Ericson M. Scorsim. Lawyer and Consultant in Public Law. PhD in Law from USP. Founder and President-Director of the Anti-Noise Environmental Monitor Civil Association. Author of the e-book Sustentabilidade Ambiental Acústica: Propostas Regulatórias para Cidades livres de Ruídos Excessivos, availabe on Amazon.
Noise pollution is a factor in the degradation of environmental quality and quality of life in cities. Noise pollution is a symbol of underdevelopment, environmental violence, and psychological violence. Sustainable urban development requires urgent measures to eliminate, reduce, and isolate excessive, unnecessary and harmful noise and noise pollution.
Also, noise pollution is a risk factor for public health and environmental health. Excessive, unnecessary, and harmful noise impacts the physical health, physiological health, cardiovascular health, hearing health, and mental health of the population. Moreover, it is a serious situation for people with neurodiversity and/or cognitive and auditory neurodivergence, such as autism spectrum disorder, misophonia , hyperacusis, phonophobia, anxiety, depression, attention deficit, hyperactivity, among other symptoms. These people are extremely vulnerable to excessive noise and noise pollution. According to the World Health Organization, noise levels above 50 dB (A) are a risk factor for the population’s health.
Furthermore, according to the World Health Organization, the health protection parameter for controlling noise in traffic and transportation is 53 dB (A) for the daytime and 45 dB (A) for the nighttime. The United Nations’ sustainable development goals establish the priorities of FOR sustainable cities and communities, innovation, industry and infrastructure, quality education, health and well-being, sustainable consumption, decent work, peace and effective institutions.
It is essential that City Halls adopt urban and environmental governance plans for the prevention, management, and control of noise pollution and excessive, unnecessary, and harmful noise. It is essential to promote institutional innovations to train all Municipal Departments in the mission of preventing and controlling the emission of excessive noise and environmental pollution. In this aspect, the coordination and cooperation between all responsible agencies is essential, integrating urban, environmental, traffic, transportation, health, and education policies.
Therefore, public policies must prioritize a clean, healthy and sustainable city, free from excessive noise and noise pollution. Public policies must prioritize the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable streets, free from excessive noise and noise pollution. Public policies must prioritize clean, healthy, and sustainable traffic, free from excessive noise and noise pollution. Public policies must prioritize urban passenger transportion WITH by clean, healthy, and sustainable buses, free from excessive and unnecessary noise and noise pollution. Public authorities must prioritize the acoustic environmental eco-efficiency of works, services and equipment in public procurement systems. Public authorities must encourage the use of clean, healthy, and sustainable technologies. Public policies must prioritize the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable residential environment, free from excessive noise and noise pollution. Therefore, it is important to establish standards to protect the environment sound quality for clean, healthy and sustainable indoor and outdoor residential areas, encouraging the use of clean, healthy, and sustainable technologies with zero noise and/or reduced noise emissions. Public policies must prioritize the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable working environment, free from excessive noise and noise pollution. It is essential that public policies implement the environmental principles of prohibition of environmental regression, , prevention and precaution of environmental damage, as well as the polluter pays, environmental security, sustainable environmental peace, among others.
Therefore, a smart city can only be characterized as such if it adopts intelligent measures which consider environmental intelligence and the use of technological innovations for the prevention, management, supervision, and control of the emission of excessive, unnecessary, and harmful noise and noise pollution. In my e-book Sustentabilidade Ambiental Acústica: Propostas Regulatórias para Cidades Livres de Ruídos Excessivos, available on Amazon , there is a presentation of a set of regulatory proposals for the urban and environmental governance of cities.
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