Report on The Causes of Noise Pollution

It is a fact that people used to listen to so many sounds in their daily lives, and these sounds are necessary as well. But sound becomes an unwanted thing or which causes a lot of pain and disturbance; then it becomes noise. Noise is a kind of sound, which creates discomfort in the ears, and a person doesn’t feel comfortable at all to hear such sounds. This when sound becomes noise pollution, which can be caused due to various reasons and it can have so many negative impacts. The balance, as well as comfort of life, is completely disrupted by the noise pollution. The noise pollution is caused by various means such as traffic, industrial activities, social events, and household equipment etc. (SUSAN, 2018). It is important to understand which level of sound is considered as noise. It is known that decibels (db) parameter is used to measure sound. It has been observed that when two persons normally make conversation with each other, then sound level measuring is around 60 db. However, a level of noise is measured beyond 80 db like the heavy traffic can cause a sound level at 85 db. The research has shown that constant exposure to noise level beyond 85 db can start to cause serious damages. So if harmful noise levels are not avoided and prevented, then a person can have serious health and other issues (Healthwise Staff, 2018)

It is important to understand different perspective about noise pollution and its causes & effects through primary research sources. Singh & Davar (2004) published a research article to identify sources, effects as well as control measures for noise pollution. The study used cross-section survey method to collect valuable data, and it was found out that population of Delhi City has two face tow main causes of noise pollution, one is automobiles, and the other is loudspeakers. It was also found out that noise made by loudspeakers affected females more than males. It was also identified that noise pollution had few severe effects on population such as less efficiency, sleeplessness, disruptive communication, mental stress as well as deafness. The respondents of this research study explained that public education should be increased to aware of noise pollution as it can be one of the best methods to do so. However, it was also concluded that NGOs along with government authorities could play a major part in spreading awareness amongst the general public regarding noise pollution that how it can be dangerous for their society and environment, and how it can be reduced (Singh & Davar, 2004)

In other research articles, the researchers focused on the topic of noise as well as environmental pollution, which is caused by transportation. The study tried to analyze decisive problems, which are faced by developing transport systems, which are based on ecology. The primary focus of the paper was to discuss issues related to transport systems to be developed as sustainable systems, and special focus is given to ensure that noise pollution along with environmental pollution is minimize their level. A traffic flow model was presented in the research to develop a transport network so that the external costs of harmful emissions and noise can be estimated. It also looked at congestion and any effects which are related to congestion. The model was also used to measure the flow of traffic with all its environmental and noise effects with the help of computational experiments. The numerical example for the study was taken from the transport network from Poland. It was concluded in the ending part of the paper that transports systems, which are ecologically efficient; they can decrease the level of noise as well as pollution created by transport (Jacyn, Wasiak, Lewczuk, & Karoń, 2017)

A research article was published in 2018 regarding the noise pollution with its causes & effects keeping the case study of university students from the city of Delhi in India. It was described in the paper that the level of noise pollution is increasing with the passage of time due to the noisy urban lifestyle as well as bad management of noise pollution. In result, noise pollution is making an effect on people by causing various health & wellness issues. The study was conducted to get a response from college and university students from Delhi, and it was found out that youth in the city does have good enough awareness about noise pollution along with its causes and effects on health. The study also revealed that music, as well as vehicle noises, were the two most causes of noise pollution in the city. It was recommended in the end that government and society should play its part in spreading awareness through awareness campaigns (Ismail & Ahmed, 2018)

Research Hypotheses: The traffic and vehicles are the most common cause of noise pollution, which develop various health issues in society.

Methods to reduce the Noise Pollution

To test the hypotheses that traffic and vehicles are one of the most common causes, and people do face health issues due to noise pollution, we used the survey method to collect data. It is a qualitative research method to collect data from the respondents taken from a sample population. It is important to mention here that secondary research methods could have also been used by analyzing existing research material to see that what findings were made in those studies, and what were the most common causes of noise pollution. But it was more appropriate to conduct primary research through proper research design to collect real-time data from the population. So, for this primary research, qualitative research method was selected to be the most appropriate method. A survey questionnaire was developed (See Appendix 1), which was used to collect relevant answers from the sample population. It is important to mention here that a sample of 30 people was taken from a community, which was residing near an urban centre with too much flow of traffic and noise. The sample was taken to see what they think about this constant noise of traffic and vehicles around them.

