Regulating noise for residents

"Are you prepared to take them to court?" comes the tentative non sequitur from the other end of the phone.

Ringing the police station in desperation to report a rowdy bar in a residential area, ear-splitting petards, blood-curdling air horns or high volume notes late at night drifting into bedrooms from entertainment events is futile, as anyone will tell you. But there may be a glimmer of hope around the corner.

To begin with, a new regulation, primarily designed to protect workers from high volume in the music and entertainment sector, is due to come into force next February under the Occupational Health and Safety Authority. Noise levels for quarry blasting have been established, and explosions are monitored by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA).

Despite vague claims at international fora that the wider problem of noise pollution in Malta is being tackled by the authorities, the citizen is still largely unprotected as life just keeps getting noisier.

In a proposed action plan MEPA has been urged to collaborate more with the Department of Health to ensure that specific conditions on noise mitigation are included in planning permits.

Yet noise continues to be the cause of unending stress on these islands as complaints are on the rise. Take the vineyard bird cannons.

Gas guns

You could be forgiven for thinking at first that it is bird hunters splitting the afternoon calm. After a few shots it becomes clear that this is no hunter.

The silence of a Gozo afternoon is shot full of loud reports delivered, like Chinese water torture, into people's homes until their time of rest is riddled through with agitation and discomfort.

Repeated firing of these scaring devices to control birds has become a nuisance to neighbouring residents. The gas gun blasts are timed to go off at regular two-minute intervals.

Unlike a solar water heater or a signboard, gas guns operating in fields to deter birds from feeding on the grape crop, are considered by MEPA to be an activity not requiring a planning application or notification.

Despite their high social and environmental impact, the use of portable gas guns, which operate on a 12V battery, is so far not subject to any sort of permitting.

Bangs or nets?

Many wine growers in Australia use netting on their vines to protect the crop from birds. Starlings and finches are too small to actually take the whole grape but peck at the fruit or pierce it with their claws. This can induce oozing fungal infections, rot and off-flavours in the wine. From the farmer's viewpoint, protecting grape flavour is crucial in the face of growing market pressure to deliver good quality wine.

The Co-operative Research Centre for Viticulture (CRCV) notes that the repeated firing of guns and audible scaring devices used to control birds are an inconvenience to local residents especially when vineyards are located in close proximity to neighbouring properties or residential communities.

On the other hand the Australian viticulture centre also observes that the use of bird netting can trap untargeted birds and change the appearance of the landscape. The impact on visual amenity may be significant in tourist destinations.

Experience has shown that the bird scarers are no good at keeping birds permanently away. With time the birds get used to both audible and visual deterrents (kites, mylar tape and imitation predators such as plastic barn owls.)

Guidelines recommend that neighbours should be notified ahead of time of the grower's intention to use audible devices. They should also be informed of the expected duration and frequency. Time restrictions should be applied. Complaints received should be recorded and monitored.

Has MEPA any future plans for controlling the impact of the vineyard cannons increasingly used in Gozo? Is any legislation envisaged to limit permitted times for the guns to be fired bearing in mind the discomfort being caused to residents and noise pollution in the countryside?

In response to these questions a MEPA spokeswoman replies that control of this form of noise pollution is "not within the authority's remit to enforce" and a matter to be reported to the police.

Effects on children

Noise exposure has been found to decrease children's learning and motivation. Increased stress from loud and unexpected sounds are also suspected of having an impact on their endocrine and cardiovascular systems.

Studies have shown clear health benefits of noise reduction. For example laws on reduction of aircraft noise have resulted in improved reading ability and long-term memory of school children.

Moderate annoyance by general traffic noise in children is associated with elevated risk of respiratory symptoms. Children strongly annoyed by noisy traffic fall ill with bronchitis more often than the rest. Migraines and arthritis can also be a result of sleep disturbance in children caused by traffic sounds.

Levels of asthma and diabetes are higher in areas of noisy traffic where elderly people have been found to suffer more strokes. Neighbourhood noise can elevate the risk of hypertension, allergies, cardio-vascular symptoms, gastric ulcers and depression.

