17 Facts About Noise Pollution That Deserves Attention Right Now!

From waking up to a bird's call, or alarms to cars honking left and right, the sound is everywhere.

Even in our sleep sometimes, if we are to get technical about it, we tend to cause sleep disturbances of others around us with loud snores. However, these noises are not associated with noise pollution, right?

Now the question stands, then what exactly is noise pollution? Noise pollution, in its essence, is the excessive presence of constant noise that can and does has adverse effects on the world's well-being.

From marine animals to trees and of course on human health as well.

The source can be anything from working sites to transportation mediums, and although on the surface the noises might seem short-lived, the consequences are in most cases long term and are even affecting the environment negatively all over the world. There is a lot of facts about this menace that needs immediate attention.

Especially as the list of causes and effects are unending.

Here we will try to provide the details of the situation, such as, what causes it, how it affects us, and the measures we can take to prevent it to some degree. Please read the whole article to learn more about it.

If you like reading articles about pollution and its detrimental effects, make sure to check out our articles on Florida water pollution facts and facts about ocean pollution.

Noise Pollution Meaning With Example

Basically, noise pollution is the presence of excessive noise in our surroundings, that causes major health problems to the living beings on Earth.

Living beings include all forms of life force in the world. So, a negative impact on their well-being gradually increases the risk to the climate of particular places as well as of the world as a whole at risk.

Humans, in general, can hear sounds of about 0 decibels to 140 decibels, with the range of 120-140 causing pain to our ears.

Regular exposure to noise levels of 80 dB for more than eight hours per day can be termed noise pollution. Although, according to the World Health Organization, a noise level of 65 dB can be termed as the same.

The reason is, sound becomes harmful when it exceeds the 75 dB mark, and as we stated above becomes painful when it reaches 120 dB.

As we already mentioned, this menace causes long-standing health issues for all living creatures and puts the climate of the world at large at risk. We will try to explain it further by describing how a decibel scale works.

Although the numbers might seem pretty close to each other, a 10-grade increase in the decibel scale signifies a 10 fold increase in the ambient noise.

A 20-grade increase signifies a 100 fold raise and by the time it reaches 30, it turns into a 1000 fold increase. So, continuously being around sound waves of that length can and does cause illnesses like hearing loss and such.

Noise Pollution Sources

As sounds and noises are all around us, so are the sources of sounds. So, it only makes sense for the sources of noise pollution to be all around us as well as being very much a part of our daily lives.

For example, the presence of excessive noise can be traced back to anything like heavy traffic noise.

The loud sounds from the constant honking of cars, buses, ambulances mingled with the cacophony of pedestrians create a pandemonium of sounds that not only reaches up to dangerous decibels but also ends up causing problems like sleep disturbance for people living nearby.

Another major source of noise pollution can be very easily traced back to the loud noises that come from a construction site and the heavy machinery that is often used there. Unfortunately, construction of anything takes significant time, and so the sound continues for longer than it should per day and daily.

Continuous exposure to these loud noises is enough to raise peoples' blood pressure and cause noise-induced hearing loss.

Other than these rock concerts can also be termed as sources for noise pollution as the loud noise from these often reaches up to 100-110 decibel mark.

This is just short of the pain threshold of the human ears and often causes hearing problems for those present in and around the same.

Sounds from airports are also a major concern as the sound wave emitting from the constant elevation and landing of planes are very high in frequency.

Even workplace sounds can cause serious health issues with the constant hubble bubble of fax machines and phones buzzing can become seriously concerning. Other than these, household equipment like washing machines, dishwashers, loud stereo speakers, loud televisions, lawnmowers is also a matter of concern if they are not used in controlled measures.

Firework shows also end up causing a huge level of noise pollution not to mention the air pollution they cause.

Let us now take a look at the most outrageous impacts high levels of constant noise pollution have caused or can cause to the world.

Noise Pollution Effects On Humans

As we have already mentioned before noise pollution causes a huge level of health issues on the living organisms on the planet. Humans, being part of it do face the same as well.

For starters, we already know that exposure to excessive noise levels regularly causes noise-induced hearing loss and can raise anyone's blood pressure for the time being. However, these effects even if they seem temporary at first, can become a lifelong problem.

Reports of people being affected with hearing loss have been noticed a lot when exposed to unnaturally high noise levels.

As low-frequency sounds have farther gaps in their sound waves than high-frequency sounds do, they are usually less harmful to our ears and health. It has even been known to cause hypertension.

This is generally caused by elevated blood levels for longer than what is normal.

A survey also shed light on the fact that noise pollution impairs the development of children alarmingly. The range of diseases appears to be vast in these cases as it can cause hearing loss to other health-related issues as well as psychological difficulties.

In fact, in 2001 it came to light that about 12.5 percent of children in America suffer from some sort of hearing loss in at least one ear.

As noise pollution is directly related to elevated blood pressure levels, it is known to cause a lot of cardiovascular diseases regularly. There is another psychological condition called noise annoyance that stems from daily exposure to excessive noise.

Dementia as well has been noticed to have worsened as a result of this, though it is not directly related to noise pollution.

There are also reports of the significant economic impact of noise pollution in society. Apart from the medical expenses, one faces due to the health problems caused by this, as it is known to cause sleep disturbances in individuals, their work productivity directly gets hampered due to this.

Prevention Measures Of Noise Pollution

Well, the first thing we can do to prevent noise pollution is to try to reduce noise levels in our daily lives.

Apart from that, we can exercise other methods of prevention as well. For example, we can start by wearing earplugs whenever we are around places with noise levels that move past the 65-70 dB mark.

We should also try to reduce noise or loud noise to be precise, inside the house as much as we can.

Preferably, the noise level should not be more than 35 dB at night, and for the daytime, it should be kept around 40 dB. You should also try to choose your home to be far away from traffic noises.

This should help with sleep deprivation as well as other health problems like hearing problems or elevated blood levels. Another thing you should try to prevent is the prolonged use of earphones, especially at high sound levels.

Apart from the hearing impairment, prolonged use of earphones also cause other ear-related problems.

This should be strictly practiced on children as according to reports they tend to be a lot more sensitive to noise pollution than adults. Other measures you can take are, well, this might be difficult in this era, but try to avoid jobs that come with daily exposure to louder sound levels than normal.

Try not to participate in firework displays as they cause a double-edged sword with both noise and air pollution. At the end of the day, some exposure to this menace is absolutely unavoidable in this day and age, especially for those who live in city areas.

In these places, traffic and construction sites become quite unavoidable regularly.

However, these little measures can go a long way to prevent some serious consequences that can otherwise hamper our daily lives. Please also try to communicate with your neighbors about the potential risks of noise pollution and how it can pose serious threats to their lives.

Make them aware of how trying to reduce noise in their daily household activities can go a long way to prevent noise pollution and potentially save lives. Also, teach your children about these issues, as we have stated before, they are the most sensitive and often the most obvious victims of this.

As we all know, an aware community is a healthy community, right?

So keep learning more about these facts and make others aware of them. You are actually saving lives this way!

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