The Key to Comfortable Living

Much as one would like to, but cannot escape from the background noise and sounds. Under some conditions it is very difficult to protect one from them; and when they reach a certain level of decibels (dB) the level of noise becomes really dangerous for one’s health. Yet in the world of today there exist ways to deal with noise. Alexey Archackov, concept development manager at the ECOPHON division of “Saint-Gobain”, is going to dwell on how noise can hurt us, how we can protect ourselves against it and what are the characteristics of acoustic comfort for various types of spaces.

Alexey, it is common knowledge that the increased level of noise negatively affects human health. What indicators of the level of noise are considered safe? What is the danger of exceeding them?

To be clear let’s identify what we can compare various levels of noise to. 20-30 dB is the rustle of leaves when the wind is pretty weak (the measurement is conducted at the distance of 1 m from the source of the sound); 40 dB is a low-profile conversation; 56 dB is a normal conversation; 70dB is the sound of a working car engine, 80 dB is the subway or a passenger airliner; 110 dB is a military jet; 120 dB and more is a gunshot. 120 dB is the threshold of pain. It is generally believed that the level of noise below 80 dB is safe. The exposure to high levels of noise, particularly when it’s long, leads to ear injuries, decrease or loss of hearing. On top of that, noise is also bad as it interferes with concentration, productive work.

Where does one experience the greatest load in terms of noise? Is it possible to fight noise on city streets or in public transport?

The greatest noise load can be observed in manufacturing, after that we have sports activities, transport, streets of big cities. In these cases the methods of dealing with it are well-known: in the streets they install acoustic shields at the edges of highways, they decrease the noise level of car engines. There is a huge campaign for reducing the noise level from the wheels; huge amounts of money are invested to help reduce the noise level of air transport. The most stringent laws that govern the allowable noise level are those in Europe; the other countries are trying to follow and keep up.

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Interview by Nikolay Vernikov