noise pollution

16 Stories

She Says Car-Honking Is Free Speech. Appeals Court Says No
SCOTUS Won't Hear
Challenge to Honking Law
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 2, 2024 4:20 PM CST

SCOTUS Won't Hear Challenge to Honking Law

California woman argued that hitting the horn as 'personal expression' is protected free speech

(Newser) - The Supreme Court has declined to hear a case on whether honking a car horn is protected free speech, leaving in place a lower court's ruling upholding a California law that bans excessive honking. Lawyers for Susan Porter, who was ticketed in 2017 after honking in support of anti-Donald...

Couple Tired of Pickleball Noise Asks What Gandhi Would Do
Couple Tired of Pickleball Noise
Asks What Gandhi Would Do
in case you missed it
Jul 30, 2023 12:30 PM CDT

Couple Tired of Pickleball Noise Asks What Gandhi Would Do

Hunger strike fails to move officials in Canadian city

(Newser) - The Canadian city of Chilliwack has just three pickleball courts. For Rajnish and Harpreet Dhawan, the problem is that the closest of them is about 30 feet from their house. The Dhawans hear the sound of ball striking paddle 11 hours every day, in every room of their home. They...

France's New Street Sensors to Battle 'Unbearable' Issue

'Sound radars' in select cities will ID, photograph vehicles making excessive noise

(Newser) - "It's unbearable—it's a constant acoustic aggression." That's how one resident of Paris describes the never-ending traffic noise outside his family's apartment, and it's a problem France now hopes to solve with its new "sound radars," reports the New York Times...

After 9-Year Fight, Couple Ordered to Dump Superloud Frogs

French couple still hopes to save their pond and its breeding amphibians

(Newser) - A French couple is being forced to drain their pond under court order because of the racket caused by its breeding frogs. The outcome is the result of a nine-year legal battle in which Michel and Annie Pecheras fought to save their pond in the small village of Grignols, Dordogne....

You Can Open This Window and Still Block the Noise
Bothered by Street Noise?
Open Up This Window
NEW STUDY
Jul 15, 2020 10:30 AM CDT

Bothered by Street Noise? Open Up This Window

But it could be years before the Anti-Noise Control Window is available for sale

(Newser) - City dwellers know just how irritating a jackhammer can be. Now there's a way to drone out the racket without closing your window. Scientists have developed a window system that's a gift for your ears, even if it is a bit of an eyesore. Described in Scientific Reports...

One Thing, Above All, Will Guard Your Brain
To Protect Your Brain
Health, Do One Thing
studies say
Jan 4, 2020 2:30 PM CST

To Protect Your Brain Health, Do One Thing

Author Jane Brody advises people to protect their hearing

(Newser) - Want to protect your cognitive powers? One way—and possibly the best—is to avoid prolonged loud noises that can weaken your hearing. So argues Jane Brody at the New York Times , saying she hopes to influence the 38 million Americans with untreated hearing loss, herself included. "According to...

It's Getting Harder to Find the 'Call of the Wild'
It's Getting Harder
to Find the 'Call
of the Wild'
STUDY SAYS
May 5, 2017 8:07 AM CDT

It's Getting Harder to Find the 'Call of the Wild'

Those peaceful sounds we love in Mother Nature are getting drowned out by humans

(Newser) - The call of the wild is getting harder to hear. Peaceful natural sounds—bird songs, rushing rivers, rustling grass—are being drowned out by noise from people in many of America's protected parks and wilderness areas, a new study in the journal Science finds. Scientists measured sound levels in...

A Few People Hate Airport Noise, and Everyone Pays

(Newser) - In 2015, a whopping 8,760 noise complaints were made at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in DC. A little digging reveals that 6,852 of those complaints (almost 80%) came from one household. And yes, that's more than 18 calls a day for a year. Similar stories...

Mom's Cellphone Ring May Startle Fetus

Ultrasound imaging shows third-trimester babies startling at the sound

(Newser) - While many studies have investigated whether cellphone radiation is harmful, little is known about how the sound of a cellphone ringing might impact a baby in utero. So researchers in New York decided to dig, in part because resident physicians—who regularly use cellphones and beepers at work—seem to...

Scientists Map America's Loudest, Quietest Places
Scientists Map America's Loudest, Quietest Places
in case you missed it
Feb 21, 2015 11:00 AM CST

Scientists Map America's Loudest, Quietest Places

It's part of investigation into how man-made noise affects wildlife

(Newser) - Scientists have put 1.5 million hours of acoustical monitoring to an interesting use: They paired them with data on overhead air traffic and average summer precipitation and turned a computer program loose on the info. The result: a detailed map of America's loudest and quietest places. Science News...

Cows Really Don't Like Cowbells, Study Finds

At 113 decibels, the 12-pound bells can be as loud as chainsaws

(Newser) - Cowbell-clad cows are an iconic part of Swiss culture, but that doesn't mean the cows are happy about it. A new study out of the federal technology institute ETH Zurich studied 100-plus cows over a three-day period at 25 farms. Those who wore cowbells—some of which rang, some...

Pianist Faces Jail Over Incessant Practicing

Neighbor says it caused psychological damage

(Newser) - Spanish prosecutors want to send a young pianist to jail for more than seven years after a neighbor accused her of causing psychological damage and noise pollution. The plaintiff—identified only as Sonia B.—claims she suffered from noise contamination between 2003 and 2007 owing to the five-days-a-week, eight-hour...

In Noisy Oceans, Whales Must Shout

As noise pollution increases, they struggle to adjust

(Newser) - With noise pollution in the world's oceans doubling every decade by some estimates, whales are apparently having trouble hearing one another. Researchers studying right whales found that they have to raise their voices—or "increase the amplitude of their calls," in more scientific language—as background noise from...

Emma Thompson, Others Try to Foil Heathrow Plans

Group opposed to plan aims to drag project into legal quicksand

(Newser) - A high-profile coalition led by Greenpeace has purchased a soccer field-sized piece of land intended to become part of a new runway for London’s Heathrow airport, the Times reports. The group intends to parcel out the land to thousands of individual owners, dragging out any attempt to buy it...

Punishment Fits the Crime for Colo. Noise Offenders

Teens made to listen to an hour of Manilow after late-night backyard gig

(Newser) - One Colorado judge has had it with teenagers making repeat appearances in his court for noise violations. So rather than issue a fine for mom and dad to pay, he’s devised his own punishment: Noise violators are forced to listen to an hour of gloriously un-hip music, from Barney...

Noise Pollution Getting Louder and More Dangerous

Racket causing thousands of deaths, says WHO, and governments are slow to help

(Newser) - Ear-splitting car alarms, predawn street cleaners, ubiquitous leaf-blowers, and other forms of noise pollution are louder than ever and posing a genuine risk to people's health, writes Katharine Mieszkowski in Salon. Loud noises damage hearing, raise blood pressure, ruin sleep, and, in fact, cause tens of thousands of deaths a...

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