Why is noise pollution bad?

Like any other form of pollution noise pollution is also bad for both our environment as well as our health.  Noise pollution refers to any form of disruptive noise that has the ability to disrupt the normal functioning of certain ecosystem or certain human community.

Our vehicles are the main source of noise pollution in the world. Ever increasing road-traffic in urban areas has already led to excessive levels of noise pollution in many cities of the world.

In one of their recent statements The World Health Organization categorized environmental noise as the source of harmful pollution, with negative psychosocial and physiological effects on human health. For instance, exposure to noise pollution at night can decrease our sleep quality and increase the feeling of morning tiredness and insomnia, affecting our overall productivity for the next day(s).

Many people that live in urban areas are exposed to high levels of noise pollution which in some cases leads to severe annoyance or sleep disturbance. The U.S. scientists have recently issued report that says that „the percentage of the overall populations at risk of high annoyance is 9.5%, and highly disturbed sleep at 2.3% „

Long-term exposure to noise pollution is particularly hazardous for human health because it can significantly increase the risks of heart attack and high blood pressure.

The government should be putting lot more effort regarding the traffic-related noise pollution (appropriate funds and research), and after gathering enough data enforce adequate policies to control the noise levels for our communities.

There are several different methods aimed at reducing the levels of harmful noise in our cities such as „using noise barriers, limiting vehicle speeds, alteration of roadway surface texture, limitation of heavy vehicles, using special type of tires“, etc, but many urban areas are still not giving these options a decent chance to tackle excessive noise.

With so many different types of stress in our life, the last thing we need is excessive and disruptive noise to make us even more stressed, aggressive, and lead to all kinds of other adverse health effects.

Peace and quiet does wonders for our body, so noise pollution is anything but welcome. By reducing the levels of noise pollution in areas where we live we'll be creating healthy environment where all people can work and live, without being constantly annoyed by all kinds of artificial noises.

Noise pollution is sadly still not widely recognized health and environmental issue, despite many facts saying a completely opposite story. Our attitude needs to change because why else do we crave so much to have a home in some quiet and peaceful area where we can fully relax ourselves?

Noise pollution in our oceans and seas

The increased levels of noise pollution in our oceans and seas are becoming a very serious environmental issue. Among the most affected marine animals are dolphins and whales because they heavily rely on sound for their daily activities such as hunting.

The effect of noise pollution on marine life isn't the same in all seas and oceans and varies based on the proximity of the animal to the activity and the intensity and frequency of the sound.

Ships and submarines are not the only sources of noise pollution in our oceans, offshore drilling together with other different offshore activities is also becoming a big threat to many marine ecosystems.

Several latest studies have showed that even the short-term exposure to noise pollution could have serious negative consequences, and even cause trauma for many marine animals, especially high intensity noise pollution.

Some scientists believe that noise pollution could have a negative impact on the entire marine food web chain. One of the latest studies by the Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona showed that dolphins and whales are not only marine animals seriously affected with noise pollution as squids and octopuses are also experiencing massive acoustic trauma because of the increased noise pollution in our oceans.

Noise pollution issue is becoming a huge threat to marine life and it is up to science to discover just how widespread and invasive is noise pollution in the marine environment, and what can be done to reduce the levels of unwanted sounds in our oceans in order to protect marine environment.

When talking about pollution in general people usually refer to air and water pollution neglecting the global threat of noise pollution. They seem to forget or are not aware of the fact that noise pollution is disturbing marine life in our oceans and seas. Noise pollution issue needs more attention and more research because the life in oceans and seas is equally important as the life on land.

Noise pollution facts

Noise pollution is basically any form of noise which has potential to disrupt the normal functioning of any natural ecosystem or some human community.

The main sources of noise pollution are coming from transportation and construction systems.

Noise pollution is not only causing environmental damage but it also has negative impact on human health as it can cause conditions such as aggression, hypertension, high stress levels, hearing loss, sleep disturbances, etc.

Noise pollution is especially serious issue in our seas and oceans, especially for creatures such as dolphins and whales. Noise pollution has very negative impact on hearing sense of these animals, which makes certain activities of these species such as hunting for prey and navigation very difficult.

Noise pollution in our oceans is constantly increasing because of the increased ship traffic and also because of offshore oil drilling.

In United States still doesn't exist the specific body that would regulate noise pollution on federal level.

Unwanted noise causes species to communicate louder which is known as Lombard effect.

Noise pollution can be tackled by many different methods such as by using noise barriers, limiting vehicle speeds, alteration of roadway surface texture, limitation of heavy vehicles, using special type of tires, etc.

Many people still do not regard noise pollution as serious issue that needs more attention on local, state and international level but more like some type of annoyance which isn't so serious. This is the main reason why there are many cities in the world that do not have a single law to regulate noise.

World without the excessive noise pollution coming from human sources would be a much quieter and much more beautiful place to be.

The importance of measuring noise pollution in oceans

Noise pollution, if not controlled, could cause great damage to many species that live in our oceans. Because of this, many environmentalists have welcomed the news that The Applied Bioacoustics Laboratory (LAB) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and their development of the first system equipped with hydrophones able to record sounds on the seafloor in real time over the Internet.

The importance of this system is great because it is able to detect the presence of cetaceans (such as whales and dolphins) and it makes it possible to analyze how noise caused by human activity can affect the natural habitat of these animals and the natural balance of oceans.

Scientists have explained that this is the first system of its kind and its main benefit will be in saving considerable analysis time and human resources in the detection and classification of noise because these processes are completely automated, and because of this the technology prevents a continuous flow of acoustic data that hasn't been analyzed from overloading hard drives at research centers.

