Motorbikes Produce Almost Half of Tehran’s Sound Pollution

Yes, noise is a form of pollution from motorized vehicles that’s bad for your health.

Sound pollution in Iranian cities is hitting an all-time high. The large cities like Tehran are the worst. Sound pollution can be any unwanted or offensive sounds that unreasonably intrudes into our daily activities. When a person drives by open windows in a street, the sound is something like 70 decibels. A whisper is 35 decibels and a normal room has a sound intensity of 40 db. At 45 db a person cannot sleep. At 85, the ears are damaged, and at 120, it can hurt your ears.

The main reasons for sound pollution in Iranian cities are the sound of vehicles, airplanes, construction of buildings, small construction jobs and more. The most sound-polluted city in Iran is Tehran, which is now a city that draws the attention of the new comers by high amount of noise. This noise is much more felt in the central parts of the city.

The first reason for this pollution is the cars. Older cars usually produce more noise pollution. The second reason is the motorcycles. As Dr. Yousef Rashidi, the managing director of Tehran’s Air Quality Control Company says 49 percent of the sound pollution of Tehran is produced by motorcycles. These vehicles give out a 90 db sound. Airports and trains are other important contributors.

The statistics say that in most of the metropolitan areas of Iran the urban noise is 20 to 30 db higher than the allowed limits. But the government isn’t taking this problem seriously. Of course some partial steps have been taken during the last 10 to 15 years. Some sound walls on the two sides of noisy urban highways have been constructed, for when highways pass through the residential neighborhoods.

More severe actions are needed to combat sound pollution, an often overlooked form of pollution in the Middle East. The government and parliament of Iran should prepare strict laws like the Noise Control Act (NCA) of 1972 in the United States to save our health, and hearing.

Read more on Iran:

Traffic Fatalities in Iran: The Statics and Causes

Why 27 People Die from Air Pollution in Tehran

Lebanon’s Five Environmental Headaches

Image via Kamshots

Author: Mehrdad Parsipour

Mehrdad Parsipour is an urban researcher who is based in Germany. He is originally from Iran and is interested in the traditional urbanism and architecture of Iran and Middle East. Mehrdad’s other research interests are western traditional urban development trends, Islamic cities, and sustainable urban forms, and finally the environment. Since 1997 he has been working in the field of civil engineering, and also urban and regional planning.

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