Madrid (EFE).- Noise pollution is “an invisible poison” that causes a deterioration in the quality of life and in the health of citizens and requires “concrete action plans” from the Public Administrations and the support of all citizens , has assured EFE Yomara García Viera, president of the association Jurists against Noise.
This organization has participated, together with the State Confederation of Neighborhood Associations (CEAV), the National Federation Against Noise Pollution and in Defense of Heritage (Facuspat), the Federation of Associations Against Noise and the Spanish Society of Acoustics (SEA), in the Campaign against Noise 2023 that culminates this Wednesday coinciding with the International Noise Awareness Day, which has been celebrated every last Wednesday of April since 1996.
All of them had summoned more than 2,600 national associations and entities related to the sector to a minute of silence at noon today to raise awareness of the inconvenience and damage that they generate both in people and animals and even in material goods. the acoustic excesses of “traffic, terraces, gyms, air conditioning units, extractors, festivals, large bottles or neighborhood shouting”, among other factors.
Violation of current regulations
“Citizens are being subjected to acoustic torture” due to the violation of current regulations that “are not applied properly, neither on time nor in a proper way,” García denounced, “with files that take months or end up expiring, while people continue to suffer without solving the problem”.
“Noise kills” and this is a fact that “in the case of Spain worsens year after year”, as shown by the health care figures, since only in the Community of Madrid some 6,000 annual urgent admissions related to problems generated due to excessive acoustics -which involve costs of 83 million euros- and, among the population over 65 years of age, it is considered the cause of up to 280 deaths each year, according to analyzes carried out by the Carlos III Health Institute.
Health suffers from excessive noise
The same entity concludes that noise is also related to emergency mental health hospital admissions in general for all age groups and, in the case of Madrid, it represents a percentage of 5.5% of total annual admissions.
Furthermore, the World Health Organization warns that one billion young people are currently “at risk of hearing loss” and García regrets that excessive noise “destroys families and shortens life”, since it is linked to conditions such as “dementia, stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, anxiety and even absenteeism from work and school.”
These are problems that “for a long time have been generally ignored, except by those who suffered from them”, or else they have been “minimized by attributing them to extraordinary, specific or temporary circumstances” and sometimes even considering them “irresolvable”.
For this reason, the organizations included in the Campaign against Noise have called for “overcoming ambiguity” and applying “decisive action” from both public administrations and citizens.
This approach urges the emitters of noise pollution to “introduce the acoustic variable from the beginning, with the adequate insulation and conditioning that the technical improvements available today allow”, as well as to comply with legislative obligations and respect for the rights of others in favor of “health and peaceful coexistence”.