Define of noise pollution Noise pollution is excessive, displeasing human, animal, or machine-created environmental noise that disrupts the

activity or balance of human or animal life. Noise measurement in unit desibal The noise pollution is defined as the unwanted sound which is released into the environment. It disturbs the human being and cause an adverse effect on the mental and psychological well being. It is measured in the units of decibels and is denoted by the dB. The noise which is more than 115 dB is tolerant. The industrial limit of sound in the industries must be 75 dB according to the world health organization. A type writer can produce a sound at 60 dB. There are different sources of the noise pollution and include the agriculture machines, industries which produce a sound and the use of entertaining equipment, crackers, the blasting of dynamite, bull dozing, stone crushing, defense equipments and textile mills. Noise levels can be measured by decibel method: Decibel - one tenth of a bel where one bel represents a difference in level between two intensities I1, I0 where one is ten times greater than the other. Thus, the intensity level is the comparison of one intensity to another and may be expressed: Intensity level = 10 log10 (I1/I0) (dB) For instance, the difference between intensities of 10-8 watts/m2 and 10-4 watts/m2, an actual difference of 10,000 units, can be expressed as a difference of 4 bels or 40 decibels. Types of noise pollution the noise pollution has two sources, i.e. industrial and non- industrial. The industrial source includes the noise from various industries and big machines working at a very high speed and high noise intensity. Non- industrial source of noise includes the noise created by transport/vehicular traffic and the neighborhood noise generated by various noise pollution can also be divided in the categories , namely, natural and manmade. Most leading noise sources will fall into the following categories: roads traffic, aircraft, railroads, construction, industry, noise in buildings, and consumer products Other noise measurement systems are:

community noise equivalent level composite noise rating equivalent energy level noise and number index noise exposure forecast noise criterion noise level noise pollution level noise rating perceived noise level traffic noise index sound level

sound level meter sound pressure level world soundscape project

Sources and Methods

We can classify major sources that lead to noise pollution to the following categories:

road traffic noise air traffic rail traffic neighborhood and domestic noise incompatible land use industrial noises

Sound Pressure First we have the atmospheric pressure, i.e., the environmental air pressure in absence of sound. It is measured in a SI (Systme International, i.e., International System) unit called Pascal (1 Pascal is equal to a force of 1 Newton acting on a surface of 1 square meter and is abbreviated 1 Pa). This pressure amounts to roughly 100,000 Pa (the standard value is 101,325 Pa). Then we can define sound pressure as the difference between the actual instantaneous pressure due to sound and the atmospheric pressure, and, of course, it is also measured in Pa. However, sound pressure has usually a value much smaller than the one corresponding to the atmospheric pressure. For instance, unbearably loud sounds may be around 20 Pa, and just audible ones may be around 20 m Pa (m Pa stands for micropascal, i.e., a unit one million times smaller than the pascal). This is much the same as the case of some gentle ripples on the surface a swimming pool. It is not the magnitude the only difference between atmospheric pressure and sound pressure. Another important difference is that the atmospheric pressure changes very slowly, whereas sound pressure is rapidly changing, alternating between positive and negative values, at a rate of between 20 and 20,000 times per second. This rate is called frequency and is expressed in Hertz (abbreviated Hz), a unit equivalent to a cycle per second. In order to reduce the amount of digits, frequencies above 1,000 Hz are usually expressed in kilohertz, abbreviated kHz. 1 kHz equals 1,000 Hz Sound Pressure Level The fact that the ratio of the sound pressure of the loudest sound (before the sensation of sound is changed into pain) to the sound pressure of the lowest one is about 1,000,000 has led to the adoption of a compressed scale called a logarithmic scale. If we call Pref the sound pressure of a just audible sound and P the sound presure, then we can define the sound pressure level (SPL) Lp as Lp = 20 log (P / Pref)

where log stands for the logarithm to the base 10 (ordinary logarithm). The unit used to express the sound pressure level is the decibel, abbreviated dB. The sound pressure level of audible sounds ranges from 0 dB through 120 dB. Sounds in excess of 120 dB may cause immediate irreversible hearing impairment, besides being quite painful for most individuals. The lower limit of audibility is therefore defined as SPL of 0 dB, but the upper limit is not as clearly defined. While 1 atm (SPL of 194 dB) is the largest pressure variation an undistorted sound wave can have in Earth's atmosphere, larger sound waves can be present in other atmospheres or other media such as under water, or through the earth.