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Third sound monitor added to PVD network for Noise Awareness Day
The Noise Project is excited to announce the deployment of its third sound monitor in Providence in 12 months, to promote greater awareness of the adverse effects of excessive noise, including sleep deprivation, cardiac disease, and other physiological, mental, and quality of life impacts.
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Recurring exposure to elevated sound levels is associated with sleep deprivation (which has its own serious effects), cardiometabolic diseases, hypertension (high blood pressure), permanent hearing loss, and other adverse health effects. The WHO ranks noise as the globe’s third biggest environmental health threat, after air pollution and (more recently added) urban heat.
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The monitors are intended to measure the sound levels that residents encounter on a daily basis — and identify the loudest hours of the day and months of the year — to inform policy action by the city. The latest equipment was installed outside a Noise Project supporter’s home in the North End. The other monitors are on the East and West Sides, and a fourth is pending in South Providence.
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Providence residents, government officials, and the media can view real-time graphs of the sound data on the Noise Project website — along with a combined, city-wide average noise level on its front page. Visitors can also scroll back 24 hours to see how levels change throughout the day.
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Among the findings the monitor data reveal is that noise levels routinely exceed PVD’s night-time limit of 55 decibels in residential areas. All three units show multiple peaks above legal levels per hour — which can add up to as much as 23 minutes of noise per hour — when people are trying to sleep. Medical research has documented chronic sleep deprivation among U.S. adults.
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If you’d like to host a noise monitor at your home, use the Contact form on our website to let us know where you live (address / neighborhood / ward) and include the subject line “noise monitor.” (For info on vehicle noise, use that as the subject line.) To help, fill out our volunteer intake form.
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Thank you for your interest in the Providence Noise Project, and for supporting a
quieter, healthier, and more enjoyable Providence for all of its residents and visitors
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