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What are sources of noise pollution? Give its effects?
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Noise can come from many places. Let us see a few good sources:

1) Household sources: Gadgets like food mixer, grinder, vacuum cleaner, washing machine and dryer, cooler, air conditioners, can be very noisy and injurious to health. Others include loud speakers of sound systems and TVs, ipods and ear phones.

2) Social events: Places of worship, discos and gigs, parties and other social events also create a lot of noise for the people living in that area.

3) Commercial and industrial activities: Printing presses, manufacturing industries, construction sites, contribute to noise pollutions in large cities. In many industries, it is a requirement that people always wear earplugs to minimize their exposure to heavy noise. People who work with lawn mowers, tractors and noisy equipment are also required to wear noise-proof gadgets.

4)Transportation: Think of aero planes flying over houses close to busy airports like Heathrow (London) or Ohare (Chicago), over ground and underground trains, vehicles on road—these are constantly making a lot of noise and people always struggle to cope with them.

Effects of noise pollution-

Generally, problems caused by noise pollution include stress related illnesses, speech interference, hearing loss, sleep disruption, and lost productivity. Most importantly, there are three major effects we can look at:

1) Hearing The immediate and acute effect of noise pollution to a person, over a period of time, is impairment of hearing. Prolonged exposure to impulsive noise to a person will damage their eardrum, which may result in a permanent hearing impairment.

2) Marine Animals Marine scientists are concerned about excessive noise used by oil drills, submarines and other vessels on and inside the ocean. Many marine animals, especially whales, use hearing to find food, communicate, defend and survive in the ocean. Excessive noises are causing a lot of injuries and deaths to whales. For example, the effect of a navy submarine’s sonar can be felt 300 miles away from the source.

3) Effects on general health Health effects of noise include anxiety and stress reaction and in extreme cases fright. The physiological manifestations are headaches, irritability and nervousness, feeling of fatigue and decreases work efficiency. For example, being pounded by the siren of fire fighters, police or ambulance in your city all night everyday leave people (especially elderly people) stresses and tired in the morning.

It is worth noting that these effects may not sound troubling, but the truth is, with time, the consequences can be very worrying.

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