DEFRA Ref.

NANR 5
Review and analysis of published research into
the adverse effects of industrial noise, in support
of the revision of planning guidance.
Deepak Dhingra
Mba –II Sem
Delhi Institute Of Advanced Studies

Introduction
This project is a review and analysis of published research into the adverse
effects of industrial noise, in support of the revision of planning guidance.
This study was commissioned to investigate the effects of industrial noise. The
aims of the project were set up as:

• to gain a better understanding of potential disturbance and impact on amenity

by industrial noise which will assist in the review of PPG 24; and

• to investigate the reported relationship between industrial noise and people’s

response.

The objectives of the study were:

• to review existing published literature on industrial noise impacts on
humans, excluding noise at work; and

• to highlight possible relationships between reported adverse effects and factors

such as the types and acoustic characteristics of noise, geographical location
and demographic profile.

Overview
The effects of noise are examined in terms of annoyance, speech interference,
performance (concentration and task interference), mental health, noise induced
stress related effects, and sleep disturbance. Various generic models have been
proposed to illustrate and explain the complex interaction between physical noise
exposure, non-acoustic factors, and the noise effects, and 7 models have been
outlined.

From this rather academic overview of some of these models, and from
knowledge of the published literature, it is clear that no models have been
developed which are specific to the issue of industrial noise.

The models show plenty of commonalities including the short- to longer-term

effects categorizations, and the importance of the centralized role of perception
and control.

Models are qualitative in nature and no attempts have been made to quantify the
relative “weighting” of the various interactions between all the different aspects.
The closest we get to this is the knowledge that has been built up from analysis
and meta-analysis of social surveys on the relative proportions of the variance in
annoyance response that can be ascribed to various factors. But, as it has been
seen, there is much less relevant literature on surveys of industrial noise than, for
example, aircraft noise. Therefore, it has been felt that there is considerable
scope for further work to explore this issue of models, to help to fully describe
response to industrial noise. This could be done in conjunction with any planned
future surveys.

Recommendations
1. A more extensive survey of examples of application of PPG24 should be
considered, based on the experience gained in this project.

2. Additional documentation of the Bibliography should be considered in order to

develop a resource to aid future research.

3. Further research should be funded to develop improved descriptors of

acoustic features in order to describe and assess noise from industrial sources
that are meaningful in terms of the subjective characteristics that they are
supposed to represent.

4. A more detailed study should be undertaken on non-acoustic factors, with a

view to implementing practical guidance.

5. The lack of hard information from the review of previous surveys, and the
review of the importance of “change” situations indicate the need to conduct a
new survey, or surveys.
6. Further work is required to explore the issue of models, to help to fully
describe response to industrial noise and to consider their practical application.
This could be done in conjunction with any planned future surveys.