Thursday, December 13 2007

SO IT’S 10 pm and your neighbour has been blasting music for four hours now. You have to get up at 5 am to go to work and the other neighbour is also having a sleepless night along with her newborn baby because of all the noise. Sympathies also run high for the old man living across the road who suffers with heart problems.

Understandably, you’ve had enough. So whom do you call? Nope. Unfortunately, not the Environmental Management Authority...not this time. You need to call the police at the station nearest you.

According to Section 70 of the Summary Offences Act: “Any person who causes a nuisance to the public is liable on summary convictions to a fine of $1,500 or to imprisonment for six months.”

In most countries, local police officers are usually the first line of defence against excessively noisy neighbours, with noise specialists from environmental and public health agencies being used only as a backup. The whole issue of controlling noise in TT is difficult business since people’s reaction to noise can vary widely. One person’s music can be another’s intense irritation, and the EMA is faced with the challenging role of striking difficult balances.

Under the EMa Act, 2000, one of the mandates given to the EMA is to manage and control pollution in TT. This mandate gave life to the Noise Pollution Control Rules, 2001, one of the pillars on which the EMA has built its campaign to protect the citizens while allowing reasonable activities in the social, commercial, cultural and industrial sectors.

Due to its nature, noise pollution is unlike any form of pollution that the EMA has to deal with. Sometimes, there is no physical or tangible evidence of this type of pollution and the offender can disappear as quickly as the noise. This makes enforcement difficult since the offender has to be caught in the act. However, noise generated in auto repair shops, by construction, social and cultural activities can be monitored and the offender caught.

Loud noises adversely affect pets, babies, children who are studying, the elderly and people who suffer from heart complications and other illnesses. Some of the health impacts of noise pollution can range from:

- Noise-induced hearing impairment — the main social consequence being the inability to understand speech in daily living conditions.

- Interference with speech communication — where simultaneous interfering noise renders speech incapable of being understood.

- Disturbance of rest and sleep — Interrupted sleep is associated with poor physiological and mental functioning. Some of the primary effects of sleep disturbance are: difficulty in falling asleep, awakenings and alterations of sleep stages, increased blood pressure, heart rate and finger pulse amplitude, vasoconstriction, changes in respiration, cardiac arrhythmia and increased body movements. The secondary or after-effects, the following morning are: reduced perceived quality, increased fatigue, depressed mood or well-being and decreased performance.

- Cardiovascular and Physiological Effects — in workers exposed to noise and in people living near airports, industries and noisy streets, noise exposure can have a large temporary, as well as permanent impact on physiological functions.

- Mental Health Effects — Environmental noise can accelerate and intensify the development of latent mental disorders.

- Performance Effects — Apart from acting as a distraction, noise also affects cognitive tasks in workers and school children such as reading attention, problem solving and memorisation.

- Effects on residential behaviour and annoyance — the correlation between noise exposure and general annoyance is much higher at group level than at an individual level.

- Vulnerable Groups such as people with medical problems in hospitals or rehabilitating at home, the blind, people with hearing impairment, babies and young children and the elderly are the most adversely affected by noise.

The EMA is attempting to balance the competing interest of various groups eg religious organisations, fete promoters, residential neighbourhoods, steelband yards and industry — many of whom will never be satisfied.

The Noise Pollution Control Rules, 2001 sets prescribed standards for noise in order to control the emission of sounds in the environment that can be considered noise pollution.

During the Christmas and Carnival seasons the EMA receives as much as 20 noise complaints per day via telephone. However, in order for the EMA to evaluate and investigate the situation, official complaints should be made to the EMA.

If you are able to provide the EMA with information about the time and location for future events to be held by the same offender, officers from the Environmental Police Unit (EPU) will be better able and prepared to conduct the monitoring to determine a breach of the Noise Standards. This involves the measurement of the Sound Pressure Level at the property line of the offending party for 30 minutes. If the sound measurement is above the standard decibel level, then the offender will be served a Notice of Violation. The Noise Pollution Control Rules work best when the EMA knows ahead of time, when the event is about to happen. If it is a one-off event, complaining the day after does not work, given that a measurement is necessary to establish a breach. Section 9.1 of the Noise Pollution Control Rules states that “...where a person proposes to conduct an activity or an event that will cause sound in excess of the prescribed standards, that person shall submit an application to the Authority for a Variation.”

A Variation is a deviation from the approved standards stipulated in the Noise Pollution Control Rules 2001 for given areas. A Variation Application is only deemed necessary when there is an upcoming event that will exceed these standards.

Firecrackers, bamboo bursting, loud music and scratch bombs can be a source of migraines, irritability, memory and hearing loss. They are also harmful to pets. When we are considerate and respectful of others we help build happier and healthier communities.

For further information on the effects of noise, please contact the EMA at 628-8042-44 or visit our website at www.ema.co.tt.

(Courtesy the Environmental Management Authority)