New Survey:  Nuisance neighbours are
​plaguing the lives of millions of Britons

​In July the Daily Express reported on a new report which found that two thirds of Britons say their lives are blighted by noisy neighbours

Two thirds of UK homeowners say their lives are being blighted by the actions of those next door, new research reveals. Experts say rows are increasing each year, with rising house prices possibly to blame as more people live in cramped spaces. Late night parties and loud music are one of the most common bugbears, while arguments over parking spaces and extensions are also in the list of complaints. Some disputes are so bad that one in ten say they have physically fought with their neighbour. Nearly one in five have called the police and contacted the council, with more than a third saying they are considering moving because of the stress. More than one in four say their happiness has been significantly reduced, with a fourth saying they suffer “serious” stress over their neighbours. Half of people admit to avoiding their neighbour, with one in ten saying they have installed CCTV because they feel threatened or want to catch them breaking the law. Nearly one in five said they don’t know their neighbours, with 20 per cent not knowing their name and half unaware of what they do for a living.
   Boisterous children, noisy pets, boundary disputes and overgrown gardens are also top reasons neighbours are driving people mad. The research by property law experts Slater and Gordon, which polled 2,001 homeowners, found that seemingly minor incidents tend to be at the root cause of long-running and bitter feuds among neighbours. “We are seeing a rise in disputes between neighbours year on year at the moment,” said Samantha Blackburn of Slater and Gordon. “It’s difficult to pinpoint one reason. As property prices increase the home is becoming by far our biggest asset so we’re understandably protective of it.  It’s also likely that many people struggle to afford to buy somewhere that’s an appropriate size because of the increase in house prices. As a result you have more people living in inappropriate housing and more people renting who are potentially less committed to a neighbourhood and more transient”.   She added: “Fewer people seem to be getting to know their neighbours and building a relationship with them which means there aren’t so many opportunities to nip disputes in the bud with a friendly chat.”
   Almost one in five have retaliated to their neighbour’s inconsiderate parking by blocking their car in. Noise regularly caused anxiety for more than a third, with early morning lawn mowing, loud TV and phone calls, revving motorbikes or loud music causing a nuisance. Ms Blackburn advises homeowners to do their research before snapping up a property, speaking to their would-be neighbours and looking at crime statistics.  “The conveyancing process can throw up important warning signs of trouble to come,” she said. “Spotting potential problems before it’s too late is key.” For those already arguing, she added: “Whatever the problem, it’s important to look for a solution to the dispute sooner rather than later.  Once rows become entrenched or allowed to fester it can be more difficult to sort out.  We find it is usually far more straightforward to resolve a problem when clients come to us in the early stages.”

Shipping noise affects whales

​New research shows shipping noise in the North Atlantic could impact population levels of the whales


Increased shipping noise is disrupting the foraging behaviour of humpback whales in the North Atlantic, according to a new study. Scientists in the US and UK said their findings could impact upon the numbers of humpback whales in the long term.
Many whales are found in coastal areas with high levels of shipping traffic, which often results in frequent fatalities from collisions.
   The team collected data from 10 whales within the Stellwagen Bank national marine sanctuary, which is a popular whale watching site between Cape Cod and Cape Ann in the US.  They used archival tags that simultaneously recorded underwater movements and the acoustic environment to collect the data. Scientists in the US and UK found “significant” effects on foraging, including slower descent rates and fewer side-roll feeding events per dive with increasing ship noise.
   During five of 18 ship passages, dives without side-rolls were observed, they said.
Previous studies have shown that noise pollution can alter acoustic communications, distribution patterns and stress responses in a wide range of animals.
  The study was carried out by Hannah Blair and Susan Parks, from Syracuse University in New York, Ari Friedlaender, from Oregon State University, Nathan Merchant, from the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science in Suffolk and David Wiley from the Stellwagen Bank national marine sanctuary.
“These findings indicate that humpback whales on Stellwagen Bank, an area with chronically elevated levels of shipping traffic, significantly change foraging activity when exposed to high levels of ship noise,” the researchers said.   “This measureable reduction in within-dive foraging effort of individual whales could potentially lead to population-level impacts of shipping noise on whale foraging success.”
   They said there were several potential explanations for the results. “Whales may modify their diving behaviour in response to a perceived threat from ship noise, given that they require surface access to breathe,” they said. The researchers said they had expected humpback whales to show some familiarisation with ship noise because they have been regularly exposed to commercial and whale watching vessels for decades.
“Therefore, it is especially interesting that alterations to foraging behaviours were detectable in this study, as it suggests that humpbacks are unable to completely adjust to this disturbance,” they said. “These behavioural changes were also observed at night when there are fewer ship interactions compared with the day. Further research on the impacts of noise on daytime foraging activities and variation in the sensitivity to different age and sex classes are needed.”

Marks and Spencer’s decision to ban
piped music a victory for Pipedown

Nigel Rodgers and his group Pipedown quietly celebrate a rare victory in their war against piped music in public spaces, reports Caroline Davies in the Guardian (5th June 2016)

Stepping off a bustling Oxford Street into the Marks & Spencer flagship Marble Arch store, Nigel Rodgers stops, listens, then lets out a contented sigh.

“Nothing,” he declares, with some satisfaction. “When noise is succeeded by silence, there is a sense of release.”
For Rodgers, that sound of silence marks the culmination of two decades of diligent endeavour by his campaign group Pipedown, founded to wage war on muzak in public spaces. M&S’s decision last week to ban piped music in its storesis his “first major triumph in several years”.
Certainly, it was welcomed by Chris Olsson, 62, shopping at M&S with her daughter Nellie Grand, 22. “Thank you, thank you,” she tells Rodgers, as he explains Pipedown’s campaign. “I noticed something was different but didn’t immediately know what it was.”
Olsson, from Sweden, prefers the silence. “Yes, it’s good. Because in so many shops now there is music.” She believes marketing experts think it boosts sales. “It will be interesting to see the figures,” she says. And, while her daughter said she usually did not notice background music, “if it is too loud I might leave the store. It depends on the store.”
It is more than 20 years since Rodgers – author, art historian and environmentalist, then in his 30s and dining with a girlfriend whom he was unable to hear over the loud background music – first determined to do something about muzak.
His one-man mission has since burgeoned into an organisation with 1,500 UK members, whose early significant successes included Gatwick airport’s decision to ban piped music in public areas. Today there are branches in Germany, Austria and plans for one in the US.
Advertisement
Ten years ago, Rodgers and 40 or so of his members marched on Selfridges on Oxford Street after complaints to his organisation about the volume of background music. He managed to make a short speech before being bundled out by security.
Today Selfridges is much improved, he notes, walking through its departments. Background music is evident only in certain areas, one being near the Levi jeans section in menswear, where David Alan, 66, from Toronto is browsing. “I wish you’d come to Toronto. It drives me crazy. It’s outrageous there,” he tells Rodgers. “There are some places I refuse to go into because the music is so loud. I think you’re doing a great service to the citizens of Britain.”
Rodgers maintains there are real concerns about the acoustic wallpaper that is now part of everyday life, and that research indicates the majority of people don’t want it.
Many people with hearing and vision problems find it overwhelmingly distracting, as do some people with autism. Asda has introduced a “quiet hour” on Saturdays aimed at those with autism. “They even turn the escalators off, which I think is going a bit far,” says Rodgers.
Older people, too, are more distracted, with research in 2013 showing they hear background music louder, a condition known as presbycusis, and suffer noise nuisance on their hearing aids.
Pipedown appears to be going from strength to strength. The name is catchy – albeit a little confusing in Scotland where members of the Edinburgh Pipedown branch must constantly be reassured it does not seek a ban on bagpipes. Its logo owes much to Edvard Munch’s scream. An initial plan for an HMV-style dog looking at gramophone with a cork plugged in it was abandoned after tentative copyright approaches were met with a lawyer’s letter several pages long from the company.
 Christmas can be the worst time of the year for shop staff who have to listen to Jingle Bells 300 times. Photograph: Teri Pengilley
Rodgers’s ultimate ambition is for legislation to ban music in public areas of hospitals, where patients are trapped in their beds “unable to escape” the noisy hospital radio or TV. Complaints he has received from patients include: “Chemotherapy is bad enough without the blood-boiling irritation of muzak!” Another, describing the “dread, dread, dread” of “bloody TV soundtracks” on his shared hospital ward, pleads: “Heaven, please hear me and let my end come without music or TV.”
Christmas is the worst time, especially for staff. “Poor sales staff may have to listen to Jingle Bells 300 times,” said Rodgers. At Christmas in 2007, some Austrian shop workers sought compensation for suffering from the “psychological terror” of piped music – Silent Night was a particular peeve. The city of Linz recently declared itselfBeschallungsfrei – free of unwanted music.
In Starbucks, on Charing Cross Road, as customers sip their lattes to a gentle background jazz medley, the volume is low enough for Carmen Brion, 40, to tolerate. Welcoming the Pipedown campaign, she tells Rodgers: “I’m highly sensitive. I have to really try hard to filter out loud music, which makes it difficult to talk over it. I think psychologists have started to recognise that some people are much more sensitive. We tend to be, maybe, more introvert. There have been times when I have just had to walk out of a shop because it is too loud. Camden market, it is bad there, as the music is just so loud.”

