What Is Noise Pollution?

Wondering what is the best noise pollution definition? You can understand both words but they seem weird together, right? Is the noise pollution definition something like noises that are dirty? Almost.

We talk a lot about pollution in the context of a clean environment, however, pollution is the presence of harmful alien substances to whatever context. In fact, if we are to be picky with language, Earth’s environment is being so quickly torn apart that in a while we will no longer be able to say that harmful gas is polluting. It will be the other way around! The good healthy substances like clean water and air that will be “polluting” the trashy Earth.

So, as you can see, the noise pollution definition would be something like harmful noise invading a healthy sonic environment. How do we measure what is harmful noise? By decibels, that is, by their volume and frequency intensity. Because humans are particular, it’s not the what, but the how. Explaining: you might like the sound of an airplane turbine. For whatever reason – because it reminds you of your mother’s womb or because airplanes take you places (literally or metaphorically) – you love them. Ok, but someone else might have been in an airplane accident and have panic attacks just by hearing the turbines. One might love Ariana Grande, the other might hate it. So we can’t define noise pollution by taste. We do it by intensity: no matter how much you like airplane sounds, you will go deaf if you stay next to one with no protection for a while – not to mention you’d get sucked into it.

Noise pollution is not just a sonic nuisance. It can lead to severe health problems like hearing loss, stress that leads to heart attacks and more. People living near an airport, for instance, suffer a lot from noise pollution. So much so that zoning ordinances of areas close to airports have strict building codes to prevent or diminish the effects of it.

Are you living near the highway, wondering how to run from noise pollution? Well, you can put earplugs in however you can’t live with them all the time, right? It’s important you learn how to reduce noise pollution and start conserving good habits like sleeping with the TV off – or with sound machines on, however contradicting that might “sound” – and using smart home devices to monitor your sleep so you see if your body is resting easy or if there’s a neighbor somewhere polluting your sleep with noise even after 10 pm, where the “quiet hours rule” should be enforced.