Human-generated sound levels — often referred to as ambient or “environmental” noise — are regulated primarily at the local and (to a lesser degree) state levels in the U.S., and at both the local and national levels in most other countries around the world.
In Providence, noise levels are delimited by the city’s municipal code and Rhode Island state laws. At the federal level, U.S. noise-abatement policy was established by Title IV of the Clean Air Act, which puts it under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).1
Throughout history, people have been concerned about the adverse effects of excessive noise and passed legislation to regulate it. That doesn’t make noise solely or even primarily a legal issue — or mean that government officials, including and especially the police, are the only way to enforce it.
Rather, listing noise laws serves to indicate broad public policy interests and goals, as determined over time by legislators representing the will of the residents in those respective jurisdictions. Thus, self-serving claims that people don’t care about noise are belied by the long history of laws to regulate it.
And in the absence of socialization and norms to curtail excessive and unhealthy noise, laws serve as a last recourse to protect those recklessly exposed to it.
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1 Sound waves are transmitted primarily through the air (and to a lesser degree through the ground and water), which is why unnecessarily high sound levels are referred to ”noise pollution“ — and why it falls under federal environmental policy and EPA jurisdiction.