Malta's national plan for environmental health action (NEHAP) proposes to reduce exposure to noise pollution that presents a significant threat to health well-being and quality of life. It also aims to prevent and reduce exposure of children to hazardous and disruptive noise and noise injuries.

Earmuff

MEPA has been identified as the framework for the assessment and management of environmental noise under the relevant EU directive. Together with the minister responsible for the environment under LN 193 of 2004, different bodies or persons may also be designated as the competent authority for carrying out different parts of the regulations.

For example, the Malta Standards Authority is tasked with monitoring noise from traffic, vacuum cleaners, outdoor equipment and management of noise from aircraft. The setting up of a technical committee by the authority to deal with noise from vehicles and machinery is required by subsidiary legislation to LN 213 of 2000 (SL 419.03). According to a spokesman for MSA this has not yet come about.

The European Directive aimed at controlling noise in built up areas and quiet areas of countryside (transposed by LN193.04) has been dismissed as inappropriate and irrelevant to our small scale. It applies to major roads and airports (larger than any in Malta) but not to noise that is caused by the exposed person (as in fireworks) or noise created by neighbours.

An independent assessment carried out in Malta on plans and programmes for the 2007-2013 period has found that regulation of noise in Malta is ad hoc. While noise assessments for individual projects are requested by MEPA on a case-by-case basis there are no national limits in place.

The responsibility for this would fall on MEPA since an EU noise directive steers clear of setting any decibel limits itself but leaves this up to the "competent authority" to establish.

Under MEPA policy BEN 1 developments which constitute bad neighbourliness would not normally be allowed. Although this policy augurs the development of standards for noise emissions and the definition of noise abatement zones where necessary, very little of this has been done.

Until more comprehensive restrictions on noise are introduced the authorities do at least rely somewhat on British Standard ratings for purposes of environmental assessment of proposed developments. BS 4142 covers industrial noise affecting residential areas. The measuring of environmental noise falls under BS 7445.

A study suggests that for desirable limits of well being indoors the outdoor noise level experienced during a 24-hour day should not exceed 65 decibels. Noise from the construction industry in Malta can reach nearly 90 decibels.

Noise or vibration on building sites are subject to BS 5228. Under this standard the Fort Cambridge development has been limited to 80 decibels during the construction phase, ranging somewhere between an alarm clock and the sound of an outboard motor.

NEHAP

A draft of the National Environmental Health Action Plan (NEHAP) presented last year proposes studies to further establish the link between noise and health problems. This is intended to persuade legislators to legislate for a reduction on noise in residential areas, especially impulsive noise from firework blasts.

Special attention is to be given to the amount of sudden explosive noise as well as the time at which traditional Maltese fireworks (murtali) are used. Levels considered dangerous, as high as 140 decibels, have been recorded.

Noise from fireworks should be regulated according to the Church Environment Commission, which has recommended that criteria for licensed firing of pyrotechnics must be made stricter and abuses should not be tolerated.

The commission also acknowledges, in a report on the impact of religious feasts, that a sudden noise of 120 decibels has been found to cause permanent damage to the ears in young children. Expert opinions on the maximum permitted level of noise vary between 97 and 115 decibels. A jackhammer operates at around 100 decibels.

The health plan requires the authorities to address local noise issues by drawing up action plans to reduce noise where necessary and protect environmental quality in areas where noise pollution has not yet become a problem.

The plan, presented in draft form last year, prescribes that the environment protection department within the Ministry of Environment should continue to update regulations to include acceptable levels of noise by decibel for particular activities.

The Environmental Health Unit is to be tasked with investigation of complaints originating from noise pollution. Some health inspectors have been trained in investigation procedures for noise complaints. Before the unit can carry out its brief the legislation has to be put firmly in place. A Health Ministry spokesman says that legislation on domestic residential noise under the Public Health Act is currently in the process of being drafted. 

Bird scarer cannons operating in vineyards within earshot of residential areas may fall under this legislation. Don't wait for the public consultation stage if you are concerned about this form of noise pollution. Take the initiative now to write to the Health Department, expressing your wish to see it included and participate in the drawing up of any legislation before the draft law is made final.