Noise pollution

The word Noise is derived from the Latin word nausea which means feeling of sickness at the
stomach with an urge to vomit. The term noise may be defined in a number of ways.
Noise is defined as, "the unwanted, unpleasant or disagreeable sound that causes discomfort to
all living beings". Sound intensity is measured in decibels (dB), that is the tenth part of the
longest unit Bel. One dB is the faintest sound that a human ear can hear.
Noise pollution (also sound pollution, sound disturbance) refers to the excessive and
troublesome sound that is injurious to health.
Noise pollution refers to the presence of such levels of noise or sound in the environment that are
disturbing, irritating and annoying to living beings. It causes discomfort and harm to living
beings mental and physical health.
It is one of the major cause for deafness and other health hazards. Even animals suffer from
excessive environmental noise.
According to Ambast (1988), noise pollution is caused when the loudness of the sound becomes
irritating or unbearable
According to Odum, noise pollution is the unwanted sound dumped into environment without
regard to the adverse effect it may have.
TYPES OF NOISE: Environmental noise has been doubling every ten years. Noise is classified
as:
1. Industrial Noise
2. Transport Noise and
3. Neighbourhood noise
Industrial Noise: It is sound with a high intensity sound caused by industry machines. Sources
of such noise pollution is caused by machines from machines in various factories, industries and
mills. Noise from mechanical saws and pneumatic drills is unbearable and a nuisance to the
public.The Indian Institute of Oto-Rino Laryngology, Chennai reported that increasing industrial
pollution damages the hearing ability by atleast 20%. Workers in steel industry, who work close
to heavy industrial blowers are exposed to 112dB for eight hours suffer from occupational
pollution.
Transport Noise: Transport noise mainly consists of traffic noise from road, rail and aircraft.
The number of automobiles on roads like motors, scooters, cars, motor cycles, buses, trucks and
diesel engine vehicles have increased enormously in the recent past further aggravating the
problem
of
transport
noise.
Noise levels in most residential areas in metropolitan cities is hovering around the border line
due to increased vehicular noise pollution. This high level of noise pollution leads to deafening

in

the

elderly.

Neighbourhood noise: This type of noise includes disturbance from household gadgets and
community. Common sources being musical instruments, TV, VCR, Radios, Transistors,
Telephones, and loudspeakers etc. Statistically, ever since the industrial revolution, noise in the
environment has been doubling every ten years.
Causes of 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.
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.
Prevention of Noise Pollution
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.

WATER POLLUTION

Water pollution is defined as the addition of some substance (organic, inorganic, biological, and
radiological) or factor (e.g., heat) which degrades the quality of water so that it either becomes
health hazard or unfit for use. Water pollution is caused by the intentional or unintentional
release of toxic chemicals/materials, contaminants and harmful compounds into various bodies
of water such as rivers, lakes and the ocean.
Without proper disposal or filtration of these pollutants they can spread throughout the water and
effect all living animals and organisms that come into contact with it by contaminating any living
thing that requires water for survival.In addition to harming animals water pollution can also
affect plants, trees, the soil and other natural materials and resources of the earth.
Water pollution may be defined as the alteration in physical, chemical and biological
characteristics of water which may cause harmful effects on humans and aquatic life.
Pollutants include:
1. Sewage
2. Industrial effluents and chemicals
3. Oil and other wastes

Chemicals in air dissolve in rain water, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides leached from land
pollute water.
Point and non-point sources of water pollution:
Point sources These are pollutants that are discharged at specific locations through pipes, ditches
or sewers into bodies of surface waters.
1. Ex: Factories, sewage treatment plants, abandoned underground mines and oil tankers.
2. Non point sources These pollutants cannot be traced to a single point of discharge. They
are large land areas or air-sheds that pollute water by runoff, subsurface flow or
deposition from the atmosphere.
Ex: Acid deposition, runoff of chemicals into surface water from croplands, livestock
feedlots, logged forests, urban streets, lawns, golf courses and parking lots.

Causes of Water Pollution

Sewage from domestic households, factories and commercial buildings Sewage that is
treated in water treatment plants is often disposed into the sea. Sewage can be more
problematic when people flush chemicals and pharmaceutical substances down the toilet.

Dumping solid wastes and littering by humans in rivers, lakes and oceans. Littering
items include cardboard, Styrofoam, aluminum, plastic and glass.

Industrial waste from factories, which use freshwater to carry waste from the plant
into rivers, contaminates waters with pollutants such as asbestos, lead, mercury and
petrochemicals.

Oil Pollution caused by oil spills from tankers and oil from ship travel. Oil does not
dissolve in water and forms a thick sludge.

Burning fossil fuels into the air causes the formation of acidic particles in the
atmosphere. When these particles mix with water vapor, the result is acid rain.

An increase in water temperature is caused by global warming and thermal plants that use
lakes and rivers to cool down mechanical equipment.

Effects of Water Pollution

Groundwater contamination from pesticides causes reproductive damage within wildlife

in ecosystems.

Sewage, fertilizer, and agricultural run-off contain organic materials that when discharged
into waters, increase the growth of algae, which causes the depletion of oxygen. The low
oxygen levels are not able to support most indigenous organisms in the area and therefore
upset the natural ecological balance in rivers and lakes.

