Useful Links

In this page, we offer links to worldwide allies in our struggle against noise pollution, followed by a few of our adversaries. If you wish to add yours or other important website to our listing, please contact us.

Allies

Acoustic City [English language link]—This is an initiative of the City of Linz, Austria, to encourage retailers and other organisations to renounce piped-in music and imposed noise.
Deutsch: http://www.hoerstadt.at/index.html
Related: Beschallungsfrei–The Campaign Against Imposed Noise.

The Acoustic Ecology Institute
AcousticEcology.org provides access to news, academic research, public policy advocates, and articles and essays about sound and listening.

Audio Scientific: Audio Expertise for Digital World
Commercial site with info on noise-cancellation head-sets and much more, based in San Diego, California, USA.

Ban the Cannons—A group based in the Fraser Valley, east of Vancouver, Canada, fighting the use of propane cannons and other noisemakers by blueberry and grape farmers to scare away birds.

BarkingDogs.net—A new group in Surrey, British Columbia, is interested in exploring proactive approaches to the dog barking problem with like-minded people. Please visit www.barkingdogs.net for more information.

CALM (Coalition Anti-noise LesMoulins) is located in Terrebonne and Mascouche (Northeast of Montréal). CALM is a member of RQCB (Québec Associations Against Noise).The websites are: http://www.coalitioncalm.org/ and http://www.rqcb.ca/

Canadian Hard of Hearing Association, Manitoba Chapter

Citizens Against Audio Trespass—Anti boom car site including a signable petition to U.S. Congress.

Citizens Against Overflights Association
Self-description: We are an association of people opposed to aircraft over-flight activity over certain areas on the island of Hawaii.

Purpose: To conduct legal activities that will result in the ceassation and / or restriction of aircraft over-flights over private property (especially agricultural land), schools, zoos, parks, and sacred sites. Also, we are concerned with disturbance of wildlife and livestock by air-tour over-flights.

Our activities may include, but are not limited to: the collection of data of all types, educating the public, being a watchdog group, talking to politicians, lawsuits, etc. Some private properties may not be included due to proximity to airports.

We are also concerned for our parks. There is detrimental disturbance of native species by the noise created by aircraft. This detracts from the serenity and preservation of the purpose for which these parks were originally created: the preservation of nature and to provide a natural experience for park goers. Please note: those parks are already protected to some degree. Also, we are concerned with the preservation of native sacred sites.

Contact Us :
P.O. Box 840, Volcano, Hawaii, 96785
email: caoahawaii@yahoo.com
Phone 808-968-7277
Our voice mail is donated by The Native American Center in Volcano, Hi.

Citizens for a Quiet Environment—Anti-noise group based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Council Advocacy for a Better North America is headed by George Evens in Mission, British Columbia. The council endeavours to achieve a healthier, quieter environment for humans and animals.
Phone: 604.807.2393. E-mail: thecounciladvocacy@shaw.ca.

EUROCITIES - Working Group Noise
EUROCITIES is the network of major European cities, founded in 1986. It brings together the local governments of more than 120 large cities in over 30 European countries. EUROCITIES provides a platform for its member cities to share knowledge and ideas, to exchange experiences, to analyse common problems, and develop innovative solutions, through a wide range of forums, working groups, projects, activities, and events.

EUROCITIES gives cities a voice in Europe, by engaging in dialogue with the European institutions on all aspects of EU legislation, policies and programmes that have an impact on cities and their citizens. The network is active across a wide range of policy areas, including economic development and cohesion policy, provision of public services, environment, transport and mobility, employment and social affairs, culture, education, information and knowledge society, governance and international co- peration. The Working Group Noise (WGN) operates within this network.
http://workinggroupnoise.web-log.nl/
http://www.eurocities.eu

A new Facebook noise-abatement group - Another venue for those joining together to mediate a noisy world...

Fight Anthony Henday Noise— Site dedicated to convincing the Alberta Provincial government and Edmonton City government to erect noise barriers along specific sections of the Anthony Henday Drive. The 6-lane highway is built as close as 200 meters from adjacent housing, and generates significant traffic noise. This noise affects thousands of residents and impacts resident's health, property values, and quality of life.

The Franklin Institute Online—Offers a good selection of very interesting, informative articles on stress in general and noise-related stress in particular.

The Green Globes certification standards - These are similar to the US Green Building Council's certification standards. The certification program/scheme seems to include an appreciation of the need for noise control. The term used by the Green Globes certification goal is "acoustic comfort" and the web site has some interesting pages.

