Is noise policy a global issue, or is it a local issue?

摘要

The answer to the question posed by the title is, of course, that noise policy has both global and local aspects. It is the purpose here to examine policy issues that relate to noise, and to define those aspects that are truly international, as well as those that can be considered from a strictly local viewpoint. There is a trend in some countries to consider noise from the policy standpoint as a strictly local problem to be handled by municipal officials, rather than as an international problem to be dealt with by central governments. There are several reasons for this attitude. In many regions of the world, noise pollution has had a lower priority than other environmental problems, such as air and water pollution. Outdoor noise propagates through the air to the ears of listeners, rather than through the ground or through solid structures, and over relatively short distances (usually less than 10 km). Moreover noise is non-persistent and non-ionizing radiation. The uninitiated might conclude that noise is strictly a local phenomenon, and therefore to be dealt with exclusively by local authorities. This might be effective if all of the noise sources in a listener's environment were under local control, but such is usually not the case. A dictionary definition of a policy is: "a high-level overall plan embracing the general goals and acceptable procedures especially of a governmental body." The governmental bodies involved in establishing and implementing noise policies are those of local municipalities or sub-divisions of sovereign states, federal governments, and regional and international bodies such as the European Union and the United Nations. The federal, state, and local governmental bodies of the U.S.A. have attempted to establish noise policies over the past several decades with mixed results. The American experience in setting noise policies will first be reviewed, followed by a brief discussion of the experience of other governmental bodies, and finally a classification scheme will be presented to assist in the identification of global and local issues.