EFFECT OF TRAFFIC NOISE ON AN EXPOSED GROUP OF POPULATION A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Noise is becoming an increasingly important problem in urban life. Road traffic, railway and aircraft each contribute to a greater or lesser extent to the degradation of our environment but there can be little doubt that road traffic is the greatest offender. Noise in Indian cities is growing fast and beyond human tolerence. Slowly but surely, noise is becoming an unjustifiable interference and imposition upon human comfort, health and quality of modern life. In the present work an attempt has been made to study the noise level due to traffic at 5 important junctions of Roorkee city. A series of noise levels are measured at different selected point at different time intervals on number of days to assess the traffic noise. It has been found that the existing noise level is much above the desired level [60dB(A)] at all junctions. A social survey has been conducted by getting a questionnaire, answered by people which are exposed to road traffic noise in the different area where objective measurement of noise levels have been carried out. A total of 165 people has been surveyed and their Blood Pressure measured. The answers have been analysed and presented percentage wise. Occurance of headache was reported by 62% persons whenever high blood pressure,memory losS and annoyance were reporte by 29%, 14%, and 72% of the persons respectively. Blowing horn is the most annoying source of vehicle noise as is felt by a majority (69%) of the people.