Sound, noise and quiet

 A common misunderstanding is that absence of noise automatically implies total silence. That is equivalent to the statement that vacuum is the solution for air pollution. Sounds are however an essential ingredient for humans in that they are meaningful and provide information about the surroundings, including the volume of a space and what activities that takes place in the space. The atmosphere around is in constant movement causing al kind of sound by itself and by streaming around objects. Countless (natural) activities and objects have their characteristic sounds. Putting humans in a soundless environment, like in an anechoic chamber, normally makes them very uncomfortable.

Following the definitions provided in Article 3 of the END, a quiet area is not intended to be silent, but undisturbed by unwanted or harmful outdoor sound created by human activities (i.e., environmental noise). Harmful sounds are those that have a negative effect on human health, including annoyance and sleep disturbance. Put differently, quiet areas can be understood in terms of absence of sound that interferes with activities. Communication in all its subtle (orientation, signals of upcoming danger) or direct forms (speech, warning signals) of course will be disturbed by noise, but also processes like thinking, reading, writing, sleeping, learning are known to be disturbed by noise (e.g., Stansfeld et al., 2005; WHO, 2000, 2011).

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