Noise Pollution

What is Pollution?

Pollution means any contamination of air, soil, water and environment. Why, even loud noise and sound is also a part of pollution. 

How many types of Pollution?

There are 8 types of pollution they are as follows:

1)Air Pollution

2)Land Pollution

3)Light Pollution

4)Noise Pollution

5)Thermal Pollution

6)Visual Pollution

7)Water Pollution

8)Radioactive Pollution.

What is Noise Pollution?

A form and level of environmental sound that is generally considered likely to annoy, distract or even harm other people. Most industrial plants operated by a business located near a residential area will need to be respectful of others residing within earshot regarding their production of noise pollution. Also called sound pollution.

What Causes Noise Pollution?

There are many causes of noise pollution. 

1. Fire crackers:

 Fire crackers are exploded to make huge sound during celebrations and festive occasions.  It is common sight to witness the firing of crackers at live concerts.

2. Transportation vehicles: 

Noise pollution is severest in the cities. The different modes of transportation (land, air and water), such as motor-cars, buses, trains, trams, airplanes, etc. produces sound that disturbs human mind.

3. Microphones:

 The unrestricted use of microphones during social and political events.

4. Loud speakers:

 During social events and other festive occasions, people use loud speakers in unjustified manner.

5. Factories and industries:

 In large cities, there are large number of factories, mills and industries. These industrial sites produce immense environmental noise to disturb the habitats of nearby residential areas.

6. Domestic appliances:

 Even at homes, people use large number of domestic appliances such as grinder, mixer, juicer, etc.

7. Loud music: 

Playing music in high volume,

8. Television: 

Television also causes sound and watching television for long hours in just as harmful for ears as they are for eyes.

9. Building and construction sites near residential areas: 

The building and construction activity involves use of sound producing equipment such as cement-mixer, road-roller, crane, etc.

All the above activities produce enough noise to disturb the health and mind of human-beings and other living bodies.

What are the Effects of Noise Pollution?

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

1. Loss of hearing and deafness:

 Noise above the tolerable threshold is the leading cause for loss of hearing and deafness.

2. Cardiac disturbance:

Noise increase the risk of cardiac disturbance including coronary artery disease or ischemic heart disease (IHD).

3. Sleeplessness: 

Noise may make people restless. It may keep people away from sound sleep.

4. Headache: 

Human mind can tolerate sound only to a limited extent. Excess noise causes headache.

5. Stress, tension and aggressiveness: 

Constant exposure to irritating sound may cause stress and tension. The behavior of people often becomes aggressive.

6. Irregular blood pressure: 

For good health, it is very important to maintain normal pressure in the arteries both during the heartbeat and between the heartbeat. Noise may contribute to fluctuations in the levels of blood pressure.

7. Mental imbalance and nervous debility: 

Mental illness is among the worst negative effects of noise pollution. People may find it difficult to cope with their normal routine life. Human mind cannot accept sound beyond a certain level. Excess sound may lead to mental imbalance and nervous disability.

8. Psychological imbalance:

 It may also cause psychological imbalance.

9. Difficulty in talking: 

Due to excessive noise, it becomes very difficult to talk on roads or inside malls.

What are the Negative effects of noise pollution on human health?

Noise pollution creates a number of physical and mental ailments in a man. Sound Pollution may lead to human health hazards such as:

Fatigue of the hearing or auditory sense organs: 

Sound around 90 decibels (ab) creates fatigue of the hearing organs.

Deafness: 

The impact of sound pollution may totally rob one of his hearing capacities. Prolonged living in an area infested with sound pollution may gradually induce deafness. Continuous stay near the source of 100 decibel sound is likely to rob one permanently one one’s hearing faculty. When deafness is caused owing to one’s profession, it is then called processional deafness.

Various other physical or mental losses: 

Sound pollution is prone to distort the natural tempo of our speech. People may experience difficulty while speaking. Generally the explosive sound produced by the vehicular traffic and the air-planes tends to produce such problems.

Annoyance:

 Sound pollution produces such annoyance. A nervous sort of a man of course, is by nature more prone to such discomfiture and discomfort. Excessive sound pollution makes one irritated, and a sort of unnaturalness and excitement is marked in one’s behavior.

Tired and exhaustion:

 A man feels tired and exhausted in a state of prolonged sound pollution. Those who engaged in different professions suffer from mental exhaustion or apathy in work and these tendencies gradually tells upon their efficiency and this factor may deprive the sufferer of his power of audibility in the long run.

Physiological losses: 

Sound pollution may induce in human body various types of temporary physiological changes, such as hypertension, change of the rate of heart-beat, high respiratory rates, excessive perspiration, vomitary tendency, vertigo and exhaustion. Sound pollution disturb sleep, too and as such, memory too runs short.

What are the preventive measures?

Some effective measures should be taken too solve the problem. The following measures can be taken to prevent noise pollution:

• To prevent and control noise pollution it is necessary to create public awareness. Only law is not sufficient. People must be made aware of the harmful consequences of noise pollution.
• People should be made aware that excessive noise beyond certain limits may cause deafness.
• They should know that injuries caused by sound pollution are often irreversible.
• There should be minimum use of sound producing instruments. There should be proper regulations for the use of loudspeakers and other devices that produce noise beyond that are beyond the toleration limits of human-beings.
• The Pollution Control Board and the High Court have already taken effective measures to bring sound pollution under control. Adequate measures should be taken to ensure that noise related restrictions are not violated.
• Anti-pollution laws should be enacted and enforced.
• Ban of fire crackers should be imposed and electric horns should be replaced by bulb horns.
• The use of microphones should be controlled and regulated.