Most people are familiar with the terms water pollution and air pollution, but relatively few pay any attention to the term noise pollution.

 

The effects of noise pollution may not be as obvious as the other types or the way they can adversely affect health, but noise pollution can still cause problems.

 

Continual exposure to noise pollution can cause a variety of effects in humans. It can lead to loss of hearing and stress. Excess noise has also been linked to inducing panic attacks in people, and aggressive behavior in otherwise peaceful beings.

 

Most people like to live in peace and quiet and the persistent loud noise from nearby road traffic or the continual ‘boom boom’ noise from a neighbors entertainment system can have an affect on health, especially the reverberating bass notes from such a system.

 

Technology can play a large part in the prevention of noise pollution. There are methods devised which make for the provision of noise barriers or computer systems which design a more efficient distribution of traffic flow, keeping noise away from populated areas. Thought is being given to the construction of quieter engines and industrial machinery.

 

Increasingly governments and local authorities are becoming aware of the problem of noise pollution and are introducing regulations to control levels of noise. These will include stipulations as to the hours in which noisy industrial and construction machinery can be used, and even include the usage of car entertainment systems.

 

Employers are now being required to provide hearing protection head gear to any employees who work in an environment where there is persistent noise, so ensuring their long term health which may be put at risk from this form of pollution.

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