The Exuberant Beetles of Brazil

Prolonged exposure to loud noise probably causes heart flutter, headaches and constriction of the blood vessels--not to mention partial deafness. But noise can also be an expression of exuberance, and there are no more exuberant people than the Brazilians. Citizens of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo hold polite sidewalk conversations by shouting at each other above the city noises. Do they mind? Quite the contrary. "Sao Paulo is noisier than here," says Housewife Itacy Buarque de Macedo, "but our noise is more simpatico."

Most of the racket comes from automobiles, and most automobiles are small Volkswagens, assembled in Sao Paulo. The whine of their four-cylinder engines and the beep of their horns are, at least to Brazilian ears, disappointingly meek. As a result, manufacturers of install-it-yourself kits do a booming business in noisemakers. The beetles' mewling toot is replaced by full-throated klaxons that belt out bars of hard-rock music or soar into the oscillating wail of European ambulances. The VW's short-stroke engine remains untouched, but its exhaust is channeled through complicated "extractors" or straight pipe "resonators" that make the humble bug sound like a snarling Ferrari or thundering Offenhauser. A less expensive gimmick is to wire a bottle of water under the exhaust pipe, where it produces a joyous shriek as exhaust blasts across its top. Thus, cars that leave the factories merely muttering turn up on the roads making more noise than factory machinery.

"Sao Paulo may be uninhabitable by the year 2000," says Biologist Jacob Zug-man. Along with the city's growing air-and water-pollution problems, he says, "the city noises are assaulting our sanity." Studies show that children (and presumably adults as well) in Sao Paulo have already lost some acuity of hearing, because as noise increases the ability to hear decreases. Experienced travelers to Rio book rooms in the back of the great hotels that line Copacabana Beach, forsaking the glorious views over the harbor in order to be as far as possible from the amplified autos snarling along Avenida Atlantica. Says Aimone Camardella, director of industrial physics at the National Institute of Technology: "Noise is increasing the number of neurotics in Rio, and the increased number of neurotics is increasing the noise level. It's a vicious cycle."

Both Rio and Sao Paulo have laws that define "excessive noise" and provide fines for offenders, but practically nobody pays any attention--not even the police. Somehow, Camardella feels, the exuberant Brazilians will have to realize that machinery does not have to sound powerful to satisfy its users. A little travel might help accomplish this goal. Says Photographer Valentin: "I'll never forget the first time I went to Miami. All those cars! The hustle! And almost no noise! For a while there, I really thought there was something wrong with my ears."

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