 Hearing is a form of touch.

You feel it
through your body, and sometimes it
almost hits your face.
~ Evelyn Glennie (deaf percussionist), Touch the Sound (2004 documentary)

 If a man loudly blesses his neighbour

early in the morning, it will be taken as a
curse.
~ Proverbs 27:14
Environmental Pollutants

 Environmental pollutants mean the

excessive presence of solid, gaseous,
liquid and noise in the atmosphere in
such concentration as may be injurious
to living and non-living things.
Noise Pollution
 Noise /Sound pollution : it is pollution
due to sound,
 it is a word derived out of nausea and
has also been slated as an unwanted
sound, a hazard to health which means
harming the natural habitat with boomed
sound or high sound
 Noise is also considered to be a pollutant
and it has significant harmful effects not
only on human beings but also on animals,
birds and non-living things.
 Problems due to noise increasing day-by-
day especially in the urban and industrial
areas. Highways, airports, industries and
centres where construction activities are
carried on, are also considered high noise
level areas.
 Noise is not a recent problem. It has a
long history. Two thousand five hundred
year ago, the ancient Greek colony of
Syber knew of measures to check noise.
They had rules to protect sleep and
provide a quit and peaceful life to
citizens.
 Loud sounds was prohibited by Julius
Caesar who also banned movements of
noisy chariots at night.
NOISE AND SOUND

 How to differentiate between these two

terms,
 when the effects of a sound are undesirable, it
may be termed as a noise. Sometimes it has an
agreeable musical quality.
○ It is a pleasant to a group of people or individual or
undesirable to another individual or group of
people or a sick person.
Physically, sound is a mechanical disturbance
propagated as a wave motion in the air and
other elastic or mechanical media such as water
or steel.
Noise Monitoring Network
DPCC and CPCB jointly operating 10
real time Ambient noise monitoring
systems in delhi since 2013 and 26
more stations added to network in June
2020
Real time data
transferred to CPCB
and DPCC
simultaneously.
Real time Ambient Noise station
Noise Monitoring Network
Site Selection Criteria:
 Site of an area shall be selected such that it
meets the land use pattern as prescribed in
the standard e.g. Industrial, Commercial,
Residential & Silence Zone.
 (A) General: 1. The station should be located
at the ambient level i.e. away from the direct
source, away from any vibration and any
obstruction.
 2. Categorize the area with land use pattern.
(B) Specific : Always use tripod stand at above
the ground level of 1 to 1.5 m for areas. Hand
held monitoring should be avoided.
Case Specific Locations:
 DG Sets up to 800 kW at about 1 m distances from
all sides. DG Sets more than 800 kW at about 1 m
distance of acoustic enclosure.
 Concerned State PCBs / PCCs may regulate the
norms with minimum reduction of 25 dB(A) to see
the effectiveness of the enclosure.
 Petrol and Kerosene Gensets Sound power level is
measured in anechoic room so as to have
segregated noise level.
 Fire crackers 4 m from the bursting point, there
shouldn’t be reflecting surface around 15m radius.
 Vehicle 0.5m from the exhaust point
Positioning of the instrument
 Microphone must be placed 1.2 -1.5m
above the ground level.
 In dry conditions with a wind speed of
less than 5 m/s.
 Isolate the instrument from strong
vibration and shock.
Selection of Noise level meter:
 Noise measurements will be made with
a Type 1 integrating sound level meter
with free-field microphone which meets
the Accuracy of noise measurement as
per IEC 804 (BS 6698) Grade I or ANSI
Type I or equivalent IEC 61672-1(2002-
05) Class-I.
Calibration & monitoring time
 Monitoring is done by properly calibrated instrument .
 Measurements should be accepted as valid only if the
calibration level from before and after the noise
measurement agrees to within 1.0 dB.
 The sound level meter and calibrator will hold a current
calibration certificate traceable to national standards. Start
the calibrator and put on 1 KHz frequency calibration on
two values 94 dB and 114 dB. If instrument is shows more
than ± 0.3 dB differences adjust the calibration.
 Monitoring time: The monitoring should be carried out
minimum 75% of the prescribed Day time (06.00 am to
22.00 pm) and Night time (22.00 pm to 06.00 am).
 The exercise has to be carried out for 6 to 8 hrs. in the
said time frame of day & night. It is always preferable to
have large number of data sets thus 1sec sampling
frequency is recommended.
Monitoring Parameters &
Protocol
 : Leq, L10, L90, L50, Lmax, Lmin, (with 1 sec sampling period
at all locations).

