their final randomized maintenance dose of 3 mg (via a 1 mg step), 12 mg (via steps at 1 mg, 3 mg and 6 mg) or 36 mg (via steps at 1 mg, 3 mg, 6 mg, 12 mg and 24 mg). Flexible dosing was not permitted. The ACHIEVE Phase 3 global clinical development program for orforglipron has enrolled more than 6,000 people with type 2 diabetes across five global registration trials. The program began in 2023 with results anticipated later this year and into 2026. About LillyLilly is a medicine company turning science into healing to make life better for people around the world. We've been pioneering life-changing discoveries for nearly 150 years, and today our medicines help tens of millions of people across the globe. Harnessing the power of biotechnology, chemistry and genetic medicine, our scientists are urgently advancing new discoveries to solve some of the world's most significant health challenges: redefining diabetes care; treating obesity and curtailing its most devastating long-term effects; advancing the fight against Alzheimer's disease; providing solutions to some of the most debilitating immune system disorders; and transforming the most difficult-to-treat cancers into manageable diseases. With each step toward a healthier world, we're motivated by one thing: making life better for millions more people. That includes delivering innovative clinical trials that reflect the diversity of our world and working to ensure our medicines are accessible and affordable. To learn more, visit and or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. P-LLY The efficacy estimand represents the treatment effect had on all participants who adhered to the study drug (with possible dose interruptions) for 40 weeks without initiating additional antihyperglycemic medications (>14 days of use). American Diabetes Association. Standards of Care in Diabetes—2020 Abridged for Primary Care Providers. Clinical Diabetes 2020; 38(1):10–38. Percent of participants achieving A1C <5.7% across all doses was not controlled for Type 1 error. The treatment-regimen estimand represents the estimated average treatment effect regardless of treatment discontinuation or initiation of additional antihyperglycemic medications. Ma X, Liu R, Pratt EJ, Benson CT, Bhattachar SN, Sloop KW. Effect of Food Consumption on the Pharmacokinetics, Safety, and Tolerability of Once-Daily Orally Administered Orforglipron (LY3502970), a Non-peptide GLP-1 Receptor Agonist. Diabetes Ther. 2024 Apr;15(4):819-832. Epub 2024 Feb 24. PMID: 38402332; PMCID: PMC10951152. T. Kawai, B. Sun, H. Yoshino, D. Feng, Y. Suzuki, M. Fukazawa, S. Nagao, D.B. Wainscott, A.D. Showalter, B.A. Droz, T.S. Kobilka, M.P. Coghlan, F.S. Willard, Y. Kawabe, B.K. Kobilka, & K.W. Sloop, Structural basis for GLP-1 receptor activation by LY3502970, an orally active nonpeptide agonist, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117 (47) 29959-29967, (2020). Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements (as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) about orforglipron as a potential treatment for adults with type 2 diabetes, and the timeline for future readouts, presentations, and other milestones relating to orforglipron and its clinical trials and reflects Lilly's current beliefs and expectations. However, as with any pharmaceutical product, there are substantial risks and uncertainties in the process of drug research, development, and commercialization. Among other things, there is no guarantee that planned or ongoing studies will be completed as planned, that future study results will be consistent with study results to date, that orforglipron will prove to be a safe and effective treatment for type 2 diabetes, that orforglipron will receive regulatory approval, or that Lilly will execute its strategy as expected. For further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from Lilly's expectations, see Lilly's Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, Lilly undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements to reflect events after the date of this release. Trademarks and Trade Names All trademarks or trade names referred to in this press release are the property of the company, or, to the extent trademarks or trade names belonging to other companies are referenced in this press release, the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and trade names in this press release are referred to without the ® and ™ symbols, but such references should not be construed as any indicator that the company or, to the extent applicable, their respective owners will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, the company's or their rights thereto. We do not intend the use or display of other companies' trademarks and trade names to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other companies. Refer to: Brooke Frost; 317-432-9145 (Media)Michael Czapar; czapar_michael_c@ 317-617-0983 (Investors) View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company
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