GreenSkies Network—GreenSkies is a worldwide information network of environmental organizations concerned with aviation’s environmental effects, including noise. Contact Vanja Bjorke at vanja@greenskies.org.

HEARnet—Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers. We have mixed feelings about this site. We’re glad to see someone publicizing the dangers of rock music, but advocating earplugs as a remedy is a bit like saying gas masks are a cure for air pollution. There’s not much here about the real problem—excessive amplification.

Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise—Claims to be the world’s largest anti-noise group.

Highly Sensitive People—Organization based in Los Angeles. Resources, information, and help for people who experience stimuli much more intensely than most others. To HSPs, even slightly excessive amplification can be overwhelming.

Hoerstadt or Acoustic City is an initiative of Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture, which is intended to promote a conscious design of our audible environment (soundscape) in keeping with human dignity. There is also Beschallungsfrei or "free of imposed noise" and much more. Please visit www.hoerstadt.at/index.html

Honku—Brooklyn site focused on combating the widespread recreational honking of car horns; features haiku verses sent in by visitors to the site.

Houston Citizens Against Noise Pollution & Audio Abuse/Acoustic Rape is a citizen group based in Texas to keep noise at bay. Contact: Howard Lehrman at or phone (after 3 p.m.) 281-568-5180

Hyperacusis Network—Support for persons who are highly sensitive to sound. Can help to improve tolerance to noise.

ICBEN—International commission on Biological Effects of Noise. The abstracts of the contributions are available from ICBEN2008, the 9th International Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem, 21–25 July, 2008, Foxwood, connecticut, USA.

Maine Citizens Against Loud Motorcycles (MECALM) ...works to better regulate loud pipes. Similar groups are New Hampshire Citizens Against Loud Motorcycles, Connecticut Citizens Against Loud Motor-vehicles, North Carolina Citizens Against Loud Motor-vehicles, Indiana Citizens Against Loud Motorcycles/Motor-vehicles, and Maine Citizens For Quiet Motor-vehicles. All of these groups have Facebook pages with lots of information. Andy Ford of Maine Citizens For Quiet Motor-vehicles wrote an interesting article about muffler control. Read it here.

Markland Homes Association is involved with the abatement of noise from Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and National Library of Medicine)—A US government sponsored web site that links to a search engine for medical abstracts. Here is the The Pub Med search page.

The National Society for Clean Air in Great Britain is an environmental organization that also includes the need to protect the soundscape (unlike many other such organizations), and is a member of the large European anti-noise group AICB-International Association Against Noise, with headquarters in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The Nature Sounds Society—Dedicated to the preservation, appreciation, & creative use of natural sounds.

The Noise Abatement Society—British society based in Brighton. Advocating for noise-sufferers for over four decades, responsible for the introduction of the Noise Abatement Act, their Helpline can be reached at 01273 878782 on weekdays between 9am and 5pm.

The Noise Center—An arm of the Center for Hearing and Communication, formerly the League for the Hard of Hearing, based in New York.

The Noise Control Foundation—organizes frequent international conferences and workshops on noise control. Address:
29 Hornbeck Ridge, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA 12603
Tel: 1-845-471-5493 Fax: 1-845-473-9325
President: William W. Lang.
E-mail: langww@noisecontrolfoundation.org.

Noise Free America—Political action group dedicated to increasing public awareness of noise pollution, and to actively lobbying for better legislative controls and enforcement, using a comprehensive array of methods.

http://www.noisehelp.com is a site with information on means to protect one's hearing and mask or mitigate the impact of noise

Noise Pollution Clearinghouse—This U.S. organization maintains a superb on-line library and is a leader in research and advocacy.

Noiseoff.org—New York City based coalition dedicated to combatting excessive noise. Has plenty of advice and strategies for influencing City Hall.

NoiseWatch—An association in Toronto, Canada (formerly Citizens’ Coalition Against Noise).

One Square Inch—Natural-sound recorder Gordon Hempton is working to get "one square inch" in several US national parks protected from any human-generated noise. That would effectively protect several kilometres around that square inch from many noise-emitting machines and vehicles, especially aircraft. Gordon Hempton is based in the State of Washington.
www.soundtracker.com—Sounds of nature recorded by Gordon Hempton.

"Our Streets, Our Lives" is a citizens' group in New York City, who for the past four years has been advocating for quality of life issues for all who live and work in NYC. Visit www.ourstreetsourlives.org to learn more about this advocacy group.

Pipedown—A British organization fighting (with some success) against program audio in shops, pubs, etc.