The other most critical part of the research is to explain its dependent and independent variables. To identify adequate causes of noise pollution with its effects on health, noise pollution was taken as a dependent variable. On the other hand, traffic and vehicles are independent variables. It is essential to explain why these dependent and independent variables were selected. The noise pollution was considered a dependent variable because its level can change with other factors such as the heavy flow of traffic. For instance, during office hours early in the morning, the traffic influx is heavy, and more vehicles are on the roads, that’s why more vehicles mean more noise being created, which ultimately affects the level of noise pollution. During off-peak hours of traffic, when vehicles are in less number like during midnight, then less traffic comes with less noise pollution level. It is quite evident that with the independent variable of vehicles, the value of the dependent variable of noise is being changed in different situations. As compared to that vehicles are independent variables as no other factor can change their value in any regard.

The survey questionnaire did include some personal information of survey respondents such as their age, gender, and marital status (See Appendix 1). It means that ethical issue can arise if respondents would have raised the question of why this personal information is needed and what is the guarantee that this information will be kept private and confidential. So, a consent form was signed by all respondents, where they agreed to share their personal information for this research, and form also included a clause, which stated that their information is safe and confidential, and it will never be disclosed without their consent. It is important to understand that for validity and integrity of research, the ethical issues should always be kept in mind; otherwise, questions can be raised on moral and ethical grounds.

Results of Noise Pollution

The above chart shows the age of the respondents who responded to the survey. It can be seen that the individuals who are up to the age of 25 are large in numbers who have responded to the survey questions. The next largest number belong to the respondents who have ages between 26 to 35 year old.

The survey results show that most of the respondents agree that Noise pollution really annoys them on a daily basis. 17.65% of the respondents remain neutral whereas 5.88% remains disagreed with the statement. The results of the survey showed that a significant amount of respondents remain neutral regarding the effect of noise pollution on mental health.

Many Respondents agree that vehicles are the main cause of Noise pollution. The same number of respondents have neutral views regarding the survey question. In rush hours most of the respondents experience noise pollution.

Many respondents of the survey agreed that loudspeaker is a major cause of noise pollution. However, there is a significant amount of respondents who disagreed with this statement. Mix responses have been gathered regarding the question of banning loudspeakers around the world.

Many respondents have a neutral view regarding stress as noise pollution. However many respondents agree that loudspeakers cause irritation and disturbance.

Analysis & Discussion on Noise Pollution

 The results of the respondents have been mentioned above in the results section, which revealed the fact that all of the respondents ticked agree and neutral options for noise pollution as a factor for annoying them, and a factor to cause mental health issues such as headaches and hypertension. When respondents were asked about vehicles and traffic as a cause of noise pollution, all of them agreed that it is one of the major causes of noise pollution. They also agreed on the fact that most noise pollution happens during rush hours, but when asked about noise pollution as a cause of stress, few of them agreed, as respondents remained neutral for this question. Additionally, another cause of pollution was tried to be analyzed; are the loudspeakers. Majority of respondents believed that loudspeaker is a major cause of noise pollution; however, there were mixed responses regarding banning the loudspeakers.

Conclusion on Noise Pollution

The research hypotheses claimed that vehicles are considered to be the major cause of noise pollution as well as various health issues. The results taken from the survey questionnaire found out that hypotheses were supported by these results as the majority of survey respondents see vehicles and traffic during rush hours as the main cause of noise pollution as well as causing health effects such as headache, stress and hypertension.

References of Noise Pollution

Healthwise Staff. (2018). Harmful Noise Levels. Retrieved April 25, 2019, from https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/tf4173

Ismail, S., & Ahmed, S. (2018). Noise Pollution, Its Sources and Effects: A Case Study of University Students in Delhi. PRA Internation

Journal of Economic and Business Review, 6(2), B15-B23.

Jacyn, M., Wasiak, M., Lewczuk, K., & Karoń, G. (2017). Noise and environmental pollution from transport: decisive problems in

developing ecologically efficient transport systems. Journal of Vibroengineering, 19(7), 5639-5655.

Singh, N., & Davar, S. C. (2004). Noise Pollution-Sources, Effects and Control. Journal of Human Ecology , 16(3), 181-187.

SUSAN. (2018). When sound becomes noise. Retrieved April 25, 2019, from https://knops.co/causes-noise-pollution/

Appendixes

Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire

Section B

Noise Pollution (NP)

Vehicle Noise Pollution (VNP)

Loud Speakers (LS)