55 dB(A) is approximately equivalent to the sound of conversations in a restaurant, if you were standing at the entrance trying to listen to all the conversations.
It is also roughly the sound of a vaccum cleaner in your room, or your TV volume raised to a comfortable hearing level within your room. 70 dB(A) is what you would experience when a car travels at 100 kmph with you standing approximately 6 meters away.80 dB(A) is the sound of your alarm going off in the morning (are you alarmed that its louder than the permissible limit in industrial areas?).If you were standing at 25 meters from the jet as it takes off, the sound would be 150 dB(A), which would rupture your eardrums. An airplane taking off will produce a sound of 100 dB(A) if you were standing 300 meters away.Here is a basic idea of what the sound levels are supposed to be like: The same rule applies when you reduce the sound energy. A doubling of sound energy increases the sound level by 3 dB. If you are interested to know more about what (A) means, check out this link.Īlso, Decibels is a logarithmic scale, which means they cannot be added or subtracted directly. To overcome this, the unit *Leq is used to quantify sound levels for measurement purposes, where the sound energy is accounted for over a period of time, and an “equivalent” sound value is given to describe that sound. But if you are standing 10 meters away, you would barely be able to hear it. If you turn your TV volume up to 50 and stand right close to the TV, you’ll probably get a headache.
The unique aspect of measuring sound is that sound levels change over very short periods of time and over very short distances. Understanding decibels (dB) is not intuitive to most people. What does decibels mean? Understanding and visualizing decibels Under this Act, the legislation has divided all areas into 4 categories viz.Įach of these areas have an ambient air quality standard (AAQS) specified for day (6 AM to 10 PM) and night (10 PM to 6 AM) times. Thus was born, Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000. However, in the late 1990’s, the government decided to come out with a separate legislation solely focusing on noise pollution. Noise pollution was one of the categories being addressed under this Act. Recognizing the harmful effects of noise, the Indian government included measures to abate noise pollution under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. If you don’t believe me (my non-Indian readers), please YouTube Indian weddings for more on this. Every occasion, big or small, is celebrated with a lot of fanfare and noise. In India, an added problem is that Indians are naturally a very noisy group of people. From factories to vehicles, from machinery to daily equipment, everything produces a noise that is having a significant impact on the ambient environment as well as the health and well being of humans. Noise pollution is a major issue in today’s urban areas.