Labels

Noise Pollution and its Relation to Public Health!

Noise pollution is one such dangerous form of pollution that has emerged as a major cause of physiological and psychological disorders for humans. Its impact on different living creatures has been a hot topic among environmentalists, wildlife conservationists, and many other groups. In urban areas, noise pollution manifests in different forms and is an outcome of a wide range of anthropocentric activities.
  • The continuous creaking of industries,

  • Excessively loud public address systems,

  • Construction and demolition related buildings,

  • Irksome vehicular honking etc.
We see that noise pollution affects public health to a larger extent;
  1. Direct effect:- Hearing loss, increased blood pressure (hypertension), increased heart rate and breathing rate, digestive disturbances as well as cardiovascular and hormonal disturbances.

  2. Indirect effect:- Lack of sleep, irritation, mood swings, stress.
Dr. Rojas, an environmental health researcher, says that despite the fact that noise pollution is a major public health problem in cities and, in fact, beats air pollution as a risk factor,  there is a tendency to overlook the problem because we can tune it out.
1. WHO
Source: World Health Organisation (WHO)

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), out of the 56.9 million deaths worldwide, Ischaemic heart disease and stroke are the world’s biggest killers, accounting for a combined 15.2 million deaths. The WHO estimates that one out of three people in Europe is harmed by traffic noise. More than the purely medical effects of noise pollution on the individual, there is a significant social and economic impact. Since noise pollution leads to sleep disturbance, it affects the individual’s work performance during the day, it leads to hypertension and cardiovascular disease and costs the health system additional time and money, and it negatively affects school performance in children.

It is high time for us to realize that “WITH GREAT HONKS COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES’
Labels: