ENV 235 · Research Report

Noise Pollution in My Neighborhood

Author:Imtiaz Mahmud

Instructor:Prof. Porter-Morgan

Date:December 20, 2024

Noise pollution is an excessive amount sound that has negative effects on human health and the wildlife surrounding it.¹ Noise pollution is an invisible danger, it can not be seen. But it is present in both land and the sea.² Noise pollution is a massive environmental hazard for both human and all kind of animals. For human living near consent noise pollution can have both physical and mental health issues. It is also exponentially more harmful for children.³ According to a study by University of Guelph in Canada found that exposure to short-term noise pollution can cause a human to suffer from high blood pressure and an increase of blood viscosity. They also found that people with long-term exposure to noise pollution have a very high rate of cardiovascular disease.⁴ Excessive amount of background noise also interrupts children from learning and thinking. In long tern they suffer from focusing on a task.⁵ I have noticed that while riding my motorcycle. I feel like I can pay attention more on the road while I wear my ear plugs.

Noise pollution has a high negative impact on animals living under the water. Because noise travel long distance underwater. So, they evolved to use sound to find foods, locations and mates. According to the National Geographic Research they found that some of the loudest noise in the oceans comes from navel sonar. Sonars are like echolocation which whales uses all the time to find foods and locations etc. The use of sonar causing a mass stranding to whales on beaches and causing harm to their feeding behaviors.¹ There are some noise pollution in my neighborhood mostly a medium level of background noise. Constant background noise created by human not only make it difficult for human to accomplish a task, but it also affects animals the same away. This can affect their ability to survive and reproduce.

Methodology

The method I used to collect noise data is a cell phone app name DecibelX. It is a free app available for both Android and iOS devices. For locations to collect data, I used four different places around my neighborhood. The locations include my residential street, a park name Pelham Bay, Westchester Avenue street with 6 train subway line above, Interstate I95 which went through the park’s border and finally inside the park next to a river. I collected noise data for 30 seconds except for the highway, where I recorded 45 seconds of data. During the data collection near the highway I95, I kept the microphone open 15 extra seconds for a semi truck to pass by me. Just one semi truck going by me increased the average noise decibel to few points. I took multiple noise samples for each location. For my research paper I only used the highest amount to average decibel for each of the locations.

Data

The graph of the noise data from the table above:

The Westchester Sqr. Avenue Street down the 6 train subway line has the highest amount to noise pollution. Few blocks away from the Westchester Sqr. Ave, my residential street has the lowest amount of average decibel reading. Interstate i95 highway and the Weschester sqr. Avenue has the most similar in average decibel reading. The average noise data reading of my residential street also kind of similar to the inside of Pelham Bay Park. But still the park has higher noise reading by the DecibelX app than the street next to my house.

Findings

The location with the highest average decibel reading is the street under the subway line. The average noise decibel of 67.3Db make sense on this location. New York City subway lines are very old, compare to other developed nations in Europe and Asia, and they produce a huge amount of noise pollution while running. I collected the noise data while a 6 train was going over my head. It was next to a subway stop, the train makes the most amount of noise while breaking. That is the reason for a very high noise decibel reading in Westchester Sqr. Avenue. When the train is not going over head, this street is not that quiet. There are a lot of cars and people all the time going through here. And the train also goes through every 5 minutes on both side, so it feels like a content train noise. Before the data collecting, I thought that the i95 highway will have the highest amount of noise. I collected data in a Sunday morning, that is the reason for a low noise in highway.

I hypothesized that the Pelham Bay Park will have the lowest amount of noise pollution out of these 4 locations. But after the data collection, it turned out to be a wrong hypothesis. The reason for a high noise pollution in the park was caused by airplane getting ready to land in LaGuardia Airport. Airplanes makes a lot of noise while they are creating drag on the wing to slow down for landing. Every 10 minutes a plane flying over the park and creating a huge amount of noise pollution where there should not be any man-made noise. I took the noise sample while a plane was flying very close to the ground of the park. If not for the plane the noise in the park is very low. In the park, there is a distance content highway noise and a moderately busy road noise which goes through the park. My residential street next to my apartment has the lowest amount of noise pollution. During the data collection there was no train going through the subway line little far away from my street. This lowered the average noise decibel on my street.

Further Research

If I were to add two more location, first I would a chose a mountain top and down-town Manhattan. The reason behind choosing this location is that I might get a similar amount of noise decibel from this two completely different location. There is a lot of wind hitting on trees in a mountain top which makes noise. If I get a similar amount of decibel from this two location, the noise will have a different effect on my mind and other organisms. The noise of a city might raise my stress level while the noise of the wind hitting trees in a mountain top will lower my blood pressure and stress level.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are noise pollution going on in my neighborhood. The noise level in my residential street is much reasonable except for the public transportation, subway train. But the noise pollution in the Pelham Bay Park is unacceptable. People goes to the park to relax, and planes flying close to the ground while creating drag on the wing for landing, creating a huge amount of noise pollution. This has an extreme amount of negative impact on the people and all the animals and birds living in the woods of the park. There should be no-fly zone above every park and no highway close to them.

Citations

1. Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Noise Pollution.” Britannica, 2023, www.britannica.com/science/noise-pollution. Accessed 15 Dec. 2024.
2. National Geographic Society. “Noise Pollution.” National Geographic Education, 2023, www.education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/noise-pollution. Accessed 15 Dec. 2024.
3. MacGill, Markus. “Noise Pollution: Health Effects.” Medical News Today, 20 Feb. 2023, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/noise-pollution-health-effects. Accessed 15 Dec. 2024.
4. Jariwala, Hiral, et al. “Noise Pollution & Human Health: A Review.” ResearchGate, 2017, researchgate.net/…/Noise-Pollution-Human-Health-A-Review.pdf. Accessed 15 Dec. 2024.
5. Prater, Nikkhah. “How Traffic Noise Pollution Harms Children’s Health and Development.” BBC Future, 21 June 2024, bbc.co.uk/future/article/20240621…. Accessed 15 Dec. 2024.