In daily life, industrial production, construction, transportation, and social life often produce some noise, which disturbs many people.
In order to further improve the prevention and control of noise pollution and create a more harmonious and peaceful environment for the common people, this edition launches a series of reports "Focus on Noise Pollution" from now on, focusing on the generation and prevention of social life noise, traffic noise, and industrial production noise that readers are concerned about. Experts, scholars and people from all walks of life are invited to offer advice and suggestions on this issue, so stay tuned.
--editor
The loudspeakers in shopping malls are too loud, the noise of dancing in the square downstairs disturbs the residents, and the residents upstairs play the piano until late... In recent years, noise pollution in social life has become a hot issue that plagues many residents.
On June 5 this year, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution was officially implemented.
Compared with the previous law, the new law establishes the general requirements for the prevention and control of noise pollution in the new era, and redefines the connotation of noise pollution. In view of the fact that some areas that generate noise do not have noise emission standards, on the basis of "exceeding the standard + disturbing the people", the " Failure to take prevention and control measures in accordance with the law” is defined as noise pollution that produces noise that interferes with the normal life, work and study of others.
Which noises are the most annoying in everyday life?
When people encounter noise pollution, which department should they complain to?
What are the difficult problems in the prevention and control of noise pollution?
In response to these issues, the reporter launched an investigation and interview.
Noise complaints from social life remain high
In recent years, the number of noise complaints and reports has continued to remain high.
According to the 2022 China Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Report recently released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, according to incomplete statistics, in 2021, the 12345 citizen service hotlines and ecological environment, housing and urban and rural construction, public security, transportation, and urban management comprehensive About 4.01 million noise complaints and reports were accepted by administrative law enforcement and other departments, of which noise complaints from social life accounted for 57.9%.
The social life noises involved in the complaints include the noise generated by the operators and managers of cultural entertainment, sports, catering and other places using sound reinforcement equipment, amusement facilities and production equipment.
A netizen from Shenzhen complained on the People's Daily Online "leadership message board" that the smoke exhaust equipment installed in the kitchen of a nearby restaurant was too noisy, from 10 am to 10 pm every day, seriously affecting the daily life of nearby residents.
Netizens in Nanning City, Guangxi complained that a nearby barbecue restaurant often operates until three or four in the morning, and the noise is too loud and disturbs rest.
In some cases, activities such as entertainment and fitness are carried out in public places such as squares and parks, and the volume of audio equipment is too loud or exceeds the specified time period.
According to Sun Zhiyong, head of the Police Receiving Command Brigade (110 Alarm Service Desk) of the Intelligence Command Center of the Nantong Public Security Bureau in Jiangsu, since this year, Nantong 110 has received more than 19,000 complaints about noise nuisance, among which square dancing is the most.
On the "Leadership Message Board" of People's Daily Online, the loud noise of square dancing is also one of the problems with the most comments.
A netizen in Fuyang, Anhui Province complained that the noise nuisance caused by square dancing has not been properly resolved in the four years since they moved to their new home.
There is also the noise generated by shared facilities and equipment such as elevators, water pumps, and transformers installed in residential areas.
A resident in Fuxin Haizhou District, Liaoning Province wrote to say that the noise from the underground heating and heat exchange station in the residential building disturbed the residents.
Netizens in the Chengdu High-tech Zone in Sichuan complained that the tracks of the two elevators were installed on the same wall in the living room, and the elevators produced low-frequency noise during operation, which seriously affected sleep.
Disputes between neighbors due to noise are not uncommon.
Ms. Bai, who lives in Shuozhou City, Shanxi Province, could not endure the upstairs neighbor playing flute and erhu every day, and "counterattacked" by vibrating the floor with the basin buckle speaker.
This year, the Beijing Chaoyang District People’s Court issued the first pre-litigation injunction order for “noise intrusion” in Beijing. It was because the neighbors across the wall played the piano at high frequency and loud volume for a long time, and the elderly mother was unbearable. She appealed to the court to stop the infringement.
Noise sources are dispersed, management departments are not unified, and governance is difficult
Wang Canfa, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said that the management and law enforcement of noise in social life has certain particularities. “First, the management departments are not unified. The prevention and control of noise pollution in industrial , It is managed by the designated department of the local government, involving environmental protection, public security, urban management, real estate management and other departments, and the situation in each region is not the same. Sometimes because the management departments are not unified, there is a phenomenon of mutual buck-passing.”
Multi-management also increases the difficulty for the masses to complain and defend their rights.
Taking the summary of complaints received by the "National Ecological Environment Complaints and Reporting Management Platform" in Chengdu, Sichuan in July 2022 as an example, nearly 70 of the 255 complaints belonged to social life noise, but the ecological environment management department did not accept them.
For example, when I complained about a seafood barbecue restaurant in Wenjiang District that was still noisy from 10:00 p.m.
Wang Canfa said that scattered and frequent noise sources are also an important reason for the difficulty in monitoring noise pollution in social life.
Since social life noise sources mostly occur among residents, such as decoration noise, entertainment noise, pet noise, etc., it is difficult to monitor and judge whether these noises exceed the standard.
For example, the noise generated by residents playing musical instruments or family entertainment activities may stop before monitoring agencies can monitor them.
