The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution will come into force on June 5 this year
There are new measures for noise pollution control
Our reporter Shi Zhipeng
The construction site machines next to the community are roaring, the square dance music outside the window is too loud, and the electric drills being decorated next door are one after another... Many people are troubled by all kinds of noise in their work and life, and they are very disgusted by noise pollution.
Many people ridiculed that "I want to be quiet" sometimes becomes an extravagant wish.
Not long ago, the 32nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress passed the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution (hereinafter referred to as the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution).
The law came into effect on June 5 this year, and the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution promulgated in 1996 will be repealed at the same time.
Due to various reasons such as the rapid development of urbanization, noise pollution has increasingly become an important environmental issue of public concern.
Experts and scholars interviewed said that the implementation of the new law will provide more new and practical measures for noise pollution control, and it is still quiet for the people.
"It's so hard to get a good night's sleep"
Xiao Fan, a tenant in a community near Ciyun Temple Bridge in Chaoyang District, Beijing, has not rested well recently, and his face is listless.
"It's very tired after a day of work, why is it so difficult to get a good night's sleep?" Xiao Fan said with emotion.
It turned out that the neighborhood where Xiaofan lives is next to the East Fourth Ring Road. There is a lot of traffic. It’s okay to be away from work during the day. At night, the noise of vehicles driving makes people unable to sleep.
Xiao Fan got up and yawned, then said, "Sometimes I finally fall asleep, and I wake up after a few big cars. It's really driving me crazy."
In an old community in Chaoyang District, noise is a troublesome topic.
"In recent years, the installation of elevators in old residential areas is a good thing for us elderly people, but the elevators are broken every three days and 'ding ding bang' every day, which is very noisy!" The resident Aunt Wang was helpless. "The house is old. Now, the sound insulation is not good, and it is easy to be woken up by the crying of the children upstairs when sleeping at night."
Several other uncles and aunts also shared similar experiences, and the most strongly reflected is the noise caused by interior decoration.
"Not only does it take a long time, but the sound is also very loud," said the resident, Uncle Li. "Although there is no construction at night and noon, I suffer from listening at home during the day, so I have to go out for a walk."
With the rapid economic and social development, the cities we live in are increasingly noisy.
Noise is no stranger to most people, but not everyone can answer what exactly is noise pollution.
"The definition of the connotation of noise pollution by the law also has a development process." Zhu Xiao, deputy dean of the School of Environment, Renmin University of China, introduced that the Environmental Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law before the revision emphasized "exceeding the standard + disturbing the people", but in practice it was found that some There are no noise emission standards in the area of noise.
To this end, the "Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law" has added the expression "failure to take prevention and control measures in accordance with the law" on the original basis.
He explained as an example that common facilities and equipment such as elevators, water pumps, and transformers are installed in the community. According to the law, the construction unit should take measures to reduce vibration and noise. If the failure to take measures interferes with the normal life, work and study of others, it is noise pollution.
Generally speaking, noise pollution is divided into 4 categories: industrial noise pollution, construction noise pollution, transportation noise pollution and social life noise pollution.
According to data from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in 2020, the national ecological environment petition report management platform received more than 441,000 reports from the public, of which noise disturbance accounted for 41.2%, ranking second in various environmental pollution factors.
Among all noise pollution, social life noise complaints report the most.
In fact, in addition to disturbing residents, noise can also have an impact on health.
Since 2003, April 16 every year has been designated as "World Noise Day".
According to the "Burden of Disease Caused by Noise Pollution" previously released by the WHO, noise pollution not only makes people irritable and sleeps poor, but also causes or triggers diseases such as heart disease, learning disabilities and tinnitus, thereby reducing people's life expectancy.
The report pointed out that noise hazard has become the second killer of human public health after air pollution.
"Once the noise source stops sounding, the noise is eliminated immediately"
Xiaofan told reporters that in order to sleep better, he bought a variety of earplugs online. "Although I can still hear the sound of the car, the sound is much lower."
