Academic Research International Vol. 5(2) March 2014 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______ ______ __________________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ Copyright © 2014 SAVAP International ISSN: 2223-9944, eISSN: 2223-9553 www.savap.org.pk 23 www.journals.savap.org.pk Evaluation of the Traffic Noise Pollution at Some Busiest Sites of Faisalabad City, Pakistan Inam-ul-Haq 1 , Taqmeem Hussain 2* , Hashim Farooq 3, Muhammad Raza Ahmad 4 1 Department of Physics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad & Higher Education Department, Govt. of the Punjab, 2 Department of Physics, GC University, Faisalabad, 3,4 Department of Physics, Government College University, Lahore, Punjab, PAKISTAN. 1 relyables@yahoo.com ABSTRACT Noise Pollution Levels (L np ) at three busiest cites i.e., Rail Bazaar, Jhang Bazaar and Chenab Chowk of Faisalabad city were evaluated. The noise levels were measured by noise level meter (NA-24 RION) at regular intervals of 5 minutes. The traffic noise levels were measured for three consecutive days to determine the behavior of Q eq and L np i.e., traffic density and noise pollution level, respectively. The Q eq and L np were measured from 7am to 7pm in three hours spell i.e., 7:00-11:00 (Morning), 11:00-03:00 (Noon) and 03:00-07:00 (Evening). Hence, all the three selected sites were found to be badly polluted with traffic noise having L np , on average, greater than 85dB (A) which may be able to hamper the health of local dwellers. Keywords: Traffic noise, Traffic density, Noise pollution level (L np ), Statistical noise level INTRODUCTION Everything around us such as water, trees, animals etc., constitute our environment and the nature has set up symmetry and balances in the universe. Therefore, anything which causes imbalance in our environment is termed as “Pollutant”. There are many factors which cause the environment to be polluted and one of those undesired and unpleasant factors is “Noise” which affects the quality of life as it interferes in the activities of an individual like concentration, communication, relaxation and sleep. Some authors have defined noise as any audible acoustic energy that adversely affects the physiological or psychological well being of the people. The term noise is commonly used to describe sounds that are disagreeable or unpleasant produced by acoustic waves of random intensities and frequencies. Faisalabad, the Manchester of Asia, is the third largest city of Pakistan with an estimated population of 2,008,861 in 1998 with annual growth rate 3.58, according to the population census organization, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Statistics, Pakistan. The increasing population of Faisalabad city demands more vehicles for commuting requirements of local dwellers. So the traffic density is increasing linearly with the population density. According to the survey, the hearing capability of the local people in the environment of such a huge traffic density is threatened due to the constant exposure of noise for more than 8 hours (Ali and Tamura, 2003). Another survey was also done for the evaluation of the variation in traffic equivalent noise levels as distance from the road intersection increases (Abo-Qudais and Alhiary, 2004). Moreover, the people on the locality of Katchehry Bazaar (Faisalabad) were constantly exposing themselves to 93.5 dB(A) noise level averagely for about 10 to12 hours (Hussain et al., 2008). Following the same spirit, present study was done to calculate the noise pollution level L np at three busiest sites i.e., Rail Bazar, Jhang Bazar and Chenab Chowk of Faisalabad city within the Municipal range.