Quiet Australia—Umbrella site of anti-noise groups in Australia.

Quiet Orinda
A forum for residents against noise and air pollution from leaf blowers

The Quiet Use Coalition is dedicated to protecting and preserving the public soundscape, and ensuring a quite experience on an untrammelled public landscape well beyond the present generation. Contact information: QUC, P.O. Box 164, Buena Vista, Colorado 81211 USA. E-mail <info@quietuse.org>, web <www.quietuse.org>.

Quieter Please, NZ—A group primarily pursuing the problem with noise from a motor sport and race track noise, particularly the Ruapuna race track in New Zealand.

RAFHI, Residents Against Floatplane and Helicopter Intrusion —A group of residents of Saanich, Vancouver Island, with whom the Right to Quiet society is working to prevent or reduce aircraft noise over residential areas.

Raise the Hammer
An article about how the dreaded leaf blower gets his comeuppance

Regional Commission for Airport Affairs—RCAA is especially concerned about the proposed expansion of the Seattle-Tacoma airport in Washington State. The site includes an excellent list of anti-airport-noise groups.

The Rutgers Noise Technical Assistance Center (RVTAC)
The Center is part of the Air and Noise Training Program in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers– The State University of New Jersey.

Silent Majority: Citizens Against Car Alarms
An organisation dealing with obnoxious car-alarms, based in New York. www.silentmajorityny.org

The U.K. Quiet Pages—British anti-noise umbrella organization formed in 2000, consisting of a coalition including the Noise Network, Pipedown, and aircraft noise groups.

City of Vancouver (British Columbia) Engineering Department
The department has a "Soundsmart" web page and three-part sound management series of booklets, including practical, useful information regarding sound-proofing a house and more.

The Vancouver Soundwalk Collective organises and leads soundwalks for soundscape awareness training.

Venus Project at the University of Victoria
Endangered whales research is carried out at the VENUS Project, University of Victoria, British Columbia, to determine the impact of constant marine noise.

Wakefield Acoustics Ltd. 301 2250 Oak Bay Ave. Victoria, British Columbia V8R 1G5 . Telephone: (250) 370-9302. Fax: (250) 370-9309. Email: clair@wakefieldacoustics.com. Clair Wakefield produced Vancouver's "Soundsmart," and is a member of the Right to Quiet Society.

World Forum for Acoustic Ecology—This organization’s focus is on the aesthetics of the soundscape rather than on political action. Their site is well worth a visit.

Michael Phillip Wright pens an article about boom cars, at this page from our ally, Rosario University in Argentina:
"Media Violence, Noise pollution, and Gunfire"

Uk Noise Association. Contact info: UK Noise Association, Broken Wharf House, 2 Broken Wharf, London EC4V 3DT, Great Britain.
Phone: 0207 329 0774, E-mail: <info@ukna.org.uk>,
web: <www.ukna.org.uk>.



Adversaries

BirdGard—Manufacturers of shrill alarms designed to discourage birds deemed undesirable. In addition to vineyards and orchards, they even promote their alarm use in residential areas!

Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate—For many years, these people have been  turning the Pacific Ocean into an acoustical hell, in the name of science. They reason that because whales are not actually fleeing from their noise generators, no harm is being done to marine life. One might as well conclude that leaf blowers and unmuffled motorcycles are benign because people don’t visibly react to them. Scary.

www.zipcar.com: Honking your horn tells you where your car is and it's fun??? "Want to find your car in a crowded lot? Use your iPhone to honk the horn." is the slogan of Zipcar, an American company now breaking into the Canadian market. They totally ignore the fact that the horn on a car or other motor vehicle is strictly to issue an audio-signal in emergency, not for convenience and even fun! That ought to include the honking upon locking or unlocking the security system of a vehicle.

Companies like Zipcar want to appear as being "green" and completely forget that the soundscape is also an integral, indispensable component of the environment!

Evidence of Noise Addiction

The results of a recent Zogby America survey suggest that addiction to noise is not only possible, but fairly common.

Participants were asked how likely they would be to agree to go one week without music for $1,000. While overall 69.8% would gladly trade a week without music for $1,000, another 29.4% believed the sacrifice was too much.

Among specific subgroups however, the pain of life without music, even for one week, becomes increasingly too much to bear.

For almost half of respondents aged 18-24 years- old, going without music for one week, even for $1,000, was still unthinkable. Even 31.8% of those aged 55-69 said no to going without music for so long.

— Yahoo News, April 20, 2000

— Noiseletter, Spring 2001