[The effects of noise on health]

This article is adapted from the inaugural speech which Dr. Tolosa made to the Royal Academy of Medicine in the Balearic Islands during the 2003 academic year. In his speech, he analyzed how the presence of sound in our environment is such a common factor in our daily lives that we are hardly aware of its effects. Sound provides experiences as pleasant as listening to music or birdsongs, or sound enables oral communication among people; but together with these agreeable auditory perceptions, bothersome, even harmful, noise is also present in our lives; this noise can limit our relationships and affect our health in an irreversible manner.