"My mother is getting old, and she often doesn't get enough rest." The son of Aunt Wang, a resident, said, "There are many soundproof products on the market now. I plan to install soundproof glass in the house to reduce external noise as much as possible."
A tunnel of more than 800 meters is particularly eye-catching on the Gubat Bridge, which is passed by the Beijing-Xiong Intercity Railway. Near the bridge is Beiluodian Village.
This is not an ordinary tunnel, but the world's first fully enclosed sound barrier for a high-speed railway bridge with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.
In this way, the noise of the high-speed train passing by and the noise reflected from the road surface will be isolated within the sound barrier.
There are also ways to control noise sources beyond the propagation and reception layers.
Ms. Shen from Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province said that there is a school next to her home. In the past, she would close the window every day when the music was played between classes, but now thanks to the "quiet playground", she no longer has to close the window.
The "quiet playground" in Ms. Shen's mouth is actually a directional broadcasting system that uses directional sound technology.
It is understood that through this technology, broadcast sound will be concentrated in a specific area, reducing interference to the surrounding environment.
"In recent years, with the application of technology in noise reduction, China's acoustic environment has continued to improve, but there are still many challenges to fundamentally control noise pollution." Hu Jing, a professor at the School of Civil, Commercial and Economic Law, China University of Political Science and Law pointed out that different Noise is managed by different departments, and some departments do not have a clear division of management authority. For example, for construction noise, some places are managed by the environmental protection department, and some places are managed by the housing construction or urban management department. People encounter specific problems. Often times I don't know who to look for.
According to Sun Youhai, vice-chairman of the Environmental Resources Law Research Association of the China Law Society, it is difficult to obtain evidence for noise pollution, and it needs to be paid enough attention.
"Different from other pollution sources that tend to accumulate pollutant concentrations for a long time after the pollutants are discharged, noise pollution is transient, that is, once the noise source stops sounding, the noise will be eliminated immediately."
"The quality of some residents really needs to be improved." Uncle Li, a resident, said that some people in their building often sing karaoke at home.
"Once, the police from the police station came to the door, and it stopped, but it started again after a few days."
Hu Jing believes that noise pollution has a lot to do with unreasonable planning, especially the generation of traffic noise, which is often related to the location of infrastructure.
"But today's society is developing and changing rapidly, and new types of noise sources are constantly appearing. Frankly speaking, it is unrealistic to take all future conditions into account when making plans." Take the two issues of "the road before the house" and "the house before the road" as the For example, Hu Jing said that no matter what the situation is, the noise may have reached the standard at that time, but then the traffic flow increased significantly, and the resulting noise pollution is difficult to blame on which party, and it is very difficult to control in the later stage, and needs to be integrated. policy.
"It focuses on 'treatment' as well as 'prevention'"
The "14th Five-Year Plan" and the outline of the long-term goals for 2035 clearly put forward "strengthening environmental noise pollution control", which is also the first time that the content of noise pollution control has been included in the national economic and social development plan.
"Following the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the promulgation of the Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law has provided a strong guarantee for creating a quiet and comfortable environment." Zhu Xiao said that this law has improved the government's responsibility and increased the Punishment for illegal enterprises.
For the local government, if the target of the sound environment quality improvement plan is not completed or the noise pollution problem is prominent and the public has a strong reaction, its main person in charge will be interviewed.
For enterprises, enterprises that implement pollutant discharge permit management should monitor industrial noise by themselves, keep original monitoring records and disclose them to the public.
Enterprises operating in areas where noise-sensitive buildings are concentrated should set up an automatic noise monitoring system, network with the supervision and management department, and keep the original monitoring records.
"This is an effective measure to resolve the difficulty of obtaining evidence. Fines for companies that violate the regulations, and even orders to restrict production and stop production for rectification can also play a role in supervision." Zhu Xiao said.
There is also a law to control the noise disturbance of square dancing, which has attracted much attention.