"The police came, but the voice became quieter; the police left, and they were transferred back." Mr. Wu, a netizen from Inner Mongolia, has a deep understanding.
There is an open park downstairs in the community where he lives, and square dancing is very noisy all the year round.
"One team ends, another team begins. At the same time, there are different teams grabbing territory and soaring high notes." He has complained to multiple departments for many years. , It has not been resolved.” In the end, the helpless Mr. Wu spent more than 10,000 yuan, “replaced a set of windows with particularly good sound insulation for the family.”
Sun Zhiyong said frankly that when dealing with noise disputes in social life, very few people actually entered into the case and were punished.
Most of the noise complaints from the masses are at night, and the police are dispatched immediately. There is no noise detection equipment, and it is impossible to detect the noise level on the spot.
"In addition, the square dancers are all grandpas and aunts, and the focus is on persuasion, education and persuasion to avoid intensifying conflicts." Sun Zhiyong said.
Netizen Weiwei said that half a month after he moved into his new house, he found that the house was not very soundproof. During the day, he walked upstairs, pushed and pulled tables and chairs, and even dropped his keys, which could be clearly heard downstairs.
Someone told him later that the floor may be too thin.
"Residential buildings must firstly reduce noise, reduce the noise of outdoor transportation and the noise of elevators, water pumps and other noises in the building; secondly, sound insulation must be ensured to ensure the privacy between households." Director of the Architectural Physics Laboratory, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University Yanxiang introduced that in the past, due to the consideration of construction economic costs, my country had relatively low requirements on the acoustic environment indicators. In addition, developers and design units did not understand the importance of sound insulation and noise reduction in civil buildings, and some residential buildings did not meet the standards for sound insulation and noise reduction. , resulting in residential building noise nuisance or sound insulation complaints are not uncommon.
Equal emphasis should be placed on legal regulation and improving the moral quality of residents living together
On June 5, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution was formally implemented. All localities focused on strengthening supervision and investigated and dealt with a number of noise violations.
The Fujian Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment recently announced 6 typical cases of noise pollution, 4 of which involved noise from social life.
In mid-June this year, law enforcement officers from the Liuyang Branch of the Hunan Changsha Ecological Environment Bureau conducted an on-site inspection of a catering management company based on complaints from the masses and found that the noise exceeded the relevant national emission standards. They were fined 7,250 yuan and ordered to rectify.
Anhui Province recently released data: there were 2,720 environmental noise pollution complaints in the third quarter of 2021, and 1,188 environmental noise pollution complaints in the third quarter of 2022, a year-on-year decrease of 56.3%.
Wang Canfa said that this shows from one aspect that the Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law is playing a positive role. I believe that with the further implementation of the Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law, its role will become more obvious.
Wei Zhiyong, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, said that the Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law redefines the connotation of pollution, not only emphasizing the situation of excessive noise emissions, but also the phenomenon of "failure to take prevention and control measures in accordance with the law" to cause noise to interfere with the normal life, work and study of others Defined as noise pollution.
Regarding the prevention and control of noise pollution in social life, the number of legal articles has increased from 7 to 12, basically covering the current hot areas of complaints, such as regulations on organizing or carrying out entertainment, fitness and other activities in public places, using household appliances, musical instruments or other activities The regulations on activities in family places, the noise limit of elevators, water pumps, transformers and other shared facilities and equipment installed in residential areas should comply with relevant regulations, etc.
Yan Xiang said that the Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law raises the requirements for the sound insulation and noise reduction performance of civil buildings from the level of living comfort to the level that is critical to the health of the occupants.
"The Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution clarifies the legal responsibilities of residential developers and sales companies. It is an illegal act to fail to publicize the residential noise situation at the sales site, fail to include it in the sales contract, and fail to specify in the contract the location of shared residential equipment and facilities or the sound insulation of the building. At the same time, the national standards have also made great progress. For example, on January 1 last year, Beijing has raised the limit of sound insulation of partition walls from 45 decibels to 50 decibels, and the limit of floor impact sound insulation has been reduced from no more than 75 decibels to no more than 65 decibels." Yan Xiang said.
"The Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law and the new standards will force real estate developers and sales companies to face up to and pay attention to the problem of sound insulation and noise reduction." Yan Xiang pointed out that once the sound insulation and noise reduction of residential buildings does not meet the standards or the construction and sales are illegal, home buyers may Legal accountability on the grounds of health hazards and neighbor conflicts is an environmental pollution dispute.
According to the provisions of the Civil Code on environmental pollution and ecological damage liability "inversion of evidence", developers or sales companies will be required to provide evidence, and buyers will no longer be troubled by "difficulty in obtaining evidence".
Sun Zhiyong believes that the control of noise pollution such as square dance disturbances still needs to improve the civilized quality of the masses, so that everyone consciously abides by relevant laws and regulations.
At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen grassroots governance, address the normal sports and entertainment needs of the masses, and arrange venues farther away from residential buildings for them.
Wang Canfa said that for neighborhood noise disputes such as piano sounds, in addition to being regulated by law, it is more important to improve the environmental morality of residents living together.
Living in the same residential building, everyone should make their behavior as little as possible to cause adverse effects on the normal life of others.
In addition, if neighborhood noise disputes occur, they can also be resolved through the coordination of community organizations such as neighborhood committees and mediation committees.
Our reporter Sun Liji (Source: People's Daily)