According to UN-Water, which is the United Nations arm for all freshwater related issues, over 2 million tons of human waste are thrown in bodies of water every day. Similarly, the World Health Organization claims that an average of 2 million people around the world die from complications due to air pollution. Furthermore, in the mid-90s scientists from Cornell University discovered that over 30% of the world's agricultural land have been rendered useless because of land pollution caused soil erosion.
With daunting statistics like these, it is easy to say that most of the planet is polluted - be it in land, air or water. However, it seems like there is one more kind of pollution people should be wary about.
According to researchers from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, rampant noise pollution can halt the learning abilities of a child. The recently released study explains how a noisy environment is a different experience for children than it is for adults.
"What a child hears in a noisy environment is not what an adult hears," explains Dr. Lori Leibold.
While children do learn language through listening to people speak, it is hard to gain understanding of certain words when the environment is full of extraneous noise.
"They have a greater need for understanding speech around them but at the same time they're less equipped to deal with it" quips Dr. Rochelle Newman.
Furthermore, the researchers discovered that children find it more challenging to tune out certain noise that interrupt a sentence they are trying to understand. Unlike adults, they are not equipped with the cognitive ability to fill in the gaps in the sentence with a logical choice.
The scientists were quick to advise parents not to associate noise as stimulants for their children. Try to have a quiet environment when engaging in conversation devoid of sounds from any electronic device.