No ifs, no buts’: don’t forget your Heathrow pledge, Mr Cameron

Simon Jenkins makes the case against a third runway at Heathrow in The Standard (7th June 2016)
Forget Brexit, for a moment. London will survive and prosper, whichever way the referendum goes. I am not so sure about what is about to be decided on Heathrow. London’s runway wars are rumoured to be coming to a head. Will David Cameron rat on his pledge of “no third Heathrow runway, no ifs, no buts”? Will he admit that HS2 was only backed because it was seen as an alternative to Heathrow, not an add-on? Is 2016 to be megaproject Armageddon? 
We need constantly to remember a crucial fact about London’s airports. They have next to nothing to do with “business and industry” and the much-vaunted UK plc. They are about leisure and tourism. Some 80 per cent of air travellers in and out of London are not classed as “businessmen”, and even those who claim this elevated title are probably on freebie jaunts. Heathrow’s lobbyists know tourism is not politically sexy, and so they present their customers as high-powered IT salesmen, widget manufacturers and entrepreneurs. They do not like to admit that the overwhelming bulk of air travel is optional, and for pleasure. 
We should also remember that we have been here before, and have the bloodstained T-shirts to prove it. The last great battles over London runway capacity, in the Seventies and Eighties, supposedly resolved it “for all time”. The greatest brains in Whitehall,  economists, geographers and planners, put their heads together and made a decision. It was that London’s third airport should be preferably east or north of city, and more distant from the centre. No civilised city would have a vast airport over a populated area, as is Heathrow. 
The decision was Stansted. It was built. The airlines initially hated it because they all wanted to be together at Heathrow. No one built a high-speed rail link to it, so Stansted is now half empty. But it still makes planning sense. It is ideally located for the reviving economy of east London and the London-Cambridge corridor. As recently as 2008, the then owner, the British Airports Authority, planned for it to grow bigger than Heathrow. It was the future, the question answered.
Only when Gordon Brown absurdly decided to sell Stansted to Manchester airport, “to promote competition” — he was the last true Thatcherite — did a furious BAA revert to lobbying for Heathrow. It came up against a fierce alliance of Gatwick and west London constituency MPs. This led to Cameron’s 2010 “no ifs, no buts” pledge to relieve Heathrow of further doubt. But when the Airports Commission was set up, Heathrow hurled the kitchen sink of lobbying at it, and won the day. 
Heathrow still has serious enemies. The first is the airport’s old ally, British Airways, which now realises that the landing charges required for a third runway are going to soar by 50 per cent. Willie Walsh, chairman of International Airlines Group, BA’s parent company, has clearly fallen out of love with Heathrow expansion. He has said bluntly: “We didn’t ask for it and we’re not going to pay for it.” 
Meanwhile, pollution levels in the west London/Heathrow area have become an issue. They are not just killing people: worse, they are embarrassing ministers. No one can show how an extra burst of airplane and associated vehicle exhausts can be anything but illegal under global clean-air regulations. A third runway would make Volkswagen’s fiddles look like minor misdemeanours. 
Heathrow is full or, as the planners put it, “at capacity”. But then so is Waterloo, so is Victoria, so is the M25, so is every London hospital, school and prison. Big, booming cities are always at capacity. That is why resources must be planned sensibly. Roads, railways, hospitals and schools are more crucial to the prosperity and welfare of the capital than the convenience of tourists, important though they may be. 
And why should Heathrow claim precedence? The days of “predict and provide” are over. If demand for infrastructure were to dictate its supply, the sky would be the limit. We would all be paying the Government 80 per cent income tax and builders would be laughing the way to the bank. 
Cameron has dithered and delayed. He clearly does not regard the pressure on Heathrow as being critical to the economy. He is right. There is no overriding reason for London to have a giant “hub” airport. In the age of the internet, speed of business travel is not a core economic lubricant. 
Leisure passengers may find Stansted, Gatwick, Luton and elsewhere inconvenient. If so, they can use coaches, cars, trains or lesser point-to-point airports. Or they can stay at home. None of these options will cripple the economy. If Cameron really wants to help the British economy with mega-infrastructure, every survey shows that the best value for money is from improving commuter railways and building better roads.  
There is no great cost in Cameron continuing to delay his decision — certainly as long as no one has any solution to London pollution. But if he feels he must do something he can honour his pledge to Heathrow’s residents. He can end their pain. He can give Gatwick, overwhelmingly a tourist airport, its runway. He can spend a fraction of the cost of Heathrow on a better rail link for Stansted. 
Beyond that he can tell the airlines to make do with the capacity they have been given, and let higher prices and provincial airports take the pressure of further demand. It is not a difficult decision

How noise pollution
can affect your health

This article by Professor Stephen Stansfeld first appeared in the Independent on 4th February 2016
 
It’s almost impossible to find complete peace and quiet. Even if you live deep in the countryside away from aircraft routes, traffic and building work, your home is probably filled with the buzz of computers and other modern appliances. In some locations, there are even claims of mysterious low-pitched noises with no known origin. For example, residents of Bristol in the west of England recently complained of a “hum”, which followed reports of a similar sound in the city in the 1970s.
 
