Noise Pollution

Noise pollution is sound with potential harmful effects on humans and animals, arising primarily from machines, transportation and other propagation systems, and often worsened by poor urban planning that places industrial and residential zones next to each other. Common sources in residential areas include loud music, traffic, rail and air transportation, lawn maintenance, construction, electrical generators, wind turbines and explosions, and documented concern about noise in urban environments reaches back as far as ancient Rome. Research in the United States has found that noise pollution disproportionately affects low income and racial minority neighborhoods, with census tracts carrying higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations and higher poverty recording higher average noise levels than wealthier, mostly White areas, and high noise levels have been linked to cardiovascular effects in humans, including an increased incidence of coronary artery disease, while in animals noise raises the risk of death by disrupting predator and prey detection, interfering with reproduction and navigation, and causing permanent hearing loss.