The Evaluation of the noise pollution in Adana city centre

The noise is an important environmental pollutant that affects negatively the hearing and perception in man, impairs the physiological and psychological equilibrium, decreases the working performance changes the quality of the environment by eliminating the tranquillity. Taking into account the affect of the noise on human health, this study was planned to detect the level and the source of the noise which is one of the enviromental problems in Adana, to constitute the noise map of the city, to determine the level of being influenced and the sensitivity of the community in addition to making them conscious about the argument, to determine the noise-preventive or noise-reductive measures to be taken. The measurements, performed in Seyhan and Yuregir districts of the Adana city centre, to detect the environmental noise sources and levels indicated the traffic noise of the highways as the principal source of noise. The most elevated levels of traffic noise were recorded at the E-5 highway centrally traversing the city with 72.3-82.7 dB (A), at the Old City located at the south of the E-5 highway with 74.3-81.8 dB (A). The other important noise sources of the province Adana were determined in Fleq as airway, railway and industrial noises with 74.6-98.3 dB (A), 84.9-94.6 dB (A) and 65.4-77.4 dB (A), respectively. The levels were all above the limits permitted for human health at the Noise Control Regulations. The research planned to determine the noise knowledge and sensitivity of the community comprised 837 people with male to female ratio of 65.2% to 34.8%, with the mean age of 30.9±0.9. The mean household people count was 4.26+1.9, the mean children count was 1.96±0.6 and the mean working people count was 1.4±0.8. The weekends were the time when the influence of the noise was the most prominent (38.9%). The principal sources of noise were vacuum cleaners (18.9%) at home, the horn noise of the traffic vehicles (18.9%) at the house surroundings and the street noise (28.7%) at the work places. The sleeping disorders were detected in 22.7% of the participants. The frequency of sleeping disorders was higher among people living at detached houses (24.2%), among workless people or people working at silent work places (31.3%) and among people working for less than 1 year (36.4%). The sudden and high noises did not affect the 31.7% of the participants while they affected mostly people working at noisy environments (69.3%), described as the stretching of the body (28.0%). The effect of the continuous noise was nervousness (39.4%). The research revealed that the noise was the source of discomfort mainly at the city centre (57.1%) with highway traffic noise (90.6%) of the city centre. In order to decrease the level and the effect of the environmental noise, continuously increasing due to irregular urbanization, it is necessary to determine the measures to be taken with the coordination of the related units, press media, in addition to making the community conscious about the noise and the application of the required preventive and protective methods. Key words: Noise, environment, human health, community health VH