 Monitoring Protocol:
 a) During ambient noise monitoring sound comes from more
than one direction, it is important to choose a microphone and
mounting which gives the best possible Omni directional
characteristics;.
 Noise measurements should not be made in fog and rain;
 A wind shield will be used at all times to prevent interference of
reflecting noise;
 As far as is practicable exclude extraneous noise (e.g. low flying
aircraft and road traffic passing in front of the microphone) so
that the results recorded are representative of the site noise.
 If possible for extraneous noise/other source background noise
can be eliminated from final reading by using the following
formula: Lpressure = 10.log [10(Lp/10) - 10(LpBackground/10)]
Source Monitoring of
Noise

Type- I Integrating Sound Level

Meter is used for different
source monitoring.
SOUND LEVEL METERS
 The electrical signal from the transducer
is fed to the pre-amplifier of the sound
level meter and, if needed, a weighted
filter over a specified range of
frequencies.
 Further amplification prepares the signal
either for output to other instruments
such as a tape recorder or for
rectification and direct reading on the
meter.:
FREQUENCY ANALYZERS
 Description The objective of frequency
analysis is to determine how the overall
level is distributed over a range of
frequencies.
 The most usual analysis for
occupational hygiene noise studies is
octave band analysis. For more detailed
information, narrower bands can be
used such as one-third octave analysis
or constant bandwidth analysis.
Noise Dosimeter
 The need to ascertain the noise exposure of
workers during their normal working day, has
led to the development of the noise dosimeter.
 This is a small, light and compact instrument
to be worn by the worker.
 It measures the total A-weighted sound
energy received and expresses it as a
proportion of the maximum A-weighted energy
that can be received per day.
 This instrument is particularly useful
whenever the exposure varies appreciably
during the working day
How do you identify noise
problems in the workplace?
 Noise is louder than busy city traffic.
 People have to raise their voice to talk to
someone at one metre (3 feet) away.
 At the end of work shift people have to
increase the volume of their radio or TV to
a level too loud for others.
 After working for a few years at that
workplace, employees find it difficult to
communicate in a crowd or party situation
where there are other sounds or many
voices.
What things do you consider when planning noise
measurement?

 Before taking field measurements, it is important to determine the

type of information required. The person making the measurement
must understand:
 The purpose of measurement: compliance with noise regulations,
hearing loss prevention, noise control, community annoyance etc.
 The sources of noise, and times when the sources are operating.
 The temporal pattern of noise - continuous, variable, intermittent,
impulse.
 Locations of exposed persons.
 The initial measurements are noise surveys to determine if:
 Noise problem exists.
 Further measurements are needed.
 The second step is to determine personal noise exposure levels;
that is, the amount of noise to which individual employees are
exposed. If the workplace noise remains steady, noise survey data
can be used to determine employee exposures. However, noise
dosimetry is necessary if the workplace noise levels vary
throughout the day or if the workers are fairly mobile .

Indian Constitution and Noise Pollution
Control

 The Indian Constitution of 1950 did not have any

provisions directly dealing with environmental pollution.
But the 42nd Amendment of Constitution passed in 1996
inserted article 48-A and Article 51-A to protect and
improve the environment
 Thus, India became one of the few countries of the world
which enshrined in its Constitution, a commitment to
environmental protection and improvement.
 It has interjected a new dimension to public responsibility
by obligating the Central Government to protect and
improve the environment for the good of society as a
whole.The
 Constitution makes a dual provision by way of directives
to the state for the protection and improvement of the
environment and imposing a duty on every citizen to help
in the preservation of the natural environment.
Other Laws regarding Noise
Pollution
 Section 133, Code of Criminal Procedure the
magistrate court have been empowered to issue remove
or abate nuisance caused by noise pollution u/s 133
empowers and executive magistrate to interfere and
remove a public nuances in the first instance with a
conditional order and then with a permanent one the
provision can be utilized in case of nuance of environment
nature In
 Law of Torts noise pollution is considered as a civil
wrong. Under Law of Torts a civil suit can be filed claiming
damages for the nuisance. For filing a suit under Law of
Torts a plaintiff is required to comply with some if the
requirement of torts of nuisances which are interference
should be with the use and enjoyment of land. , there
should be reasonable interference.
 Section-2 (A) of the Air (prevention and
control of pollution) Act, 1981 includes noise
in the definition of “Air Pollution” – This section
states Air pollution means any solid, liquid or
gaseous substance including noise present in
the atmosphere. Such concentration as may
be or tend to injuries to human being or other
living creatures or plants or property or
environment.
 Section-2 (C) of the Environment
Protection Act, 1986 defines environmental
pollution to mean the presence in the
environment of any environmental pollutant.
THE NOISE POLLUTION (REGULATION AND
CONTROL) RULES, 2000
 The Principal Rules were published in the
Gazette of India, vide S.O. 123(E), dated
14.2.2000 and

