More and more, artificial, human-generated, undesirable and unhealthy sound unduly burdens the soundscape—the indispensable, integral acoustic component of our environment.
To bring about awareness of this problem, prevent and abate noise as much as possible, the Right to Quiet Society for Soundscape Awareness and Protection was established in 1982.
If you wish to read and learn more about us, our work, and find information on the effects of noise, how to deal with noise problems, and how to protect yourself from noise, you are cordially invited to explore our web site.If you find our work interesting, have any comments or suggestions to make, please Contact us.
Should you wish to join our society as a member, please click Join Us and follow the instructions there.
If you did not like what you saw here, without telling us you might consider leaving quietly.
Thanks for visiting. Upcoming events follow on this page.
The 15th Annual International Noise Awareness Day is scheduled for April 28, 2010! For more information on international activities, please go to www.chchearing.org, the website of the Center for Hearing and Communication, formerly the League for the Hard of Hearing in New York. Here, we will issue a special edition of our Spring 2010 newsletter with further announcements about possible activities on INA-Day. To receive leaflets and other information to hand out in your area, please contact us.
To see photos of our efforts in Vancouver during previous Noise Awareness Days, please click here.
More events below.
Winter Games 2010: Noise of Olympic proportion?
In February 2009, on the occasion of the one-year count-down, the Vancouver Olympic Organising Committee (VANOC) urged the public to make lots of noise! During the last summer the Vision Vancouver majority of Vancouver City Council voted to amend several bylaws, including the Noise Control Bylaw #6555, to accommodate the expected extra noise from the activities of the 2010 Olympic games.Interestingly, VANOC is not listed in the Vancouver telephone book. When asked about "hiding from the public" during a CBC Radio open-line show, a representative of VANOC begrudgingly gave out their phone number: 778-328-2010.
Their e-mail is <info@vancouver2010.com>
webaddress: < www.vancouver2010.com >
and address: VANOC, 3585 Graveley St., Vancouver, V5K 5J5.Reject irrelevant, irritating audio-entertainment while on hold on the telephone
If you don't like to listen to imposed "music", advertising or other undesired audio-programme while put on hold on the line, don't hesitate to let the other side know that you dislike having their choice of programme imposed on you. It is completely irrelevant and has nothing to do with the purpose of calling. It's an imposition and, indeed, an insult. If they don't want to do without it, then provide us the option to "press one for silence. "
ICBEN—International commission on Biological Effects of Noise. The abstracts of the contributions are available from ICBEN2008, the 9th International Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem, 21–25 July, 2008, Foxwood, connecticut, USA.
Vancouver International Airport (YVR) Noise Monitoring—A new website was launched by the Vancouver Airport Authority that will allow the public to view flights over the Metro Vancouver area as they occur. WebTrak for YVR supposedly shows in real time where planes are flying and simultaneously displays the resulting noise level at several monitoring stations on the ground. there are 20 such stations in Metro Vancouver. For security reasons there is a 10-minute delay in the transmission of the flight data. The web-address is http://yvr.webtrak-lochard.com/template/index.html
No Music Day—Acoustic City, a part of the campaign against imposed noise initiated in Linz, provincial capital of Upper Austria, calls for "No Music Day" on November 21, 2009. Acoustic City invites all businesses and organisations renouncing piped music to declare all publicly accessible areas as "Beschallungsfrei" or free of piped and imposed music by displaying the sticker "Beschallungsfrei" , respectively "Free of Piped Music". For more information, please visit www.hoerstadt.at/index.html Acoustic City exists from 29 November 2008 until No Music Day on 21 November 2009. After that, the Akustikon in Linz takes over advocacy for hearing.
Calling
noise a nuisance is like calling smog an inconvenience. Noise must be
considered a hazard to the health of people everywhere."
— Dr. William H. Stewart, former Surgeon General of the United
States