Such sounds aren’t just annoying. There is increasing evidence that long-term environmental noise above a certain level can have a negative influence on your health. These effects can be physical, mental and possibly even disrupt children’s learning.

Recent research shows that road traffic and aircraft noise increase the risk of high blood pressure, especially noise exposure at night. A study of aircraft noise around London’s Heathrow airport found that high levels of aircraft noise was associated with increased risks of hospital admission and death for stroke, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease in the nearby area.
 
Another large study that looked at aircraft noise exposure over a much longer time period of 15 years found that deaths from heart attacks increased when the noise was louder and endured over a longer period of time. The latest estimates suggest a ten decibel average increase in aircraft noise exposure was related to an increase in high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes of between 7% and 17%.
 
Your emotional response to noise pollution can also be significant, so much so that it has a specific name: noise annoyance. This describes the negative feelings noise can create such as disturbance, irritation, dissatisfaction and nuisance, as well as a feeling of having one’s privacy invaded. Annoyance can vary widely between different people, however
·                                  
As well as the type and volume of the sound, other factors include how much it interferes with your activities, the fear you feel associated with the source of the noise, your coping mechanisms and even your belief about whether the noise is preventable. For example, you’re likely to feel more annoyance to aircraft flying overhead if you feel the airport is taking no measures to regulate the noise. However, the impact of annoyance on long-term health isn’t clear and the evidence actually suggests mental ill-health may increase the risk of annoyance rather than the other way round.
 
The health effects of quieter, background noises and “hums” such as the one heard in Bristol are also less clear, although they can certainly cause discomfort and annoyance. Similarly, a recent review of very-high frequency ultrasound (which cannot be consciously heard) concluded that the general population is much more exposed to ultrasound than in the past. It recommended that reports of symptoms such as nausea, headaches and dizziness that some people have linked to ultrasound should be further investigated.
 
Another important area of noise research is the effects on children’s learning. About 20 studies have found effects of either aircraft or road traffic noise on children’s reading abilities and long-term memory. One found that aircraft noise was associated with poorer reading comprehension and memory, after taking both the children’s social position and the road traffic noise into account. In the UK, reading age was delayed by up to two months for a five decibel average increase in aircraft noise exposure.

Council uses Criminal Behaviour Order
to get noise conviction

East Northamptonshire Council is one of the first local authorities in the UK to successfully apply for a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) after a conviction for breach of a noise abatement notice. Costa John Golding of Rushden was found guilty of breaching a noise abatement notice issued to control barking dogs at his home in Rushden. At Northampton Magistrates Court on February 18, he was found guilty of breaching the notice and fined a total of £4,707.44 (£726 for the offence and £3,981.44 of costs incurred by the council).
 
The conviction follows years of complaints against Golding involving barking dogs at his property. An abatement notice requiring him to control the noise from barking dogs was issued in February 2015 after a long and difficult investigation. Officers from the council continued to receive complaints about excessive dog barking, and breaches of the notice were witnessed between May and August that same year. The court heard how the noise from barking dogs and lengthy investigation had a devastating impact on his elderly and vulnerable neighbours.
The CBO states that Mr Golding has 28 days from the date of the hearing to remove all the dogs from his property and requires that no dogs will be kept there while he lives at his current address. A member of the council’s environmental protection team will inspect the property after 28 days to confirm that no dogs are present. Should Golding continue to keep dogs at the property after 28 days, the council has powers to bring a further prosecution for a breach of the CBO.Cllr Steven North, leader of East Northamptonshire Council, said: “We will continue to investigate cases of noise nuisance and take all necessary steps to prevent nuisance and antisocial behaviour affecting residents in our district. “This is a great demonstration of the use of new anti-social behaviour powers to prevent harassment, alarm and distress to our residents.”

Read more: http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/top-stories/rushden-man-fined-for-breaching-noise-abatement-order-to-control-his-barking-dogs-1-7240520#ixzz43tjBNInX

If we really cared about mental health,
muzak would be a top priority

We are all to blame for the spread of background noise. Many feel uneasy with silence and want to be jollied along. Yet piped music is bad for our mental and physical healthby Peter Phillips (first appeared in The Spectator)
 
No one is consulted. No one is held to account. No one has the authority to turn it off. How is it that muzak has slipped through every legal control?
The blame, I’d say, lies with those who are frightened of silence — with those who spend more money in shops that buzz to a friendly background hum, and laugh too loudly when all around are mute. To moderate their visceral fear of the quiet they cling to cheaply produced, intellectually demeaning and superficially comforting sub-music. Muzak comes in various forms — piped, performed live, and through other people’s headphones, when you can’t actually hear pitched sounds, only a desiccated, insistent beat.
 
Live it can be most memorable. Everyone must have their least favourite story. Mine is that last summer I went to stay in a hotel by the Valley of the Temples, just outside Agrigento in Sicily. In the middle distance was the perfect silhouette of the ancient Tempio della Concordia, at dinner time beautifully lit. The meal was fussy and overpriced, but one gets used to that in my profession. Behind the table was an eager young man at a Steinway, trying to play Scott Joplin’s rags. These are difficult to bring off at the best of times (which was when Joplin played them himself). Timing is of the essence, which in this case was only a fraction of the problem. Much worse was that he had misheard or mislaid the original harmonies. So I sat there, trapped, chewing, fighting every note I heard. Unlike piped music, it was an intrusion that stopped and started, was human and was applauded. It was there because before loudspeakers and recordings existed, the same nervousness with silence had afflicted those responsible for public spaces. This was the genteel, expensive version.
The website Pipedown.info (‘The campaign for freedom from piped music’), which is trying to address the issue of noise pollution, has some interesting statistics. A survey of 115 blood donors at Nottingham University Medical School found that piped music made people more nervous before giving blood, and more depressed after giving it, than silence. It also discovered that a typical sales assistant will be forced to hear ‘Jingle Bells’ at least 300 times in the run-up to Christmas. If mental health were ever a genuine concern for employers, they should surely look at those numbers.
Yet forcing muzak-peddlers to be more accountable to their unwitting publics hasn’t worked so far. I have seen those carefully phrased little pieces of paper which people occasionally leave behind in restaurants, demanding that the horror of unwanted music be ended. But how does one ban something most people haven’t noticed, and some even like? We are all complicit. I, for example, spend long days looking for potential recording venues where the silence is absolute — in order to fill them with sound.
Towards the end of his life Sir John Tavener wrote a piece entitled Towards Silence, for four string quartets and Tibetan bowl, a meditation on the States of Dying. Nicholas Kenyon wrote of it in the Observer: ‘I know of no music that takes us quite so near to the edge of death.’ And that’s the problem with silence — it leaves us alone with ourselves. We feel uneasy and want to be jollied along. A good time equals noise. Until we seek silence for its own sake, we will have, and deserve, piped music.

Governments Lying About
Wind Turbine Noise

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/how-silence-became-a-luxury-good/408412/

Dramatic drop in noise and air pollution on Paris car-free day

Paris’s “day without cars” last week led to such a dramatic drop in both air and noise pollution that the mayor’s office is now planning more vehicle-free days in the French capital.
 
