Causes and Effects of Noise Pollution
The Causes and Effects of Noise Pollution is a very important topic to discuss, considering the negative health impact of noise pollution to humans.
The most common health problem noise causes is — Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). Exposure to loud noise can also cause high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep disturbances, and stress. These health problems can affect all age groups, especially children. Many children who live near noisy airports or streets have been found to suffer from stress and other problems, such as impairments in memory, attention level, and reading skill.
Before we get down to consider the Causes and Effects of Noise Pollution, let us have an overview of what noise pollution is.
What is Noise Pollution
Noise pollution is an unwanted or excessive sound that can have deleterious effects on human health, wildlife, and environmental quality. Noise pollution is commonly generated inside many industrial facilities and some other workplaces, but it also comes from highway, railway, and airplane traffic and from outdoor construction activities.
Some sources of noise pollution are:
- Aircraft
- Motorized vehicles
- Crowds
- Construction, etc.
How can I tell if my workplace is too loud?
If you answer yes to any of the following questions, the workplace may have a noise problem.
- Do people have to raise their voices?
- Do people who work in noisy environments have ringing in their ears at the end of a shift?
- Do they find when they return home from work that they have to increase the volume on their car radio higher than they did when they went to work?
- Does a person who has worked in a noisy workplace for years have problems understanding conversations at parties, or restaurants, or in crowds where there are many voices and “competing” noises?
Read Also: Noise monitoring — Procedure & Monitoring equipment
If there is a noise problem in a workplace, then a noise assessment or survey should be undertaken to determine the sources of noise, the amount of noise, who is exposed and for how long.
Causes and Effects of Noise Pollution
Causes of Noise Pollution
Industrialization: Most of the industries use big machines which are capable of producing a large amount of noise. Apart from that, various equipment like compressors, generators, exhaust fans, grinding mills also participates in producing big noise.
Social Events: Noise is at its peak in most of the social events.
Transportation: A large number of vehicles on roads, airplanes flying over houses, underground trains produce heavy noise, and people find it difficult to get accustomed to that.
Air Traffic Noise: There are fewer aircraft flying over cities than there are cars on the roads, but the impact is greater: a single aircraft produces 130 dB.
Construction Activities: Under construction activities like mining, construction of bridges, dams, buildings, stations, roads, flyovers takes place in almost every part of the world.
