Effect Of Noise Pollution On The Health Of Humans And Wildlife

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Introduction:

Noise pollution otherwise known as sound pollution or environmental noise can be simply defined as the propagation and spread of a lot of noise that have a negative effect on human activity and animal life. Noise pollution all over the world is majorly caused by transportation systems, transport and machines. Other causes of noise pollution all over the world include improper urban planning (when residential and industrial buildings are built side by side in areas that should be solely residential).

Major sources of pollution by noise in areas that are residential include sporting activities that include yelling, nearby construction, maintenance of lawns, transportation noise, or loud music. A form of noise pollution that is on the rise is the noise from electricity generators in households leading to environmental degradation most especially in developing countries. Different studies have shown that there is higher noise pollution in communities that are for the racial minority and are low-income communities.

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High levels of noise can lead to a variety of cardiovascular conditions in us humans and it can also lead to an increase in the occurrence of diseases of the coronary artery. Also, animals are at a higher risk of dying when there is noise as a result of predator altering, avoidance and detection of prey, noise also interferes with the navigation and reproduction of animals and noise also leads to a permanent loss of hearing.

The elderly have a possibility of suffering from cardiac problems as a result of noise. The most vulnerable group to noise are children, some of the effects of noise pollution on children can be permanent. It is a very serious and important threat to the psychological and physical health of a child and can cause serious harm to the behaviour and learning of a child.

Effect of noise pollution on the health of humans and wildlife:

Humans:

Noise pollution can affect both the behaviour and health of humans. Noise or unwanted sounds can lead to the damage of a person’s physiological health. Pollution by noise can cause a lot of things like sleep disturbances, hearing loss, tinnitus, levels of stress that are very high, hypertension and a host of many other effects that are harmful.

A sound can be classified as unwanted if it disrupts normal human activities like conversation or sleep or interferes with or diminishes the quality of a person’s life. Hearing loss that is induced by nose can be as a result of a prolonged and constant exposure to levels of noise that are above 85 decibels. A study showed that people that were not significantly exposed to industrial or transportation noise did not suffer from a loss of hearing like their counterparts that had significant exposure to industrial or transportation noise.

Wildlife:

Noise pollution can be very detrimental to animals in the wild, the change in balance of prey or predator detection and also avoidance and also avoidance. Communication employs the use of sounds and noise pollution can easily affect the navigation and reproduction of animals. There can also be permanent or temporary hearing loss as a result of acoustic overexposure. Noise pollution can lead to an imbalance in the habitat of animals which can in turn lead to the extinction of some species of animals.

Noise Pollution Control:

A concept that is often employed in the reduction of noise pollution in the workplace or environment is a concept known as “Hierarchy of Controls”. We can employ noise controls that are engineering in nature to reduce the propagation of noise and also to protect all individuals from overexposure to noise. If the noise control techniques available are not adequate or feasible, we as individuals can also try to take some steps to help protect ourselves from all of the negative effects of pollution by noise.

If we cannot do without being around sounds that are loud as a result of work or other factors, we should try to protect ourselves and our ears by using hearing protection devices like ear muffs or ear plugs. Recently, a program called buy quiet and its associated initiatives have done a lot of work in trying to combat noise exposures in places of work. The programs and the initiatives are promoting the purchase and use of equipment and tools that quieter and also encouraging the design of equipment and tools that are quieter by manufacturers.

Roadway noises and other forms of urban contributors to noise pollution can be controlled through proper urban planning with the design of our roads better. We can reduce roadway noise through using noise barriers, limiting the speed of vehicles, changing the surface texture of roadways, limiting the movement of vehicles that are heavy, the employment of traffic signals and controls that can help in the smooth flow of vehicles to reduce acceleration and braking, and design of tire.

All of the various strategies in controlling roadway noises can be applied using a very important factor known as computer model used in roadway noise. This computer model is capable of handling and addressing hypothetical mitigation, traffic operations, meteorology and local topography. All of these various methods including the costs can be very modest especially mitigation building-in, as long as all of the solutions are done during the process of planning the project. We can also reduce the noise from aircraft by employing the use of jet engines that are quieter. The residents of areas near the airports can also benefit from changing the time and flight paths of flights.

Conclusion:

To conclude, it is extremely essential that we take noise pollution very seriously. There are a lot of harmful effects of noise pollution to the human health and we must do all we can to help prevent, control and, manage noise pollution in our environment. It is very important that we employ various noise control techniques and do the best we can in stopping noise pollution. We can control noise pollution through proper urban planning and separating residential areas from industrial areas. We must protect our environment from noise pollution.

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