Old Roofs can cause pollution if they are not properly maintained. If water is being held
on roofs the water can become polluted and then run down the home and cause more
pollution to the water table. If you invest in a green roof from Allstate Roofing you can
help reduce the water pollution from your home.

Swimming in and drinking contaminated water causes skin rashes and health problems
like cancer, reproductive problems, typhoid fever and stomach sickness in humans.
Which is why its very important to make sure that your water is clean and safe to drink.

Industrial chemicals and agricultural pesticides that end up in aquatic environments can
accumulate in fish that are later eaten by humans. Fish are easily poisoned with metals
that are also later consumed by humans. Mercury is particularly poisonous to small
children and women. Mercury has been found to interfere with the development of the
nervous system in fetuses and young children.

Ecosystems are destroyed by the rising temperature in the water, as coral reefs are
affected by the bleaching effect due to warmer temperatures. Additionally, the warm
water forces indigenous water species to seek cooler water in other areas, causing an
ecological damaging shift of the affected area.

Human-produced litter of items such as plastic bags and 6-pack rings can get aquatic
animals caught and killed from suffocation.

Water pollution causes flooding due to the accumulation of solid waste and soil erosion in
streams and rivers.

Oil spills in the water causes animal to die when they ingest it or encounter it. Oil does
not dissolve in water so it causes suffocation in fish and birds.

Control measures of water pollution

1. Administration of water pollution control should be in the hands of state or central
government
2. Scientific techniques should be adopted for environmental control of catchment areas of
rivers, ponds or streams
3. Industrial plants should be based on recycling operations as it helps prevent disposal of
wastes into natural waters but also extraction of products from waste.
4. Plants, trees and forests control pollution as they act as natural air conditioners.
5. Trees are capable of reducing sulphur dioxide and nitric oxide pollutants and hence more
trees should be planted.
6. No type of waste (treated, partially treated or untreated) should be discharged into any
natural water body. Industries should develop closed loop water supply schemes and
domestic sewage must be used for irrigation.
7. Qualified and experienced people must be consulted from time to time for effective
control of water pollution.
8. Public awareness must be initiated regarding adverse effects of water pollution using the
media.
9. Laws, standards and practices should be established to prevent water pollution and these
laws should be modified from time to time based on current requirements and
technological advancements.
10. Basic and applied research in public health engineering should be encouraged.
Declaration of National Parks.
11. (1) Whenever it appears to the State Government that an area, whether within a sanctuary
or not, is, by reason of its ecological, faunal, floral, geomorphological or zoological
association or importance, needed to be constituted as a National Park for the purpose of
protecting, propagating or developing wild life therein or its environment, it may, by
notification, declare its intention to constitute such area as a National Park: 1[Provided
that where any part of the territorial waters is proposed to be included in such National

Park, the provisions of section 26A shall, as far as may be, apply in relation to the
declaration of a National Park as they apply in relation to the declaration of a sanctuary.]
12. (2) The notification referred to in sub-section (1) shall define the limits of the area which
is intended to be declared as a National Park.
13. (3) Where any area is intended to be declared as a National Park, the provisions of
sections 2[19 to 26A (both inclusive except clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 24)]
shall, as far as may be, apply to the investigation and determination of claims, and
extinguishment of rights, in relation to any land in such area as they apply to the said
matters in relation to any land in a sanctuary.
14. (4) When the following events have occurred, namely:
15. (a) the period for preferring claims has elapsed, and all claims, if any, made in relation to
any land in an area intended to be declared as a National Park, have been disposed of by
the State Government, and
16. (b) all rights in respect of lands proposed to be included in the National Park have
become vested in the State Government, the State Government shall publish a
notification specifying the limits of the area which shall be comprised within the National
Park and declare that the said area shall be a National Park on and from such date as may
be specified in the notification. 3[(5) No alteration of the boundaries of a National Park
by the State Government shall be made except on a recommendation of the National
Board.] 4[(6) No person shall destroy, exploit or remove any Wild Life including forest
produce from a National Park or destroy or damage or divert the habitat of any wild
animal by any act whatsoever or divert, stop or enhance the flow of water into or outside
the National Park, except under and in accordance with a permit granted by the Chief
Wild Life Warden, and no such permit shall be granted unless the State Government
being satisfied in consultation with the National Board that such removal of wild life
from the National Park or the change in the flow of water into or outside the National
Park is necessary for the improvement and better management of wild life therein,
authorises the issue of such permit: Provided that where the forest produce is removed
from a National Park, the same may be used for meeting the personal bona fide needs of
the people living in and around the National Park and shall not be used for any
commercial purpose.]
17. (7) No grazing of any 5[live-stock] shall be permitted in a National Park and no 2[livestock] shall be allowed to enter therein except where such 2[live-stock] is used as a
vehicle by a person authorised to enter such National Park.
18. (8) The provisions of sections 27 and 28, sections 30 to 32 (both inclusive), and clauses
(a), (b) and (c) of 6[section 33, section 33A] and section 34 shall, as far as may be apply
in relation to a National Park as they apply in relation to a sanctuary. 7[Explanation.For
the purposes of this section, in case of an area, whether within a sanctuary or not, where
the rights have been extinguished and the land has become vested in the State
Government under any Act or otherwise, such area may be notified by it, by a
notification, as a National Park and the proceedings under sections 19 to 26 (both
inclusive) and the provisions of sub-sections (3) and (4) of this section shall not apply.]