Airparif, which measures city pollution levels, said levels of nitrogen dioxide dropped by up to 40% in parts of the city on Sunday 27 September.  There was almost one-third less nitrogen dioxide pollution on the busy Champs Elyées than on a similar Sunday.  Along the Seine in the city centre, levels were down by about 40%. At the busy Place de l’Opera, levels were 20% lower.  Bruitparif, which measures noise, said sound levels dropped by half in the city centre.  Officials and environmentalists hailed the event as a success despite disappointment that police had refused to allow the ban to cover the whole city. The official intervention meant only 30% of Paris was off limits to vehicles.
 
City mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has made reducing Paris’s worryingly high pollution levels a top priority, said she hoped to introduce a regular citywide vehicle ban.  “We might envisage days without cars more often … perhaps even once a month,” she wrote on Twitter.  In March, a spike in air contaminants briefly turned Paris into the world’s most polluted city. The noxious smog was so dense it almost obscured the French capital’s totemic landmark, the Eiffel Tower.

Northern Ireland wind energy
subsidy to end year early

The current subsidy system for on-shore wind energy in Northern Ireland is set to end next April, a year earlier than planned. Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell has started a two-week consultation on the proposal. He had previously said he would maintain the subsidy system until 2017. However, he said that changes in UK policy now mean that keeping it until 2017 would impose extra costs on consumers. 
The subsidy system for renewable energy is being radically scaled back by the Conservative government. Energy policy is devolved to Stormont, but decisions taken at Westminster are having a knock-on effect. Under the current UK system all onshore wind energy projects are guaranteed a subsidy. That system is ending in 2016, to be replaced by one in which there is UK-wide competition for subsidy payments. Renewable development will take place within the UK wherever it is most economic.

In June, Mr Bell said he wanted to "make it clear" that in Northern Ireland the current system would continue until 2017. However, he said that position has changed following discussion with the Department of Energy and Climate Change. He said it has become clear that if Northern Ireland went its own way the cost impact would be "borne solely by the relatively small number of NI consumers rather than by all consumers across the UK". Small scale wind schemes can still qualify for the subsidy but only if they have planning permission, property agreements and grid connection agreements in place.

Larger "cluster connection" schemes have until 30 October to get all necessary agreements in place. This means that any schemes which are at a preliminary stage have no guarantee of getting a subsidy and may not proceed.

Noise levels in UK’s coastal waters to be studied for first time

Underwater noise in the marine environment is the focus of a new UK-wide research partnership to monitor the ‘soundscape’ in UK waters.  The Centre for the Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) has teamed up with Marine Scotland Science and the University of Exeter to analyse underwater noise data from subsea sound recorders located around the UK coast.

Sources of noise in the ocean include shipping, seismic exploration, and construction activity, such as port extensions or offshore wind farms. There is concern that rising levels of underwater noise pollution worldwide may have an impact on marine life by interfering with communication, causing changes in behaviour, and raising stress levels.  For the first time ever, marine scientists will work together to produce an initial baseline assessment of background noise levels in UK coastal waters, including seasonal and annual patterns, as well as spatial differences. The work, funded by Defra and Marine Scotland, will help to inform the development of a UK-wide noise monitoring strategy, as part of the UK’s commitment to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), which seeks to attain Good Environmental Status in European seas by 2020.

A range of government, academic and marine science organisations in the UK are being consulted to scope the potential for a partnership-based approach to establishing a noise-monitoring programme. The findings and recommendations of the project will be available early next year. Cefas Senior Scientist and Project Lead, Dr Nathan Merchant said: “This collaboration between leading UK marine science organisations enables us to share data, expertise and research findings in this increasingly important field. A partnership approach to marine noise monitoring will help us gain a deeper understanding of underwater noise and its impact on the marine environment, as well as providing a more cost-effective solution to establishing a UK-wide monitoring network.”

Council receives just nine complaints over town centre noise in past year

WARRINGTON Borough Council's commitment to clamping down on excessive town centre noise is proving to be a success after it received just nine complaints in the past year.

As part of plans to regenerate Bridge Street, the council is bidding to make the area more welcoming for all residents.

The nine complaints received over licensed premises were linked to general disturbance, delivery vehicles and music.

But despite the welcome figure, the council will continue to do all it can to help make the town centre a better place for generations to come.

A spokesman said: "The council is committed to regenerating the Bridge Street area and promoting a vibrant town centre that appeals to all, while balancing the needs of residents.

"We take these complaints very seriously and place clear expectations on premise licence holders to minimise any noise disturbance and we will continue to work closely with them to alleviate residents' concerns.

"We recognise that the current late night offer has potential to disturb residents and we want people to have a say in the current night time economy and our plans for the future and how we get the right balance in the town centre."

A survey of 254 town centre residents between last July and September stated 65 per cent of people felt noise was a problem, in particular from those dispersing from venues.

Music from licensed premises and noise from fast food outlets was 'less of an issue'.

But Chris Slater, who lives on White Street, believes it is down to residents to properly assess their surroundings before purchasing a property in the area.

"I never hear people being noisy from clubs or bars," he said.

"I think when you move into the town centre you should expect noise from cars, trains, sirens and a lot of people.

"If you are expecting perfectly quiet surroundings you should move to a place on the countryside." For further information visit warrington.gov.uk/register or e-mail environmental.health@warrington.gov.uk.

Council cracks down on noisy street musicians

Thousands of goods have been seized as part of a campaign to wage war on ‘nuisance’ pedlars who target city centre shoppers in Manchester..

City chief Pat Karney likened Market Street  to a Moroccan Souk after setting up a task force to tackle the mass of people that clog up the city’s  busiest streets.

And for the last two weekends the team have swept through the city’s streets clamping down on noisy musicians and pedlars selling goods without the required permits.

And just one weekend’s action saw seven separate seizures of goods by officers working alongside Greater Manchester Police, as well as a fixed penalty notice issued for flyering without a permit.

City centre chief Coun Pat Karney said: “From just one bookseller we seized more than 1,000 books, so it goes to show there is a big problem.

“But we’re making progress - the number of pedlars and traders is reducing and the noise pollution is becoming less bothersome.

“We are going to be continuing to go out and cracking down on people not following the rules or that are selling illegally.

“We are also going to be talking to the benefits agency to find out whether people who are out selling on the streets are also claiming any welfare payments.”

After also promising to target street preachers during the operation, Coun Karney revealed that the council had received a letter from the Christian Institute warning it that it would support the street preachers’ right to address people in public spaces.

The letter says: “The Christian Institute has long supported the rights of street preachers and has funded several legal cases where local authorities or police have unlawfully interfered with those rights."

But Coun Karney said that he would continue to try and cut out ‘noisy’ preachers, or those that discuss subjects which could provoke members of the public.

He said: “Preachers do have a right to be out on the streets but I do not think it right if they are talking about morality.

“Some talk about race or sexual orientation and that is not proper at all.

“They also sometimes appear in large groups making lots of noise, or have very loud PA systems.

“They’re perfectly entitled to talk about the Jesus and the word of God, but not to make anyone feel insecure or threatened.”

Buying a house on noisy road raises the risk of stroke

The traffic outside your house could be killing you. Scientists believe that the stress associated with living near busy roads could reduce life expectancy.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that people living on the roads with the noisiest daytime traffic were 4 per cent more likely to die in the study period and 5 per cent more likely to be admitted to hospital for stroke. Among elderly people the risk of stroke was 9 per cent higher.

