Noise Pollution and its Adverse Effect- A Critical Review

In today’s era noise pollution is not a new problem for common man, especially in most of the industrial towns and metropolitans cities. Noise pollution means any sound that is undesired by the recipient. Noise pollution arising from indoor or outdoor sources is a potential threat to human health. It is more severe and widespread than ever before, and it will continue to increase in magnitude and severity because of population growth, urbanization, and the associated growth in the use of increasingly powerful, varied, and highly mobile sources of" noise. It will also continue to grow because of sustained growth in highway, rail, and air traffic, which remain major sources of environmental noise. The potential health effects of noise pollution are numerous, pervasive, persistent, and medically and socially significant. Noise produces direct and cumulative adverse effects that impair health and that degrade residential, social, working, and learning environments with corresponding real (economic) and intangible (well-being) losses. Prolonged exposure to high sound levels produce loss of hearing, tinnitus, sleep disturbances, tachycardia, hypertension, coronary artery diseases, annoyance, stress related symptoms and decreased work performance. Our understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in noise-induced hair cell and nerve damage has substantially increased, and preventive and therapeutic drugs will probably become available within 10 years. Further research is needed examining coping strategies and the possible health consequences of adaptation to noise.