ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with study of the ways in which people respond in acoustic environments. There will be a discussion of past and current work on subjective responses to noise in general. The general concern with “pollution” has tended to increase the scope of the word’s meaning, so that the concept of noise pollution has been created. Some of the problems currently being encountered owing to past lack of interest in the field of subjective noise assessment are well illustrated in the introduction of a noise bill by one county council. The proposed bill would have limited all external noise on a piece of property to 55dB as measured on the property line. What the county council, and all legislative bodies, need is a graph that enable them to set reasonable, logical noise levels, and this, ultimately is what studies of community noise is all about so that our society may, eventually live in an optimum acoustic environment.
