Friday, 11 April 2014

Noise Pollution is 'Vybzzzzzz'




Noise pollution is a common phenomenon to urban cities. Cities are probably where the term noise pollution was borne (only an assumption) as modern cities are never at rest. There is always work, shopping, business and social events among others going on within cities.

 Noise pollution is the disturbing or excessive noise that may harm the activity or balance of human or animal life. The source of most outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines and transportation systems, motor vehicles, aircraft, and trains. Noise pollution can be harmful to both humans and wildlife as there is a limit to what our ear drums can bear. When it comes to noise coming from any machine besides a music truck or stereo we tend to complain, however when music is being played for some reason we can cope with the most noise as this is our culture and the way in which we live an enjoy ourselves. “Noise interferes in complex task performance, modifies social behaviour and causes annoyance” (Stephen A Stansfeld and Mark P Matheson 2014).


The photos were taken on Ariapita Avenue in Port of Spain on Carnival Tuesday, one of the most cultural and entertaining days in Trinidad. As seen in the photos the population comes out in quite large numbers to enjoy the festivities. The carnival season is a long one that usually has several parties per week in which a lot of noise pollution occurs. Besides the carnival season parties are thrown all year round. Construction is also a main contributor of noise as seen in the photo 5. This form of noise pollution is quite unbearable along with noise pollution from transport systems. On observing the above photos closely one can see a music truck that was ‘blasting’ music which attracted many persons.







The above two photos were also taken on Ariapita Avenue on carnival Tuesday. The photos showed the large amount of persons that come out to partake in carnival events and as a result Port of Spain is overcrowded on both carnival Monday and Tuesday. Due to the large amount of persons in the city, as one can see in the photos it is expected that a lot of pollution would occur. Air, noise and land pollution would have plagued the city at high levels for these couple of days. The first link below shows a cartoon depiction of the different kinds of noise pollution that we face daily. Some of these noise pollution can be harmful to our health whilst others can be just irritating. The second link shows the carnival experience and culture of Trinidad and Tobago. The video shows how amazing the experience is as well as the many types of pollution that occur as a result of carnival. 





References:
Stansfeld,  Stephen A and Mark P. Matheson. "Noise pollution: non-auditory effects on health." british medical bulletin 68 (2014): doi:10.1016/0003-3472(59)90051-X.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). "Urban Air Pollution." Last modified 2002. http://www.unep.org/urban_environment/issues/urban_air.asp.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. "Noise pollution." Accessed April 11, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_pollution.

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