They also looked at night-time traffic, which was associated with a 5 per cent rise in stroke risk among the elderly. “Road traffic noise has been associated with sleep problems and increased blood pressure, but our study is the first in the UK to show a link with deaths and strokes,” Jaana Halonen, a researcher, said.

For the study, published in the European Heart Journal, the researchers were able to access data for 8.6 million people living in London between 2003 and 2010. By looking at the hospital admissions and deaths logged in each postcode they could associate illness with traffic noise.

“This is the largest study of its kind to date, looking at everyone living inside the M25 over a seven-year period,” Dr Halonen said. “Our findings contribute to the body of evidence suggesting that reductions in traffic noise could be beneficial to our health.” The World Health Organisation defines loud traffic noise as that above 55 decibels — a level experienced in the homes of 1.6 million Londoners.

The authors of the study were not able to definitively explain the link, but suggested that it could be due to raised stress and disturbed sleep. They pointed out that the postcode data did not account for individual circumstances, such as which way windows faced.

Over the period of the study 442,560 adult Londoners died, 291,139 of them elderly, and 400,494 adults were hospitalised with heart problems, 179,163 of them elderly.

Scientists already know that road pollution is linked to ill health. A study in 2007 claimed that the cumulative effect of air pollution in a city over a lifetime lowers life expectancy to a greater degree than the radiation exposure experienced by Chernobyl survivors.

Another report estimates that air pollution reduces the average life expectancy in Britain by eight months. Anna Hansell, of Imperial College London, said that factors such as diet, smoking, lack of exercise and medical conditions such as raised blood pressure and diabetes would have a stronger effect than where someone sleeps. “From this type of study, we can’t tell for certain what the risks of noise are to an individual. However, it does raise important questions about the potential health effects of noise in our cities that need further investigation,” she said.

Locals to get veto on wind farms

Amber Rudd, the new Secretary of State for energy and climate, has said that local residents  will be able to block all future onshore wind farms under new measures to be fast-tracked into law, the new energy secretary has announced.  She said she had “put a rocket” under her officials to “put the local community back in charge” of their own neighbourhoods.  In an interview with the Sunday Times she also said no subsidies will be paid to operators of new onshore wind turbines under legislation to be included in the Queen’s speech. The legislation, which Rudd is “hopeful” will be law by the middle of next year, will ensure that consent for new wind farms will have to be given by a local council planning authority, which will be duty-bound to consult residents. Under current planning rules, big onshore wind farms are handled by a central government national infrastructure body that can ignore the wishes of local people. Rudd said: “It will mean no more onshore wind farm subsidies and no more onshore wind farms without local community support.  The 4,000 existing onshore wind turbines produce power for 4m homes. They will remain and 3,000 more with planning permission will be completed, providing power to an extra 3m homes by 2020.

New HACAN East report highlights flood of complaints about London City Airport's concentrated flight paths.

To read the report:  http://hacan.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/HACAN-East-booklet.pdf …

How having the TV on can stop your child from
learning to talk: Noisy houses hinder toddlers
​picking up new words

By COLIN FERNANDEZ, SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 05:56, 21 July 2016 | UPDATED: 10:13, 21 July 2016

Noisy houses with televisions blaring and traffic roaring by can stunt children’s ability to read, a study suggests. Researchers found toddlers struggled to learn new words during an experiment when there was noise in the background. Background noise levels interfere with the ability to learn new words. Noisy classrooms may also be hindering children’s progress, the authors said.
   Toddlers struggle to learn new words when there is noise from a blaring television or roaring traffic in the background, a study has found  Writing in the journal Child Development, researchers the University of Wisconsin-Madison said: ‘Learning words is an important skill that provides a foundation for children’s ability to achieve academically. ‘Modern homes are filled with noisy distractions such as TV, radio, and people talking that could affect how children learn words at early ages. Our study suggests that adults should be aware of the amount of background speech in the environment when they are interacting with young children.’
   The authors said previous research has found that too much noise can affect children’s mental development. Children living in noisier homes have been found to have worse school reports, and higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood, and higher heart rates than children from more peaceful homes. But most studies of language learning have been conducted in quiet laboratory settings.
The authors attempted to gauge the effects of noisy environment more typical of homes and schools. For the study, 106 children aged between 22 and 30 months took part in three experiments in which they were taught names for unfamiliar objects.
They were then tested on their ability to recognize the objects when they were labelled.
   Previous research found children living in noisier homes have been found to have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood - and higher heart rates than children from more peaceful homes (file photo) The toddlers initially listened to sentences featuring two new words. They were then taught which objects the new names corresponded to. Finally, the toddlers were tested on their ability to recall the words. In two experiments, 80 toddlers heard either louder or quieter background speech when learning the new words. But only the toddlers exposed to the quieter background speech were able to learn the new words.
   In a third experiment, 26 older toddlers were shown two word labels in a quiet environment.  Next, the toddlers were taught the meanings of four word labels - two they had just heard and two new ones – in a noisy environment.
   Children learn more words in a quieter environment where people speak fluently and highlight important information, researchers said (file photo) 
The children learned the new words and their meanings only after first hearing the labels in a quiet environment.
   The researchers said the earlier exposure to the words in a quiet environment helped them overcome the difficulty in learning them later with distracting background noise.
Jenny Saffran, a psychology professor and co-author of the study said: ‘Hearing new words in fluent speech without a lot of background noise before trying to learn what objects the new words corresponded to may help very young children master new vocabulary. ‘But when the environment is noisy, drawing young children’s attention to the sounds of the new word may help them compensate.’
   The authors advise that parents and teachers may find that reducing background noise or highlighting important information can help children learn even when there is background noise.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3700699/TV-noise-hinder-toddlers-picking-new-words-study-claims.html#ixzz4LMlIT9qh 

Sea creatures are being drowned out by noise pollution, but for once we’re listening

Noise pollution in the oceans has become a big problem for mammals but, as  Samantha Lee reports  in www.grist.org (Jun 7, 2016), there are signs of some action being taken.

It’s always been noisy under the sea. Coral reefs crackle with life, dolphins whistle, and sperm whales click so loudly they’ll bust your eardrums. But that boisterous marine chorus is being drowned out by noise pollution from — you guessed it — us.
A growing body of research suggests that noise from commercial ships, seismic surveys, and industrial work like oil drilling interferes with the behavior of marine animals, who rely on sound to communicate and navigate. While scientists admit that the effects of noise pollution are still not fully understood, this fact is certain: The ocean is 10 times noisier today than it was 50 years ago. And as if the beleaguered beasts haven’t dealt with enough — plastics, pollution, overfishing — warming seas, apparently, are better conductors of sound.
Thankfully, a team of researchers is listening. Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a draft for a strategy that will research and mitigate the effect of noise on marine life. Comments from the public are accepted until July 1 — so brainstorm away.

