Noise Pollution

NOISE POLLUTION

Noise pollution refers to the presence of such levels of noise or sound in the environment that are disturbing,irritating and annoying to living beings. It causes discomfort and harm to living beings’ mental and physical health. It is one of the major causes of deafness and other health hazards. Even animals suffer from excessive environmental noise.

Causes of Noise Pollution : Transportation Vehicles, Factories and Industries, Building and Construction Sites near residential areas, Firecrackers, Loud Speakers, DJs, Domestic appliances, TV, Radio etc.

EFFECTS OF NOISE POLLUTION

Noise pollution affects the human mind and body negatively. The ill effects are many. It is the major cause of several ailments. The quality of human life gets disrupted. The lives of children, the aged or ailing people become miserable. Loud and prolonged noise can cause physiological and psychological damage

• Loss of hearing and deafness: Noise above the tolerable threshold is the leading cause for loss of hearing and deafness.
• Cardiac Disturbance: Noise increase the risk of cardiac disturbance including coronary artery disease or ischemic heart disease.
• Sleeplessness: Noise may make people restless. It may keep people away from sound sleep.
• Headache: Human mind can tolerate sound only to a limited extent. Excess noise cause headache.
• Stress, tension and aggressiveness
• Mental Imbalance and nervous debility
• Psychological imbalance
• Difficulty in talking
• Affects biodiversity: For instance, a recent study published in the Conservation Biology journal noted that chicks of the birds which were exposed to noise were smaller than the ones in quiet nests.

HOW SOUND IS MEASURED : The faintest sound that our ear can detect is known as the Threshold of Hearing (TOH). The most intense sound that our ears can detect without suffering any physical damage is one billion times more intense than TOH. This large hearing range makes a linear scale of sound measurement inappropriate.

Hence, we use a logarithmic scale to measure the sound. The unit is a decibel (db) and TOH is assigned zero dB. So 10 dB means a sound that is 10 times more intense than TOH. 20dB refers to an intensity of sound that is 100 times more than a TOH sound, 30 dB means an intensity that is 1000 times more than TOH, and so on.

10*Log₁₀ (P₁/P₀)

What is dbA? Frequency and pitch of the noise also determines whether it is harmful or not. A modified scale called decibel-A (dbA) takes pitch into account. A-weighted decibels, abbreviated dBA, or dba or dB(a), are an expression of the relative loudness of sounds in air as perceived by the human ear.

In the A-weighted system, the decibel values of sounds at low frequencies are reduced, compared with the unweighted decibels, in which no correction is made for audio frequency.

This correction is made because the human ear is less sensitive at low audio frequencies, especially below 1000 Hz, than at high audio frequencies.

WHAT IS THE SAFE LIMIT FOR NOISE?

Hearing loss begins if a person is exposed more than 8 hours a day  to a noise level of 80-90 dbA.  A level of 140 dbA is painful and 180 dbA could even kill a person.

Examples of Noise Levels

What is the level of noise pollution in India?

Noise levels in cities (and even in the rural areas) have been steadily increasing. With more powerful sound systems, public meetings, festivals, marriage receptions, rock concerts, the sound of television, automobile horns, general traffic movement,etc have all become louder.

 WHAT IS BEING DONE TO CURB THE NOISE POLLUTION?

In the 1980s and 1990s, there were several court judgements in India restricting the generation of noise by industries, firecrackers, electric horns etc. Finally in 2000, the Indian government notified the Noise Regulation Rules, which were amended in 2010. Noise Regulation Rules were notified under the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986.

Two types of noise level standards are prescribed :

• Ambient noise level standards.
• Noise levels for designated types of machinery, appliances, and firecrackers.

Silence Zone –  zones of silence (100 metres) near schools, courts, hospitals etc.  The rules specify that no permission could be granted by any authority for use of the public address (PA) system in the open after 10. 00 pm and before6 am. Even after permission has been procured, the sound level must fall within the limits prescribed in the Noise rules.

NATIONAL AMBIENT NOISE MONITORING NETWORK (NANMN) was launched in 2011. Central government set up a National Ambient Noise Monitoring Network (NANMN) through CPCB and the state pollution control boards (SPCBs) to monitor noise on a 24*7 basis in India’s seven largest city

Under NANMN, during Phase 1 and Phase 2, 70 monitoring stations have been set up in seven cities – each in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and Mumbai- which are operated by SPCBs.’ Phase 3 plan was to launch 90 stations in 80 other cities.

2015 SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENTS : In 2015, the Supreme Court, acting on a petition filed by four infants (all aged between six months and 14 months) seeking curbs on air and sound pollution, banned the bursting of sound-emitting crackers between 10 pm and 6 am during Diwali.

IN JUNE 2020,THE CPCB HAS PROPOSED A NEW SET OF FINES BETWEEN RS 1,000 TO RS 1,00,000 FOR THOSE WHO VIOLATE NORMS RESTRICTING NOISE POLLUTION UNDER THE NOISE POLLUTION (REGULATION AND CONTROL) RULES, 2000. This was submitted in a report filed with the National Green Tribunal in response to a set of ongoing cases over noise pollution.’