If 100 million Europeans suffering from noise pollution could be helped to lead quieter lives, then the European Union would save billions of euros. Between €13 billion and €38 billion is spent each year on lost productivity, accidents and health problems caused by lack of sleep and concentration.
A directive which came into force this year calls for noise maps and action plans. But how will noise management in small island circumstances match up to the rest of Europe?
A scrapyard in Zabbar has been the ongoing subject of correspondence between a Zabbar resident and the DG environment industrial emissions unit in Brussels.
"Dear Commissioner Dimas, I write in desperation for a solution..." begins a letter to the EU Commissioner for Environment, written in 2005. Residents say the sound of metal clanging and grating is constant during the day, and have asked the EU Environment Commissioner to intervene so that the plant "conforms to acceptable noise levels."
The communities of Zabbar and Buleben iz-Zghir housing estates have long complained of dust and noise emissions generated by Hompesch scrap metal processing plant directly across the road from their homes. Last October the mayor of Zabbar wrote to MEPA claiming that noise levels caused by the scrapyard exceeded acceptable limits set out in the environment and planning authority's own guidelines on noise.
A search for noise guidelines on the MEPA Website fails to produce little more than guidelines for noise in quarries. The Mineral Subjects Plan restricts noise to an upper limit of 55 decibels for sensitive locations such as residential properties near quarries. Decibels are tricky to measure. A 5dB noise reduction is only about 30 per cent quieter but represents a 50 per cent decrease in the risk of hearing loss. The pain threshold for noise begins at around 120 decibels while levels above 80 decibels can cause permanent hearing loss with relatively short exposure. New European noise level indicators, known as Lden and Lnight, describe environmental noise during the day and night.
Changes made this year to the EU noise directive require that earplugs or other types of hearing protectors must be made available as a precautionary measure to workers when noise levels reach 80 decibels. Zabbar residents are not impressed and want to know if the EU will deliver them from the noise nuisance they say they are suffering in their homes.
Readings of up to 74.7 decibels have been recorded at Hompesch scrapyard by Mediterrranean Technical Services Ltd as part of an environmental impact survey. This sets the noise somewhere between an alarm clock and a vacuum cleaner while taking into consideration that the scrapyard is located on a busy road. Some effort has gone into buffering noise caused by the machinery but residents still feel distressed by the presence of the scrapyard at such close hand, adjacent to a historical windmill.
The scrapyard started out in the 1960s as a production plant for reinforced building bars when burners were used. "It was much dirtier then," recalls managing director Anthony Zammit Tabona, adding that the residential properties were bought after the plant was established.
"We have just had a visit on a normal working day from an EU delegation and they were pleased with what they saw. We have installed new machinery last April which is quieter and are cleaning up Malta. They said that we could easily compare with our counterparts in Germany."
Mr Zammit Tabona claimed that the dust which neighbours complained about is not from his scrapyard but from the Marsa power station, referring to a report on dust deposition commissioned by the Environment Ministry. The metal recycling plant is covered by a police license renewed every year.
Enforcement
Malta Standards Authority and the Market Surveillance Directorate are among the primary agencies tagged to oversee enforcement of EU standards on noise emissions from equipment that is used outdoors. A search on the Website of the Ministry for Economic Services reveals only one document on certification of aircraft noise under the Civil Aviation Act. The MSA Website does not tell us much more.
The Occupational Health and Safety Authority, the Maltese focal point for the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, has issued guidelines on noise in the workplace with the health of workers in mind. OHSA is responsible for advising the Ministry for Social Policy on regulations, monitoring compliance and taking enforcement action.
The 2006-2010 national environment and health action plan (NEHAP) has been revised to take into account the effects of environmental impacts on children. In a workshop on implementation of the plan held earlier this year depression and aggressive behaviour in Maltese schoolchildren were linked to psychological problems caused by excessive noise.
The Office of the Prime Minister houses some priority objectives for human health within its Planning and Priorities Co-ordination Division. Cutting down on dust and noise pollution is claimed to be a priority. This has been decided as a result of the strategic environment assessment carried out on Malta's operational programmes for the next six years starting in 2007.