The Ocean Noise Strategy Roadmap  is a “high-level guide, rather than a prescriptive listing of program-level actions,” according to its website. To that end, some of its immediate goals include reviewing effects of noise pollution on habitats and populations; recommending noise management practices; and encouraging quieter technologies like, well, quieter ships. It also emphasizes cooperation between the various NOAA offices and external groups such as conservation groups and industry associations.
The roadmap is one of the first steps in an ambitious 10-year plan to make the undersea world sound less like Lollapalooza. (The first step, called CetSound, mapped man-made underwater noise in the ocean, as well as populations of whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and debuted in 2012.)
The next critical step will be action. “The key, of course, is implementation,” writes Michael Jasny, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Marine Mammal Protection Project, on his blog. “What is needed, plainly and soon, is a concrete implementation plan and a budget to achieve it.”
There’s nothing sadder than an unheard whale — just ask Vince Chase.

The Sound of Silence

A new film, In Pursuit of Silence by Patrick Shen, had its UK premier at the Sheffield Film Festival in early June 2016.  This is a review of it by Sandra Ceurstemont in the New Scientist.
 
If you live in a modern city, finding a quiet spot is a challenge. The buzz of traffic, planes, sirens and the racket of construction are probably the backing track of your daily life. And you’ll get no respite by sitting at your computer even with headphones on: browsing the internet, you’ll be interrupted by ads on autoplay or telltale beeps announcing a new message.
Most people seem to adapt to the cacophony, but are we paying a price?
In Pursuit of Silence, a documentary film directed by Patrick Shen making its UK premiere last week at Sheffield Doc/Fest, explores our relationship with silence and the impact of noise on our lives.
It begins boldly with 4 minutes of “silence” as an ode to John Cage’s seminal piece of “silent” music, which featured an orchestra turning pages and clearing throats, but not actually playing. Luckily the beautifully shot, calm scenes aren’t boring to watch and, accompanied by some of the quiet sounds at these locations, they challenge the idea that anywhere is completely silent.
Even if there were no humans, the environment wouldn’t be quiet. On land, in the air and in the sea, the natural world is awash with sound. But some types of sound can be disruptive.
No talking
The film follows Greg Hindy, a young man who has taken a vow of silence and is trying to get away from distracting sources of noise embedded in electronics and entertainment. “My intuition was that it was a good thing to do,” he writes, showing his words to the camera.
His instinct may be correct. A few years ago, the World Health Organization declared that excessive loud and unpleasant sounds pose a health risk in western Europe. Biologically, noise is meant to alert us to danger and when we hear sounds, our levels of stress hormones and blood pressure rise. Chronic noise exposure can have a long-term impact on health, for example, by disrupting sleep, and at its most extreme it can kill, typically by contributing to heart attacks.
Noise can harm us in more subtle ways, too. In the film, bioacoustician Kurt Fristrupfrom Colorado State University in Fort Collins mentions the gradual onset of hearing loss that many people may not notice.
We may also be losing the ability to hear distant sounds, which our ancestors would have been able to pick up when living in the relative silence of nature.
Sound in mind?
Then there is the effect of sound on our minds. Music can alter mood, and even relieve anxiety, but intrusive sounds can affect our ability to make sense of what we’re hearing. And the increasing level of noise in hospitals is thought by some to lead to medical errors.
In a widely publicised 1975 study, Arline Bronzaft, an environmental psychologist, found that pupils in classrooms close to railway tracks fell a year behind in their reading scores – which prompted officials to add padding to the tracks and soundproof school ceilings.
In Pursuit of Silence touches on other potential solutions to the rising tide of noise. A foundation called Quiet Mark in Hove, UK, for example, works with manufacturers to create quieter technology.
And airlines are setting noise targets. Virgin Atlantic, for instance, wants to reduce plane noise by 75 per cent over the next four years. Car designers are also aiming to create quieter models.
Appreciate the silence
In Japan, a more offbeat solution is to attend forest therapy sessions to de-stress.
Ultimately, modern culture may be hindering a peaceful lifestyle, as people spend most of their spare moments getting a stimulating hit from the digital world.
A tea ceremony featured in the film illustrates Japan’s cultural appreciation of silence, while in the West, more importance is often placed on being loud and expressing yourself.
The documentary is engaging and thought-provoking throughout. Its meditative style, however, might take some getting used to; we are so accustomed to the adrenaline rush of an action film to keep us entertained that reconnecting with our quiet side can be hard work.

Noise harder on children than adults, hinders how they learn: research

An article by Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Press, published Sunday, February 14, 2016
 
WASHINGTON -- From the cacophony of day care to the buzz of TV and electronic toys, noise is more distracting to a child's brain than an adult's, and new research shows it can hinder how youngsters learn. In fact, one of the worst offenders when a tot's trying to listen is other voices babbling in the background, researchers said Saturday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
"What a child hears in a noisy environment is not what an adult hears," said Dr. Lori Leibold of Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. That's a Catch-22 in our increasingly noisy lives because "young children learn language from hearing it," said Dr. Rochelle Newman of the University of Maryland. "They have a greater need for understanding speech around them but at the same time they're less equipped to deal with it."
It's not their ability to hear. For healthy children, the auditory system is pretty well developed by a few months of age.
Consider how hard it is to carry on a conversation in a noisy restaurant. Researchers simulated that background in a series of experiments by playing recordings of people reading and talking while testing how easily children detected words they knew, such as "playground," when a new voice broke through the hubbub, or how easily they learned new words.
The youngest children could recognize one person's speech amid multiple talkers, but only at relatively soft noise levels, Newman said. Even the background noise during relatively quiet day care story time can be enough for tots to miss parts of what's read, she said.
It's not just a concern for toddlers and preschoolers. The ability to understand and process speech against competing background noise doesn't mature until adolescence, Leibold said. Nor is the challenge just to tune out the background buzz. Brief sudden noises -- someone coughs, a car horn blares -- can drown out part of a word or sentence. An adult's experienced brain automatically substitutes a logical choice, often well enough that the person doesn't notice, Newman said. "Young children don't do this. Their brain doesn't fill in the gaps," she said.
 
Children who were born prematurely may have an additional risk. When preemies spend a long time in an incubator, their brains get used to the constant "white noise" of the machine's fan -- different from a full-term baby who develops hearing mom's voice in the womb and thus is wired to pay more attention to voices, said Dr. Amir Lahav of Harvard Medical School. He had mothers of preemies record themselves singing lullabies or reading stories, and filtered them along with the sound of mom's heartbeat into the incubator three times a day when she wasn't otherwise visiting. The brain's auditory cortex became more developed in babies given that extra womb-like exposure compared with preemies with typical incubator care, Lahav found. Moreover, when those babies were big enough to leave the hospital, they paid more attention to speech, he said. "Exposure to noises and sounds very early in life will spill over to affect how our brain is going to function," Lahav said.
 
Noise also is a special challenge for children with hearing loss, who may need technology beyond standard hearing aids to cope, Leibold said, describing special receivers that can transmit a teacher's voice directly to the ear so it's not lost in classmates' chatter.
The research has implications for classroom design, too, Leibold added, as the type of flooring or ceiling height can either soften kids' natural noise or bounce it around.
 
But learning starts at home, and University of Maryland child language specialist Nan Bernstein Ratner often has parents ask if they should stimulate a tot's environment with interactive toys and educational TV. "We tend to think bustling environments and creating background noise is stimulating for kids," she said. But, she said, "what's stimulating on the part of the parent may not be for the child."
 
