Police to crack down on loud horns

by Dulmin Samarasinghe

Loud noise irritates, disturbs the mind and leads to medical complications. It is a major pollution factor which can have detrimental effects on the health of people. Constant exposure to loud noise, contributes to hearing impairment and keeps the mind in agitated state. Some drivers specially those who drive vehicles such as private buses, lorries and Tippers toot loud horns to intimidate or annoy other road users.

Although there are regulations to check the levels of noise pollution many seem to be ignorant or choose to be ignorant about the rules. Vehicle horns, musical shows, places of religious worship, community activities using loud speakers, generate loud noise exceeding bearable sound levels. The Central Environment Authority (CEA) and the police are taking steps to check noise pollution which will create a peaceful environment for everyone to live in.

Deputy Director of the Air Resource Management and Monitoring Unit of the CEA R.M. Kulasena said that drivers could not use horns which were not incompatible with the standards. According to the Motor Regulations Act passed in 2011, police can take legal action against the offenders. A horn should not exceed 93 dB from a distance of seven metres and 105 dB from a distance of two metres, from the front of the vehicle. In future noise generated by a vehicle itself would be standardised, he said. Vehicles which generate loud noise when in motion should follow those regulations. Sounds made by parties,musical shows and bell towers have to adhere to regulations in future, once approved by the Supreme Court, he said.

The Senior House Officer-Psychiatry of the National Institute of Mental Health, Angoda, Dr. Chandana Jayasundara said that sound pollution increased aggressive behaviour and decreased people's willingness to help others. People get annoyed and sleep is disturbed due to loud noise. He said that people had different levels when it came to bear sounds which affect them psychologically.

Annoyance is defined as a feeling of displeasure associated with any condition believed by an individual to adversely affect him or her. Better description of this response would be aversion or distress. Noise has been used as a noxious stimulus in a variety of studies because it produces the same kind of effects as other stress factors. Annoyance increases significantly when noise is accompanied by vibration or by low frequency components.

Some people can bear loud noises while others cannot, he said. Noise levels in the night should not exceed 30 Decibels (dB). Schoolchildren should not be exposed to more 35 dB. If they have to bear more than this level of sound, their studies could be hampered, he said adding that parents should be mindful about this, if their children were falling behind in education. Sound pollution does not have to be continuous to cause damage. Continuous exposure to more than 80 dB is associated with violent behaviour, he said. According to doctors hair cells can be easily get damaged due to loud noise.

The WHO recommends that unprotected exposure to sound levels more than 100 dB should be limited in duration and frequency. The threshold for pain is usually 140 dB. Impulse noise exposure (gunfire and similar sources of intense noise of brief duration) should never exceed 140 dB for adults and 120 dB for children. Firecrackers can generate sufficient sound levels to cause sudden and permanent hearing loss. Levels more than 165 dB, even for a few milliseconds, are likely to cause acute cochlear damage.

Temporary noise exposure induces physiological changes. Noise exposure of sufficient intensity, duration, and unpredictability provokes changes that may not be reversible. Studies done on the effects of environmental noise have shown an association between noise exposure and subsequent cardiovascular disease. Even though the increased risk for noise-induced cardiovascular disease may be small, it assumes public health importance because the number of people at risk and the noise to which they are exposed continue to increase.

Director of the Police Environment Protection Division SSP Quintus Raymond said that drivers had been made aware about the permitted levels of sound.

A national program to check noise pollution is implemented jointly by the CEA and the police. It is an offence to exceed the stipulated dB levels according to the gazette notification. Private bus drivers especially those from outstation areas were found to be using such horns as they had fixed theme to drive away animals, he said.

Police readily removed about 200 such horns from private buses. During the recent past, police reviewed the progress of the awareness campaigns.

The police will take legal action in future as the grace period given to adjust or fix new horns has ended. The public can complain to the police if they are inconvenienced due to loud horns or noise in the neighbourhood.

It is evident that loud noise generated by vehicle horns and other instruments pollute the environment and cause physical and mental problems. What is needed at present is to minimise or to eliminate noise pollution. People love to live in an environment free from all sorts of pollution including noise which will mar the ongoing beautification of cities, suburbs and the country.