The beautiful season: that time when we open the windows and strut around on the balconies, in the parks or at the campsite. Between pleasures and inconveniences, the neighbors seem in any case closer than ever. Summer is made for cohabitation. Today, a summer sound recipe that is not always digestible.
Lawnmowers, renovations, repairs to aqueducts, street cleaning, mechanical watering of urban planters; noise from the television on the neighbor’s balcony, party from across the street, from the restaurant terrace next door; music from festivals and parades; the roar of motorcycles that roll 60 days a year or the cries of day camps that rise up 40 days a summer.
Summer is far from being easy on the ears since there is so much to do during this period that is as intense as it is short. “There is certainly an increase in noise complaints, it is purely factual,” reports acoustician Romain Dumoulin from the outset.
For many years, he has been particularly passionate about people’s relationship with noise, a psychological aspect, in addition to knowing the more technical sound aspects inside out. Noise, “is a subject on which everyone has an opinion,” he says with a smile. But on the other hand, he feels that it is frowned upon to complain about it: “We are quick to say: ‘It’s part of living in the city,’ but that is a ridiculous argument to me. The corollary is that we should tolerate any excess, it doesn’t hold water.”
Not the same feeling
It is never just the decibel level that determines the population’s reaction to sounds. It is therefore not only “what can be quantified objectively”, but also “the disturbance” and what has a real effect on health, explains Mr. Dumoulin. Noises linked to childhood or memories, for example the tom-toms on Sundays at Mount Royal, he illustrates, are better received.
Another pleasant yet rather noisy moment is to let yourself be carried away by the noise of the city by bike.
The soundscape can be “chaotic,” but without spikes or certain types of noise that tend to annoy us. Limiting oneself to quantifying the environment only with the decibel level (and there are several types!), “is the equivalent of qualifying a soup by giving its temperature,” he says.
Sophie Goudreau, from the Direction régionale de santé publique (DRSP) de Montréal, also believes that opening windows during the summer greatly increases exposure to environmental noise. The noise can of course be occasional, but all the more disturbing: think of that jackhammer that made your alarm clock vibrate before 7 a.m. despite the borough’s ban on starting work at that time, or the saw that has been installed on the balcony next door for three weeks for interior renovations.
Summer is therefore a good time to finally get some fresh air, sing to the sky or join the band. Concert and nightlife enthusiasts can be relieved not to be a source of noise pollution targeted from the outset by the two specialists. After a few years of seeing headlines about concert halls closing, the nightlife world feels weakened, we argued in our pages. It must be said that pleas for the “right to the night” have sought to influence the nightlife policy that has been in development for several months at the City of Montreal and the creation of “vitality zones” has been mentioned.
But noise from music is clearly not the primary concern of citizens. As proof, a team from the DRSP of Montreal, in collaboration with McGill University, studied the reactions of residents and passers-by in the Quartier des spectacles, while measuring the noise level during festivals. “The residents and people walking around did not seem that bothered,” notes Mme Goudreau, researcher in the urban environments and population health sector at the DRSP.
“There are still measures in place, such as continuous acoustic measurements during festivals, even if ultimately, people said they were not that impacted,” she explains.
The fact remains that noise standards to improve cohabitation are not always very clear and the sounds that escape are often not measured, says Romain Dumoulin. “We need to talk more about sound management in rooms. And many rooms do not yet know their impact,” says the man who is now working concretely to advise on this sound management.
The poor relation
It’s a bit like driving on the highway and not knowing how fast you’re going, but also not knowing what the maximum speed is, he continues. The analogy is imperfect, Mr. Dumoulin acknowledges, but it also applies to all kinds of noise pollution, including construction sites, which are particularly disturbing.
The image also gives an idea of the context, since the sound environment is the poor relation of public health, at least in terms of regulations. Montreal’s noise budget corresponds “probably to that of cities of 50,000 inhabitants in France,” according to him, since the City still employs only 2 or 3 people as noise control technicians. “It is the poor relation of environmental policies and public health policies,” states the acoustician.
“Twenty-five years ago, there were almost no epidemiological studies, unlike for air pollution,” says M.me Goudreau, to clearly underline “how far we have come.” She also points out that the regulations vary enormously from one noise to another; from passing trains to planes, including the air conditioner above or the fan in the restaurant, each of these sources is regulated differently.
Also, even when following all the rules, “a construction site can be very impactful,” she gives as an example. Whether it’s the vibrations, the unpredictability or the lack of respite, individuals exposed to construction site noise can feel effects on their health, including a decrease in their ability to concentrate.
On the contrary, a noise that is very limited in time, or even intermittent, but which occurs at night, can affect health much more: “Even if it is just five planes passing by during the whole night, but I wake up every time, I will be extremely impacted.” Critical moments for health should therefore receive more attention.
More generally, the observation of the DRSP since 2010 and of other public health authorities is that the Montreal territory is exposed to noise levels that exceed the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). Exposure obviously varies depending on the area, and a greater proportion of disadvantaged households are exposed to higher noise levels than the rest of the Montreal population.
One of the most prevalent sources, says the expert, is road traffic in a city crisscrossed by many major arteries. But even here, traffic can generate a constant noise, almost a background noise or “white noise” that is reminiscent of a watercourse. “It’s in any case much better than a pickaxe,” emphasizes Mr. Dumoulin.