 subsequently amended vide S.O. 1046(E),

dated 22.11.2000, S.O. 1088(E), dated
11.10.2002, S.O. 1569 (E), dated
19.09.2006 and S.O. 50 (E) dated
11.01.2010 under the Environment
(Protection) Act, 1986.
 The increasing ambient noise levels in public
places from various sources, inter-alia,
industrial activity, construction activity, fire
crackers, sound producing instruments,
generator sets, loud speakers, public address
systems, music systems, vehicular horns and
other mechanical devices have deleterious
effects on human health and the psychological
well being of the people; it is considered
necessary to regulate and control noise
producing and generating sources with the
objective of maintaining the ambient air quality
standards in respect of noise;
Responsibility as to enforcement
of noise pollution control
measures.-
 (1) The noise levels in any area / zone shall not
exceed the ambient air quality standards in respect
of noise as specified in the Schedule.
 (2) The authority shall be responsible for the
enforcement of noise pollution control measures and
the due compliance of the ambient air quality
standards in respect of noise.
 (3) The respective State Pollution Control Boards or
Pollution Control Committees in consultation with the
Central Pollution Control Board shall collect, compile
and publish technical and statistical data relating to
noise pollution and measures devised for its effective
prevention, control and abatement.
 Responsibility as to enforcement of noise pollution control
measures.
 (1) The noise levels in any area/zone shall not exceed the
ambient air quality standards in respect of noise as specified in
the Schedule.
 (2) The authority shall be responsible for the enforcement of
noise pollution control measures and the due compliance of the
ambient air quality standards in respect of noise.
 Restrictions on the use of loud speakers/public address
system.
 (1) A loud speaker or a public address system shall not be used
except after obtaining written permission from the authority.
 (2) A loud speaker or a public address system shall not be used
at night (between 10.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m. except in closed
premises for communication within, e.g. auditoria, conference
rooms, community halls and banquet halls.
Complaints to be made to the
Authority.

 (1) A person may, if the noise level exceeds

the ambient noise standards by 10 dB(A)
or more given in the corresponding
columns against any area/zone, make a
complaint to the authority.
 (2) The authority shall act on the complaint
and take action against the violator in
accordance with the provisions of these
rules and any other law in force.
Power to Prohibit etc. Continuance of Music
Sound or Noise.
 (1) If the authority is satisfied from the report of an officer incharge of a police station
or other information received by him that it is necessary to do so in order to prevent
annoyance, disturbance, discomfort or injury or risk of annoyance, disturbance,
discomfort or injury to the public or to any person who dwell or occupy property on
the vicinity, he may, by a written order issue such directions as he may consider
necessary to any person for preventing, prohibiting, controlling or regulating:
 (a) the incidence or continuance in or upon any premises of -
 (i) any vocal or instrumental music,
 (ii) sounds caused by playing, beating, clashing, blowing or use in any manner
whatsoever of any instrument including loudspeakers, public address systems,
appliance or apparatus or contrivance which is capable of producing or re-producing
sound, or
 (b) the carrying on in or upon, any premises of any trade, avocation or operation or
process resulting in or attended with noise.
 (2) The authority empowered under sub-rule (1) may, either on its own motion, or on
the application of any person aggrieved by an order made under sub-rule (1), either
rescind, modify or alter any such order:
 Provided that before any such application is disposed of, the said authority shall
afford to the applicant an opportunity of appearing before it either in person or by a
person representing him and showing cause against the order and shall, if it rejects
any such application either wholly or in part, record its reasons for such rejection.
Ambient Air Quality Standards in respect of
Noise
Area Code Category of Limits in dB(A) Leq *
Area/Zone
Day Time NightTime
(A) Industrial area 75 70
(B) Commercial 65 55
area
(C) Residential 55 45
area
(D)
1. Day time shallSilence
mean Zone 50 to 10.00 p.m.
from 6.00 a.m. 40
2. Night time shall mean from 10.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m.
3. Silence zone is defined as an area comprising not less than 100 metres around
hospitals, educational institutions and courts. The silence zones are zones which
are declared as such by the competent authority.
"A", in dB(A) Leq, denotes the frequency weighting in the measurement of noise
and corresponds to frequency response characteristics of the human ear.
Leq : It is an energy mean of the noise level, over a specified period.
Noise standard for fire crackers
 The manufacture, sale or use of fire-
crackers generating noise level
exceeding 125 dB(AI) or 145 dB(C)pk at
4 meters distance from the point of
bursting shall be prohibited.
 For individual fire-cracker constituting
the series (joined firecrackers), the
above mentioned limit be reduced by 5
log10(N) dB, where N = number of
crackers joined together.
Thanks