The new law stipulates: If you carry out entertainment, fitness and other activities in public places, if you use audio equipment in violation of regulations to generate excessive volume, and refuse to correct, a warning will be given, and individuals may be fined between 200 yuan and 1,000 yuan.
"The new law focuses not only on 'governance' but also on 'prevention'." Hu Jing said that source prevention and control is reflected in the regulations on reasonable planning and product noise limits.
For example, when formulating and revising national land space planning and transportation and other related plans, the impact of roads, railways, civil airports and their take-off and landing routes on the surrounding acoustic environment should be comprehensively considered; for products that may generate noise pollution, noise limits are required to be specified. Value; construction work preferentially use low-noise construction technology and equipment.
At present, the first phase of Beijing Metro Line 19 has been put into operation.
Entrance F is the only ground entrance and exit of Mudanyuan Station on Line 19, next to Mudanyuan Xili Community.
Due to the tight schedule and heavy tasks during construction, workers often work at night, and residents have great opinions.
Under the coordination of the community party committee, the residents' representatives of Mudanyuan Xili Community and the construction party have negotiated many times on the issue of noise disturbance.
In the end, the construction party compensated the residents for construction noise at night, and actively took measures to reduce the noise.
"The above cases provide a good idea for resolving noise pollution disputes." Zhu Xiao said that the new law emphasizes multiple governance. In addition to litigation in court, it also encourages noise-emitting units and individuals to negotiate with noise-infringed units and individuals. Adjust the production and operation time and construction operation time, take measures to reduce vibration and noise, and pay compensation and resettlement in different places to properly resolve disputes.
"Everyone should enhance the awareness of noise pollution prevention and control, and consciously reduce the noise emission of social life." Hu Jing said that in the face of social life noise such as neighborhood noise, if it is generated in normal life, they should have a tolerant attitude and resolve disputes in the spirit of mutual understanding and accommodation. , and if you encounter a situation of willful interference, you must take up legal weapons to protect your quiet space.
A glimpse of foreign noise pollution prevention and control measures (link)
In Germany, the protection of sound environmental quality is listed as a top priority.
In order to highlight the importance attached to the prevention and control of noise pollution, Article 325 of the Criminal Law stipulates the "crime of noise pollution".
The punishment of this crime implements the concept of crime prevention, adopts the legislative principle of dangerous crimes, punishes both intentional and negligent offenders, and gives full play to the role of criminal law in protecting the quality of the acoustic environment as the last social protection barrier.
In 2005, Germany revised the Emission Control Act to further refine the noise map.
The public can understand the urban noise level more intuitively through advanced scientific and technological means, so as to participate in the management of noise prevention and control.
In the United States, the legislature regulates noise pollution by formulating detailed noise pollution emission standards and scientifically defining noise pollution sources.
For example, the "Noise Prevention Law" promulgated in 1997 strictly controls the sound sources near the residential buildings of citizens, distinguishes between day and night, and stipulates in detail the type, decibel, duration and frequency of sound sources.
The public participation system runs through the entire process of noise pollution prevention and control in the United States.
Article 2(b) of the Noise Control Law provides that the public may challenge and interfere with noise prevention and control measures.
Article 5 stipulates that the promulgation of any noise control rules shall allow the direct participation of the interested public in the drafting process.
Article 11 stipulates that, except in special circumstances, the public's right to sue for noise is not restricted, and legal persons and natural persons affected by noise are allowed to file civil lawsuits against environmental protection departments for infringement and dereliction of duty.
To solve the problem of noise pollution, Japan takes legislation as the leading role and the government makes specific plans.
In the formulation of noise standards, Japan, guided by the theory of tolerance limits, takes the tolerance limit of citizens (considering the life, health, spiritual feelings of the victim's interests, etc.) as the basis for judging whether the public nuisance behavior is illegal to protect.
In terms of the way of assuming responsibility, Articles 29 to 32 in Chapter VI "Penalty Regulations" of the Noise Control Law stipulates the criminal responsibility of polluters.
(organized by our reporter Shi Zhipeng)