Residential areas
The Environmental Health Unit has trained ten health inspectors on the use of monitoring equipment and investigating noise complaints as part of a twinning project with Greece. Standard operating procedures regarding noise management are due to be drawn up as part of the project.
Head of unit Charles Bonnici explains that the drafting of new regulations for residential noise is presently underway.
"Besides the proposed regulations, the Department of Public Health is assessing the monitoring equipment required, while consulting with MEPA in view of their involvement as per Legal Notice 193 of 2004 published under the Environment Protection Act, which will have a direct link with the proposed new regulations being drafted by this department." Mr Bonnici's unit will be relying on MEPA to draw up noise maps and identify which areas are 100 per cent residential for better noise control.
During a Children's Environmental Health Action Plan (Europe) task force meeting last October the Maltese representative informed delegates about recent developments on noise policy, including a public awareness campaign on the negative health effects of too high levels of noise. We have yet to see this campaign come to full fruition.
Both the EU directive and the legal notice on noise assessment and management require that the competent authority (MEPA) produces strategic noise maps showing the situation in the previous year. Noise mapping is a way of presenting data so that any breaches of limit values in force can be detected as well as noting the number of people or dwellings affected in a certain area.
All EU countries must produce a map detailing noise pollution from major roads, airports and industrial sites near urban areas of 250,000 inhabitants. The first maps are due in 2007. MEPA will be allowed to use its own methods to calculate noise propagation for another five years. By 2012 the authority will have to switch to an EU-wide harmonised system. This will enable more accurate comparisons which could help draw up effective noise reduction policies at European, national and regional levels.
Harmonoise
Harmonising the measuring and mapping of noise patterns will help the EU adopt a common approach to avoiding, preventing and reducing harmful noise that currently affects a quarter of Europe's population.
The programme, known as Harmonoise, takes into account weather patterns in a particular area, predictions about how far sound will travel in colder night air or warmer daytime air or even at different times of year. It can be used for accurate predictions to within two decibels or for broader estimates over a large area. This would allow policymakers to carry out cost-benefit analyses to determine the best course of action.
Building sound barriers can be costly and not very attractive. The focus in Europe has turned more toward tackling noise at source. The new model looks at the noise source separately, calculates how sound spreads and predicts what effect mitigation actions will have. This would allow policymakers to carry out cost-benefit analyses to determine the best course of action.
MEPA is duty bound to ensure that the public is consulted about proposals for action plans, given early and effective opportunities to participate in the preparation and review of action plans, and informed of decisions taken.
Access to information on regulation, the dissemination of action plans, and setting of medium and long-term goals to reduce the number of persons harmfully affected by environmental noise are further obligations to be met. The directive also proposes, where appropriate, implementing strategies to protect quiet areas in open countryside from an increase in noise.
The European directive on noise identifies a "major road" as one that has more than three million vehicle passages a year. MEPA's topic paper on transport shows an annual traffic flow of around two million vehicles per year for the main North-South artery, Regional Road. Noise mapping is required by both the directive and legal notice only for very busy roads with more than six million vehicle passages per year.
Perhaps the most binding reassurance comes from the Malta Film Commission, which claims to have a duty of care towards residents and businesses and "will intervene if a particular production is causing unreasonable nuisance or noise."
For now that leaves no one to stop the gas man blasting us out of our skins with his air horn as he goes about his business as usual, ears ringing.
EU measures to protect children from excessive noise
• Informing and consulting the public about noise exposure, its effects, and the measures considered to address noise, in line with the principles of the Aarhus Convention.
• Addressing local noise issues by requiring competent authorities to draw up action plans to reduce noise where necessary and maintain environmental noise quality where it is good.
• Developing a long-term EU strategy, which includes objectives to reduce the number of people affected by noise in the longer term, and provides a framework for developing existing Community policy on noise reduction from source.
Children's Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe, 2004