Noise Watch Australia, recognises that noise pollution is a big issue in Australia than it deserves and is ignored by politicians. Noise interferes with economic, environmental and social aspects of life. It brings unwarranted and unpaid-for risk that can't be afforded and is harmful to both psychological and physical health so we need to ensure integrity and health of the people.
Noise Watch Australia lays out a few policy recommendations. First of all, choose a weighing scale that measure frequency and not just dB(A), which only concentrates on middle frequency of people's hearing. It is because high frequency noise damage our hearing more than equivalent pressure middle frequencies and low frequency travels further and penetrates barriers easier than middle frequency. Moreover, very low frequency causes more health issues. Therefore, middle frequency causes least problems so inverse of A weighed curve would be be more proper.
Relevant authority should give directions for complainants to approach perpetrators because in reality, the complainants don't feel that they could have a civilised conversation with the perpetrators. Several cases went out of control, resulting in one party taking criminal actions against the other. There were even many murder cases in Australia due to noise problems. Maintaining anonymity of complainant is necessary to prevent revenge. There should also be only one organization responsible for a one type of noise because currently, there are many organisations that has power to act on a particular noise problem, but neither takes the responsibility.
Rules and actions should be directed at reducing noise level at or near the source, not near the recipient locations. There are many compelling reasons; firstly, it is usually more effective and cheaper to reduce noise at or nearby source and noise producer should be liable instead of recipients for the noise reduction cost. Mostly, there are multiple recipients per noise source even if they don't complain. Unrestricted noise increases background noise, even if not offensive to immediate surroundings.
The Commonwealth Government outlined ADR 83, where after a phasing in period, applies to all road vehicles manufacture from 2008. However, modification after market exhausted is not prevented so assurance is needed that they continue to comply so that noisy vehicles can be resolved in the long run. This should be enforced by a specialised unit in the state police force because the matter had been given low importance by State Police compared to their other priorities. This gradually makes the matter worse with widespread quality of living and sleep issues. It is inefficient to wait for public complaints for a police to act as offenders can be easily detected. This solution "is unlikely to be reversed again because of the effort and cost of rectification."
Noise pollution, just like light pollution are not taken seriously in the society although it effects us everyday. The faster we can get these policy changes, the better the people's health and finance will be. If the policy doesn't become stricter, the noise pollution is only bound to become worse.
Resources
http://noisewatchaus.org.au/read.htm
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