The noise level around us is constantly increasing and affecting the quality of our lives What causes the everyday noise that many people face What can be done about it

The prevalence of escalating noise levels in our environment are progressively degrading our quality of life. From my standpoint, some significant causes can be derived from this notion along with the alternatives which I will elucidate in the subsequent paragraph.

First, the surrounding sound level is continuously rising as a result of more congested traffic emitting vehicle exhaust fumes and heavily-machined building constructions. Seemingly, these amplify the persistent noise levels, potentially disturbing people living around it. As seen in Jakarta, with its heavy traffic, noise levels on major roads approach a hundred decibels, exceeding safe thresholds set by the World Health Organization. Moreover, the operation hours of factories and industrial plants create a persistent and often overwhelming level of commotion. This quickly inflicts the hearing loss of labourers in the workplace. For instance, in automotive factories, hearing-interfering sounds from cutting machines suffer workers from serious hearing impairments (sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus).

Regarding the solutions, the implementation of stringent noise regulations in which the government establishes the permissible commotion levels – designated hours ruled under the nuisance law – for residential areas. For example, in Japan, night-time noise limits are almost half a decibel in which violators are subjected to penalties. In addition, industrial and infrastructural fields should implement noise cancelling devices in terms of constructing barriers along highways and sound-absorbing materials. As an illustration, with the goal to lessen nuisance, New York has installed noise obstacles next to railway tracks.

Overall, ever-increasing noise in the environment raises the reasons ranging from more crowded roads, ongoing constructions to continuous industrial production. Meanwhile, the measures that we could see are inventing stricter policies and developing equipment for loudness reduction.