Noise reaches a crescendo in city

A total of 19 vehicles sound horns every minute at the Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka every morning. The number hardly varies during other times of day, reveals a survey report of the Department of Environment (DoE).

DoE conducted the survey in May last year.

According to the Noise Pollution (Control) Rules 2006, areas with hospitals will be regarded as ‘silence zones’ and no vehicle horns can be used while passing through those zones.

There are two hospitals at the Shahbagh intersection -- Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation for Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders (BIRDEM) and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).

Hundreds of patients go to these two hospitals every day. The loud horns from the streets outside are disturbing and have have a serious effect on the patients, particularly those with serious illness.

“I came here with heart disease and am returning home with a severe headache. It seems the sound of the horns have pierced my brain,” said Md Saiful, a suffering patient from Gazipur.

The UK-based weekly medical journal, Lancet, says high degree of sound affects hearing and health. It disturbs sleep and increases hypertension. Sound reduces children's learning capacity. It also causes various diseases including heart and high blood pressure.

The article titled “Auditory and non-auditory effects of noise on health” further said that noise-induced hearing loss can be caused by a one-time exposure to an intense impulse sound (such as gunfire), or by steady long-term exposure with sound pressure levels higher than 75-85 dB (such as in industrial settings).

“The characteristic... feature of noise-induced hearing loss is the loss of auditory sensory cells in the cochlea. Because these hair cells cannot regenerate in mammals, no remission can occur; prevention of noise-induced hearing loss is the only option to preserve hearing,” the article added.

The article further said this hearing loss can have a severe social effect as it leads to the inability to understand speech in everyday situations and can also affect cognitive performance and decrease attention to tasks.

According to the law, anyone found guilty of honking horns for the first time in the silence zones will be jailed for one month or fined Tk 5,000. If that person violates the law again, he will be sent to jail for six months or fined. But the law is hardly implemented.

Environment and forest minister Anwar Hossain Manju said, “Making people aware of the law is more important than conducting drives against those who pollute sound.”

“We shall begin campaigning in this regard soon,” the minister added.

According to the Noise Pollution (Control) Rules, the level of sound in ‘silence zones during the day should remain within 50-75dB and at night the sound has to be decreased by another 5dB.

The Department of Environment measured the level of sound at 206 locations in eight divisional cities during their survey last year. It recorded a sudden rise of up to an astounding 130 dB impulse sound in these areas.

The survey report also revealed that in some places, horns were sounded more than 900 times in a span of 10 minutes only, which poses a serious threat to people who live in those areas.

The use of hydraulic horns is also rampant despite High Court orders against it.

Many people who live in those areas, said they are at high health risk.

Noise pollution has reached a crescendo in the capital city. A survey by Poribesh Bachao Andolon (POBA) revealed that sound level recorded in front of Eden College, which is a ‘silence zone’, was 104 dB. In Paltan it was 105 dB, in Kalabagan 106 dB, and in front of airport 108 dB. These areas fall in the mixed zone category.

The sound level in the residential areas of Dhaka, according to POBA survey, remains between 68-83 dB at night.

Who is responsible for sound pollution?

A DoE study blamed the horns of private cars and motorbikes for sound pollution as the drivers of these vehicles honk unnecessarily.

 “Drivers don’t even listen to what you say. Even at a traffic signal, they honk horns. Blasting horns has become a bad habit,” said auto-parts shop owner Saiful Islam at Banglamotor intersection in Dhaka.

BSMMU’s ENT department chairman Md Kamrul Hassan Tarafder said, “If any person regularly hears sound that crosses bearable level, then he will become partially deaf at a stage; and might become permanently deaf later.”

“A person will start losing hearing by listening to songs using headphones for an hour everyday for five years. Then, imagine what harm the sound on roads will do,” he added.

*This piece, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Shameem Reza