It has to be said that our oceans and seas were always full of noises. But the latest addition of artificial noise coming from humans poses great threat to marine life, and many scientists will tell you that noise pollution is the biggest environmental threat to marine life (together with ocean acidification).

Sea creatures like dolphins and whales use the sense of hearing for many purposes such as hunting for prey, navigation, migration and distinguishing the members of the same species. Artificial noise can therefore prevent their hearing sense from working properly and lead these species to extinction.

This high-tech system will also enable scientists to study the relationship these animals have with other mammals in their habitat but of course the main purpose of this system is to make it possible to take decisions for mitigating noise when the lives of these mammals are threatened due to artificial noise.

It also has to be said that the new EU directive on the sea has obliges all member states to comply with a set of indicators for measuring marine noise pollution before 2012.

Noise pollution in oceans continues to grow

Many scientists around the globe will agree that noise pollution in oceans is very serious environmental issue that could cause serious damage to marine food chain. Ever increasing noise pollution in our oceans has increased dramatically in the last couple of years, and fish and other marine species are finding it very hard to separate natural sounds from artificial sounds.

What this means is that fish can be attracted with the wrong sound which can even lead to serious decline of many fish species. Scientists are worried that in noisy environments the breakdown of natural behavior would likely result in devastating impacts on fish procreation and future fish stocks.

Several latest studies have showed that fish can accidentally learn to follow the wrong sounds, and by following these sounds they could end up stuck next to a construction site or follow a ship back out to sea, situations that will likely result in death.

UK-led team working on the Great Barrier Reef recently said that young fish is particularly sensible to noise pollution. Dr Steve Simpson, Senior Researcher in the University of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences pointed at this danger by saying that "when only a few weeks old, baby reef fish face a monumental challenge in locating and choosing suitable habitat. Reef noise gives them vital information, but if they can learn, remember and become attracted towards the wrong sounds, we might be leading them in all the wrong directions."

Wrong direction in marine world in most cases leads to a certain death. If noise pollution continues at this pace in our oceans many fish species will experience severe decline in population in years to come.

Noise pollution - Definition and causes

It is not easy to give an adequate noise pollution definition. Basically noise pollution would be a form of pollution done by different audio sources that either distract, irritate or damage certain environment. Noise is really any unwanted sound, some sound that isn't natural to given environment and it causes disturbance to not only natural processes but can also cause harm to human society.

Noise pollution can become big environmental problem in some areas. It is not only stressful to many animals but can also cause the problems in predator/prey relation and detection, and even lead to different reproduction problems. More serious noise can even significantly reduce usable habitats for many sound-sensible animals, and can in the end even result in extinction of some species. For instance the noise pollution caused by man kills lot of sea animals, especially the ones that use the sense of hearing as the most important organ of perception like dolphins and whales. Scientists have found out that many whales and dolphins commit massive suicides by coming ashore guided by false signals that resulted from noise pollution.

Noise pollution doesn't have only negative effect on animals but can also have negative impact on human health. Exposure to much noise can lead to stress, aggression, sleep disturbance, hearing loss, and different other psychological issues. Many studies have shown negative effect of noise pollution to human health, and many people these days tend to find homes in some quiet and peaceful areas with where noise levels are very low.

The most common source of noise pollution is transportation, in form of motor vehicles. Some other sources like car alarms, emergency service sirens, office equipment, factory machinery, construction work, barking dogs, power tools, lighting hum, different audio systems, loudspeakers and noisy people can also cause noise pollution but motor vehicles are globally speaking dominant source of noise pollution.

Noise pollution problem definitely deserves more attention from environmental point of view. Though noise pollution is not widely recognized as one of the big environmental problems noise laws still do not exist in many parts of the world. If we look at the United States for example we can see that there are federal standards for highway and aircraft noise, many states and local governments have specific statutes on building codes, urban planning and roadway development but U.S. still doesn't have a single body that would regulate noise pollution. Not one country in the world does which means that effects of noise pollution are still underestimated.

In some countries different types of noise are managed by agencies responsible for the source of the noise, and so for instance transportation noise is often regulated by the relevant transportation ministry, while for instance loud music noise is a criminal offense in many areas. Basically world is still seeing noise pollution as the annoyance rather than the real problem, and this is the main reason why there aren't special bodies that would regulate noise pollution and suggest noise laws to legislative bodies.

Motor vehicles are the most common source of noise pollution.

Noise pollution great threat to sea life

Though there are many people that give little importance to noise pollution scientists proved otherwise, in fact increasing noise pollution threatens the survival of many sea animals, including whales and dolphins. As some of you already know many sea creatures communicate through the water but increased levels of noise pollution from commercial shipping and climate change are making this communication very difficult. As a result many sea animals become disoriented, cannot find mates or food and sometimes even behave uncharacteristically.

Whales are among the animals mostly affected by sea pollution. Experts at the International Fund for Animal Welfare have calculated that the distance over which blue whales can communicate has been reduced by as much as 90% in the last 40 years. Climate change is also the big problem because rising levels of carbon dioxide cause oceans to be more acidic making sound travel further through sea water.

Noise pollution is threat to many sea animals, particularly whales and dolphins.

Noise pollution is still regarded by many as irrelevant but experts and environmentalists think otherwise. In fact they are suggesting some sort of an international agreement that would force countries to reduce noise pollution levels by for instance installing quieter engines. If we are to believe the words of spokesman for the UN Environment Programme "governments are ready to take action to alleviate the problems caused by noisy oceans". However governments were ready many times regarding similar problems but failed to move from the "ready point". Could we finally see a change?