Definition: Noise is undesirable and unwanted sound. 

Sources of noise pollution

There are several sources of noise pollution that contribute to both indoor and outdoor noise pollution. Noise emanating from factories, vehicles, playing of loudspeakers during various festivals can contribute to outdoor noise pollution while loudly played radio or music systems, and other electronic gadgets can contribute to indoor noise pollution.

Effects of noise pollution on physical health

The most direct harmful effect of excessive noise is physical damage to the ear and the temporary or permanent hearing loss often called a temporary threshold shift (TTS). People suffering from this condition are unable to detect weak sounds. However hearing ability is usually recovered within a month of exposure. Permanent loss, usually called noise induced permanent threshold shift (NIPTS) represents a loss of hearing ability from which there is no recovery.

Effects of noise pollution on mental health:

Noise can also cause emotional or psychological effects such as irritability, anxiety and stress. Lack of concentration and mental fatigue are significant health effects of noise. 

As noise interferes with normal auditory communication, it may mask auditory warning signals and hence increases the rate of accidents especially in industries. It can also lead to lowered worker efficiency and productivity and higher accident rates on the job.

Thus noise is just more than a mere nuisance or annoyance. It definitely affects the quality of life. It is thus important to ensure mitigation or control of noise pollution With environmental crisis looming over us, relevance of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle is very high. Adopting these measures have been very effective in curbing pollution at an individual level.