Among the tips:

• Don't leave the TV, radio and other electronics on in the background. It's not clear whether soft music is distracting, but lyrics might be, Ratner said.
• Speak clearly and make eye contact.
• Especially in noise, make sure tots see your face. They can pick up on mouth movements, Newman said.
• If the child doesn't understand, try again with simpler words.
• If a child's having school behaviour problems, make sure being unable to hear in class isn't the problem.

How noise pollution can affect your health

Evidence shows that noise pollution can be damaging
by Stephen Stansfeld  (first appeared in the Independent 4th February 2016)
 
It’s almost impossible to find complete peace and quiet. Even if you live deep in the countryside away from aircraft routes, traffic and building work, your home is probably filled with the buzz of computers and other modern appliances. In some locations, there are even claims of mysterious low-pitched noises with no known origin. For example, residents of Bristol in the west of England recently complained of a “hum”, which followed reports of a similar sound in the city in the 1970s.
Such sounds aren’t just annoying. There is increasing evidencethat long-term environmental noise above a certain level can have a negative influence on your health. These effects can be physical, mental and possibly even disrupt children’s learning.
 
Physical reaction
Recent research shows that road traffic and aircraft noise increase the risk of high blood pressure, especially noise exposure at night. A study of aircraft noise around London’s Heathrow airport found that high levels of aircraft noise was associated with increased risks of hospital admission and death for stroke, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease in the nearby area.
Another large study that looked at aircraft noise exposure over a much longer time period of 15 years found that deaths from heart attacks increased when the noise was louder and endured over a longer period of time. The latest estimates suggest a ten decibel average increase in aircraft noise exposure was related to an increase in high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes of between 7% and 17%.
Your emotional response to noise pollution can also be significant, so much so that it has a specific name: noise annoyance. This describes the negative feelings noise can create such as disturbance, irritation, dissatisfaction and nuisance, as well as a feeling of having one’s privacy invaded. Annoyance can vary widely between different people, however
As well as the type and volume of the sound, other factors include how much it interferes with your activities, the fear you feel associated with the source of the noise, your coping mechanisms and even your belief about whether the noise is preventable. For example, you’re likely to feel more annoyance to aircraft flying overhead if you feel the airport is taking no measures to regulate the noise. However, the impact of annoyance on long-term health isn’t clear and the evidence actually suggests mental ill-health may increase the risk of annoyance rather than the other way round.
The health effects of quieter, background noises and “hums” such as the one heard in Bristol are also less clear, although they can certainly cause discomfort and annoyance. Similarly, a recent review of very-high frequency ultrasound (which cannot be consciously heard) concluded that the general population is much more exposed to ultrasound than in the past. It recommended that reports of symptoms such as nausea, headaches and dizziness that some people have linked to ultrasound should be further investigated.
Another important area of noise research is the effects on children’s learning. About 20 studies have found effects of either aircraft or road traffic noise on children’s reading abilities and long-term memory. One found that aircraft noise was associated with poorer reading comprehension and memory, after taking both the children’s social position and the road traffic noise into account. In the UK, reading age was delayed by up to two months for a five decibel average increase in aircraft noise exposure.

New Noisy Neighbours Website

A new website - and chat group – for people disturbed by noise neighbours has been set up: http://www.noisyneighbours.net/.  Ar present they have got a petition running calling for better sound proofing in flats: http://www.noisyneighbours.net/forum/post/52537/#p52537

And an Updated Noise Nuisance Website

And our friends at Noise Nuisance have updated their website.  Check it out: http://noisenuisance.org/

Leeds Council gets 12,000 noise
complaints in a year   

In 2015 Leeds Council said it will crack down on offenders after it was revealed more than 12,000 complaints were made over nuisance noise last year - the equivalent of 16 complaints for every 1,000 city residents.  The figure, released under a Freedom of Information Act by noise monitoring firm Cirrus Research, is the highest for any council in Yorkshire, and the second highest when compared with the size of the population.

End of Pop Music in Shopping Centres?

The Bullring in Birmingham, home to one of Britain’s largest shopping malls, has been experimenting with quieter music. For years pounding pop music has filled almost every corner and shoppers, of all ages and tastes, have had to tolerate it or leave. Now an experiment has shown that replacing clamourous loud music with much softer ambient music – not blended ‘muzak’ but a sound closer to the sea – has a positive effect on shoppers. They move less rapidly and seem to spend more. The results are still tentative but suggest that less noise equals more sales, at least initially. Pipedowners might prefer no background music at all but this is certainly an improvement. It would be interesting to see the effects of no music at all. Julian Treasure, chairman of the Sound Agency, is involved in the experiment. see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35154100    (Thanks to Pipedown for this news)

The 3rd Runway at Heathrow –
just an Nimby issue?

As the Government puts back a decision on where to build a new runway until at least the middle of 2015, there has been much talk recently that opposition to a 3rd runway at Heathrow just comes from 'West London Nimbys' halting 3rd runway.  This blog argues that aircraft noise from Heathrow is a problem experienced way beyond West London http://hacan.org.uk/blog/?p=456     

Civil Aviation Authority under Fire

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has come under severe criticism from an independent report into the way it has handled recent flight path changes: http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/AirspaceChangeProcessIndependentReviewFinal.pdf  

Wind Farm Campaigners Fight On

Wind farm campaigners at Graveley, near St Neots, have vowed to fight on despite a council ruling against them.  Check the link for details and to see just how close the turbines are to people’s homes
http://www.huntspost.co.uk/news/wind_farm_campaigners_will_fight_on_despite_council_ruling_on_noise_nuisance_1_4343982

5 Everyday Noises That Can
Ruin Your Hearing

We live in a noisy world. There’s so much noise so much of the time that we become oblivious to it. We accept noise as the background to our lives.  That is, until we find ourselves left out of conversations and turning up the volume on the television because we can’t hear.  Even everyday sounds like household appliances and portable music players can slowly rob you of your ability to hear. According to the National Institutes on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), exposure to loud and long-lasting sounds can damage sensitive structures in the inner ear and cause noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Hearing loss can be so gradual that you don’t notice it until it’s a big problem. And it can be permanent.

Exposure to extremely loud sounds like gunshots or explosions can immediately rupture your eardrum or cause damage to bones in your middle ear. Sometimes, it’s temporary and hearing returns within a few days. It can also be permanent.  The NIDCD says about 15 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 69 have hearing loss related to noise exposure. About 16 percent of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 have some hearing loss due to loud noise. 

5 Every Day Noises That Can Ruin Your Hearing

1. City noises: heavy traffic, the subway, motorcycles, sirens
2. Yard and garden tools: lawnmowers, leaf blowers
3. Power tools: drills, chainsaws, jackhammers
4. Music: portable music devices with earphones, rock concerts
5. Household appliances: blenders, food processors, blow dryers
Sound is measured in decibels. According to the NIDCD, prolonged exposure to noises at or above 85 decibels can damage your hearing. Without protection, you should limit exposure to noises above 100 decibels to no more than 15 minutes. More than one minute of exposure to noises of 110 decibels or more puts you at risk of permanent hearing loss.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-everyday-noises-that-can-ruin-your-hearing.html#ixzz3nZz84peo

Council urges people to speak up over noisy neighbours

Dozens of Hartlepool people have lodged complaints about rowdy parties and loud music.

And there’s still a chance for even more town residents to do the same thanks to a service which clamps down on noise nuisance.

