Noise pollution map put online by British GovernmentHear ye, Hear ye!By Sylvie Barak: Friday, 16 May 2008, 6:54 PMTHE BRITISH GOVERNMENT is so concerned about noise levels in the UK, it has launched an online map which highlights the main problem areas that need quietening down.Everything from factories, to planes, trains and automobiles make a frightful racket, according to the government.Sound-frazzled Brits from 23 cities and towns can now surf the new site to see whether they live in an area of blissful silence and tranquility, or whether their home is placed in an area where they wouldn’t be able to hear themselves think. Surely people don’t need a website to figure that out though, eh?But apparently they do, as the new site collapsed quicker than a Londoner’s eardrum soon after launch on Friday, claiming "unprecedented demand". Hear that? People are actually desperate to find out how noisy their areas are.Noise has been making, well, a lot of noise lately, with various studies tipping up claiming that the roar of airplane engines and the incessant honking resulting from deadlocked traffic, is just not very good for our health.Back in 2005, boffins from London’s Queen Mary School of Medicine studied the effects of loud air traffic noise on children and found that it seriously affected their reading and memory skills. Another study, commissioned by the EU, reckoned that anyone living near an airport was at serious risk of high blood pressure and the resultant problems like heart attacks, kidney failures and strokes.With that in mind, Brussels immediately set about putting together yet another directive, with the aim of slashing noise levels in areas where it was out of proportion.British Environment Minister Jonathan Shaw noted that the online maps were the best effort yet by the government to sound out the problem, in order to find a way of dealing with it. The maps would be used to “draw up action plans to reduce noise where practical from major roads and railways, as well as from urban areas", he shouted.According to Reuters, the maps cover 80,467 kms of roads and 4,828 kms of railway tracks.
