5:19 a.m.: I could have slept through the racket except for the blaring
beep-beep-beep of heavy equipment rolling in reverse.  Other than the beep,
it was just a lot

of machine droning, the deep chugging of loaded trucks.  Since I was up, I
stepped to the porch to get a closer look at the commotion, at the
mulch-loading operation. Beep-beep-beep: the
audio track from my dream played.

The whole event lasted fewer than forty minutes.  Loading leaf piles at the crack of dawn makes sense, I guess.  Nobody to blame who would care about being blamed.  So I shook my fist in the air and bellered, "Trying to sleep, buddy!"  Okay, really I didn’t. But I couldn’t go back to sleep; I felt some kind of nervous system irritation.

I did read a few weblogs, and decide I had time for an entry.  Then I set
to googling the net for OSHA codes on the horns that warn of backing up
(relevant to my early morning work on the rhetoric of alarm systems, the
mal-ethos of warning sounds, etcetera).  Clearly, I’m not the first person
to be irritated by the sound.  OHSA.gov offers this standard
interpretation of alternatives in reply to a letter from a resident in
Newton, PA:

Dear Mr. Buchichio:

Thank you for your letter of April 30, 2004, regarding noise emanating from
excavating equipment and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
requirements for back-up alarms on construction equipment. We apologize for
the delay in responding.

We have paraphrased your question as follows:

Question: The repetitive, piercing beeping noise emitted from back-up
alarms on excavating equipment at a construction site is stressful to
residents who live nearby. Other methods of alerting or warning employees have
become available in recent years. Do OSHA back-up alarm requirements allow for
the use of methods that would be less noise-intrusive to nearby residents?

Answer
Yes. Two OSHA requirements, 29 CFR 1926.601(b)(4) and 1926.602(a)(9), relate
to back-up alarms in construction. Those provisions were promulgated in 1971
and were derived from Army Corps of Engineers standards.

Title 29 CFR 1926.601(b)(4) states:
1926.601 Motor vehicles.
* * *
(b) General requirements.
* * *
(4) No employer shall use any motor vehicle equipment having an obstructed
view to the rear unless:
(i) The vehicle has a reverse signal alarm audible above the surrounding
noise level or:
(ii) The vehicle is backed up only when an observer signals that it is safe
to do so.
 
Section 1926.602(a)(9)(ii) states: 

1926.602 Material handling equipment.
* * *
(a) Earthmoving equipment; General.
* * *
(9) Audible alarms.
* * *
(ii) No employer shall permit earthmoving or compacting equipment which has
an obstructed view to the rear to be used in reverse gear unless the
equipment has in operation a reverse signal alarm distinguishable from the
surrounding noise level or an employee signals that it is safe to do so.

I feel you, Mr. Buchichio. But neither of us has it as bad off as Ms. Nunn
who, according to OSHA, "expressed concern that electronic high-pitched
alarm sounds can irritate the nervous system."  Nunn was supposedly addressing workers’ wellness, not the residents whose poor souls were pierced by the equipment’s un-melodious song.  But OSHA concluded–to Ms. Nunn–that "they had no data or evidence to indicate that exposure to such alarms caused [nervous system irritation]."  OSHA code explains that are alternatives (flaggers, a lower volume, and so on) if we must have street makeovers at 5:00 a.m., and now–although I captured just a few seconds–there’s evidence of the nervous system irritation that results from exposure to the unbearable industrial cry. Hard data: just turn the volume up on the video, play it in loop fashion for forty minutes. You’ll see.