KATHMANDU: Resource Centre for Primary Health Care (RECPHEC) organised a public rally against noise pollution in the capital on November 22. The rally was aimed at creating awareness among motorists about the health hazards of pressure horns and musical horns.

RECPHEC had mobilised around 150 Kathmandu college students as volunteers. Anusuya Joshi, programme officer RECPHEC informed that the rally ‘Combating Noise Pollution’ was organised from Shanti Batika to Sundhara stretch, one of the most vulnerable to horn honking.

During the week-long campaign, the volunteers distributed

1,100 leaflets to the motorists

and managed to paste 8,000 stickers in commuter vehicles. “The campaign was launched in response to public outrage at the traumatic noise pollution in the Valley,” said Joshi. Noise pollution in the Valley prompted by unfettered use of pressure horns has reached its pinnacle.

If one is to go by the doctors, extreme vehicular horns could cause hearing -impairment, insomnia, cardiovascular diseases and dizziness, among others. According to World Health Organisation, safe noise level for a city cannot exceed 45 decibels (dBs). A continuous noise level exceeding 90 dBs can cause loss of hearing and could have irreversible consequences to human nervous system.

Joshi informed that RECPHEC had recorded up to 120 dBs in and around Patan Hospital. Noise pollution in excess of 50 dBs in premise of hospital premise is hazardous to patients undergoing treatment. The average noise pollution recorded in Patan Hospital is 72 dBs. Hospitals and schools are amongst the hardest hit by

the noise.

However, the traffic police and the Department of Transport Management have been responding to the calls of anti-noise

activists lately.