A late-night call-out service, which is run by Hartlepool Borough Council, is receiving plenty of calls.

It operates from 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays until 3am the next day throughout the summer. The service will stop at 3am on Sunday, August 30.

Residents can call a dedicated mobile telephone number – 07789 921338 – to report loud music, rowdy parties and other noise-related problems. And as latest figures show, plenty of people have taken up the chance to make a report.

The service received 103 calls in 2014 and so far this summer it has already received 74 calls.

Head of Public Protection Sylvia Pinkney said: “Most of the complaints we have received have been about one-off incidents such as loud music at parties that environmental health staff have been able to resolve informally.

“However, we have served three abatement notices and the purpose of these notices is to inform individuals of the nature of the problem and indicate what action must be taken to correct it, and notify them of the consequences of non compliance.

“Our message to Hartlepool residents is that noise can carry some distance, particularly at night, and that you can have a good time without making your neighbours’ lives a misery.”

When a complaint is received, council officers initially assess the extent of a problem before deciding whether further action is required.

Where a complaint is felt to be justified, people are asked to reduce the amount of noise they are making.

And those who do not bring down their noise levels after being requested to can be served with an abatement notice.

The council also has the power to seize music equipment, while the ultimate sanction is prosecution at a magistrates’ court under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act. Conviction can result in a fine of up to £5,000.

The sound of silence: is cutting out noise the answer to a stress-free life?
‘Because we can’t see it, it’s easy to overlook the serious impact that noise can have on our health.’ 

We all know the importance of a little peace and quiet, but how often do we actually manage to escape the noise and get a moment of silence?

Peace is a precious commodity in a world where persistent noise has become part of the daily commute. We are surrounded by sound; from angry car horns to relentless beats escaping from other people’s headphones, and loudly spinning washing machines.

Sound is my family business. My grandfather John Connell OBE founded theNoise Abatement Society in 1959, after lobbying the Noise Abatement Act in parliament. My mother, Gloria Elliott, is now the chief executive of the charity. I founded Quiet Mark in 2012: an award for household tools, appliances and vehicles that reduce noise output but maintain high performance.

Because we can’t see it, it’s easy to overlook the serious impact that noise can have on our health. The World Health Organisation reports that 40% of Europe’s population is exposed to noise levels in excess of 55dB at night: a level that disturbs sleep, concentration and productivity, raises blood pressure and increases incidences of heart disease.

When the department for environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) and Quiet Mark surveyed 2,000 visitors to our Quiet House at the Ideal Home Show, 76% felt that the quality of their home life is affected by noise. A further 61% felt that noise in the workplace adversely affects how well they perform.

Why is silence so important?Silence is liberating. Thinking decisions through from beginning to end with no distractions is something I try to do for an hour each morning. Taking time out actually helps me to stay peaceful despite the demands of the rest of the day. Creativity flows and decisions download effortlessly. It can be a comfort in challenging times and a special way to solve problems.

A recent YouGov and Mental Health Foundation survey reported that 29% of people are stressed; while 24% suffer from anxiety and 17% from depression.

Of the 2,000 British adults surveyed, nearly half of workers struggle to switch off after work, and that nearly two thirds of people would be likely to take part in activities that reduce stress if given the option.

Advertisement

Sitting quietly could be the key, whether that’s at home before breakfast or with our work colleagues on the 14th floor of the office.Meditation has been shown to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, reduce chronic pain and improve sleep. Silence improves our health.

The power of silence has been embraced by the medical profession in recent years as a way of reducing stress and combating depression and anxiety. The NHS now, in some instances, prescribes the ancient art of meditation and mindfulness to patients when once they may have prescribed anti-depressants. Mindfulness has become the new buzzword for peace and quiet. Through the process of meditation patients are encouraged to be silent.

Mindfulness is entering the mainstream at a rapid rate. There’s an all party parliamentary group looking at the benefits of bringing mindfulness into public policy, while global companies such as Goldman Sachs and Google are offering it to their employees.

Taking time to be quiet forces us to think truthfully about ourselves and others in real time, to find answers beyond ourselves. It can be humbling but deeply rewarding. As uncomfortable as that may be, when we face up to reality we connect with who we really are and heal in that place.

Sometimes it may be impossible to get away from a ringing iPhone, a noisy work colleague or an overcrowded tube. But we do have the choice to put down the phone, step away from the computer, slow down and enjoy benefits of quietness.

German doctors push to halt building of wind turbines

The “parliament” of Germany’s medical profession has called on its leaders to support a halt to further wind farm developments near housing until more research has been undertaken into the possible health impacts of low-frequency noise from wind turbines.  They said there are no reliab­le independent studies that investigate low frequency and infra­sound and wind turbines.  The assembly called for the federal government to close the gaps in knowledge about the health effec­ts of infrasound and low-frequenc­y sound from wind turbines through scientific research. It said research should clarify open questions concerning meas­urement methods and, where approp­riate, adjust regulations to “allow the expansion and the operation of wind turbines wisely, carefully, with integrated expertise, sustainability and overall societal responsibility”.  It said the health effects of infra­sound (below 20 Hz) and low-frequency sound (below 100 Hz) in relation to emissions from wind turbines were “still open questions’’, as were “the effects of noise below the hearing threshold or lower frequencies with increasing exposure duration”. The assembly said the erection of more turbines close to settlements should be stopped until there was reliable data to exclude a safety hazard.

Mayor turns London City Airport’s expansion plans on noise grounds

London Mayor Boris Johnson has turned down an application by London City Airport on noise grounds.  The airport wanted to increase the capacity of its runways to allow it to operate larger planes.  It also wanted to increase the size of its terminal.  Newham Council, the planning authority, had given it permission to do ahead but Boris Johnson turned it down.  Local people had argued that the airport could not back up its claims that the new, bigger planes would be quieter than existing aircraft.  London City may now appeal to the Secretary of State.

Regulator recommended for fracking

An industry task force, chaired by the former Environment Agency chief Lord Smith, has suggested a regulator whose job would be to ensure that, before any fracking is given permission in an area, a risk assessment should have taken place to assess the potential environmental impacts, including noise.  If fracking is permitted following the assessment, permits would be issued to ensure that frackers meet the conditions laid down.

Airport Noise with a new runway

The Airports Commission is assessing the options for a new runway at either Heathrow or Gatwick.

What would be the impact on noise?

With no new runway                            With new runway
Gatwick                                                                    
Today       2030   2050                         2030      2050
11,300        9,200    9,500                            24,000     24,000 

Heathrow
Today       2030    2050                         2030      2050
766,100      580,000   583,000                      741,800    620,000

Heathrow Hub  
Today      2030     2050                         2030      2050
766,100   580,000      583,000                      992,400    850,100

More details can be found on the Airport commission’s website

Money to tackle motorway noise hot spots

For the first time the Government has set aside money to deal with noise hot spots on the strategic road network.  It hopes that by 2040 “over 90% fewer people will be impacted by noise from the strategic network.”  It is planning to do this through low noise surfaces and barriers.  The money will come out of a £3000 million pot the Government has set aside for environmental improvements on these main roads.  UKNA, which sits on the panel advising the Government, argued more should be spent but this is an important first step.

Road Noise

---

All news articles above are from various media sources & not produced by UK Noise Association.