The World Health Organisation defines community noise as “noise emitted from all sources except noise at the industrial workplace” (Berglund, Lindvall and Schwela, 2000). This includes noise brought about by transportation, which was introduced here. Indoor noise sources come from ventilation systems, office machines, home appliances as well as neighbours. Neighbourhood noise also comprises that of live or recorded music, events, and installations from restaurants, cafes, and the like. This can also range from anything like blasting loud music, to hearing the shuffling of mahjong tiles at 2am, or children screaming and crying, sounds of stomping, arguing, or even barking dogs.
This is something I’m sure we’re all familiar with. Since noise pollution is unwanted noise, the proximity of living close to others is bound to bring about some unwarranted high levels. Personally, I stay on the 20th story of a building, so I’m blessed to be free from chirping birds and noise on the ground level. My relatives stay on the 4th story, so the sound of children screaming at the playground is something they commonly hear. Unfortunately, sometimes I do hear the occasional construction work, or hammering from neighbouring flats, but thankfully, these are rare. I’ll be writing about construction in Singapore in the next post, so do look out for that!
A paper I discovered while researching describes noise pollution as “a modern plague” (Goines and Hagler, 2007). The authors suggest that machines and activities that produce sounds are tolerated as they accompany necessary daily activities (e.g. washing or drying clothes, garbage disposal), or serve important societal purposes (e.g. siren of police cars, emergency vehicles). Indeed, community noise is construed from a variety of noise sources, some deemed essential to our daily lives. It was only during the pandemic, where working from home became the default that I felt more sensitised to the noise around me. Within my household, vacuuming was something that was avoided during my class hours, or times when I had group meetings and needed to unmute myself to speak. When there’s a loud whirring competing with my professors’ presentation, it’s a little hard to concentrate!
What are some of the other community noise sources you’ve encountered? What are the noises you tolerate more than others? I’d love to hear about them.
References
Berglund, B., Lindvall, T. and Schwela, D.H. (2000). New WHO Guidelines for Community Noise. Noise & Vibration Worldwide, [online] 31(4), pp.24–29. Available at: https://www.who.int/docstore/peh/noise/Comnoise-1.pdf.
Goines, L. and Hagler, L. (2007). Noise Pollution: A Modern Plague. Southern Medical Journal, 100(3), pp.287–294.