The Department of Environmental Health (DEH) published a notice on their Facebook page on March 25, 2024, asking members of the public to “Stop loud noise activities within or near schools, health care facilities, and residential premises.” They noted that an offender could be “liable under the Public Health Act (2021 Revision) and the Town and Communities Law (Cap. 169) (1995 Revision).” Absent from these Acts, however, is a specified decibel or sound intensity or pressure level that the authorities could indicate to offenders as being “excessive.”
For example, an article by Debbie Clason on healthyhearing.com offers a guide on decibel (dB) levels for various activities. These are as follows:
Normal conversation – 60 dBHeavy city traffic – 85 dBLawn mower – 90 dBAudio headset player at maximum volume – 105 dBSirens – 120 dBConcerts – 120 dBSporting events – 105 to 130 dB (depending upon the stadium)Fireworks – 140 to 160 dBFirearms – 150 dB and higher
According to Clason, the above are guidelines for persons with “normal hearing.” That is, a person with mild hearing loss would not be able to hear some things that a person with normal hearing could hear at the above decibel levels.
Clason noted that there are other factors to consider as well, including “frequency or pitch.”
She added:
Some people lose their hearing ability in higher frequencies, and some in the lower frequencies.
There are many possible combinations of decibel and frequency loss, all of which can be plotted on an audiogram showing a person’s degree of hearing loss…
So, when the DEH asks the public to stop “loud noise activities,” it is more of a complex issue than it first appears.
Without a specified decibel level, the DEH’s easiest enforcement path appears to be categorising the relevant “noise” as a “nuisance” under the Public Health Act.
Under the Public Health Act, nuisance “includes any act, omission, or thing occasioning or likely to occasion injury, annoyance, offence, harm, danger or damage to the sense of sight, smell or hearing, or which is or is likely to be dangerous or injurious to person or property.”
The Public Health Act added that where a vehicle or vessel is in such a condition as to be offensive or prejudicial to health, this is a statutory nuisance. In addition, a noise or vibration (other than noise or vibration caused by an aircraft) is a statutory nuisance.
Where there is a statutory nuisance, “The Chief Environmental Health Officer shall, if satisfied of the existence of a statutory nuisance, serve notice on the person through whose act, default or sufferance the nuisance arises or continues or, if such a person cannot be found, on the occupier or owner of the premises on which the nuisance arises requiring that person to abate the same within the time and date specified in the notice and to execute such works and do such things as may be necessary for that purpose, and if the Chief Environmental Health Officer thinks it desirable, specifying an works to be executed.”
According to the Public Health Act, the relevant person will be guilty of an offence if, after being served a notice to take all reasonably practical measures to prevent the nuisance from recurring, he or she fails to comply with the notice within the time and date specified. In addition, the person will be guilty of an offence if the nuisance arose from that person’s wilful act or default.
Notwithstanding the ability to issue a nuisance notice under the Public Health Act, determining what is and is not a statutory nuisance still seems subjective rather than objective.
Interestingly enough, the Town and Communities Act proposes objectivity by indicating that “Any person who generates noise or is the occupier of premises from which noise is emitted in excess of the prescribed levels shall reduce such noise to within such prescribed levels if required to do so by a constable or an environmental health officer.”
The Town and Communities Act added that the Governor in Council may, by regulations, prescribe levels of noise, measured in decibels, methods of measuring noise, and machines for measuring the level of noise.
Any person who fails to comply with the request of a constable or an environmental health officer is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine of five hundred dollars for a first conviction, a fine of one thousand dollars for a second conviction and a fine of five thousand dollars and imprisonment for six months for a third or any subsequent conviction.
Unfortunately, no regulations specifying decibel levels have yet been issued, leading to a challenge in enforcing the Town and Communities Act.
In the meantime, the elderly, ill, and other persons continue to contact the police, community activists, and others to resolve the loud noise issue, which is understood to impact their health and quality of life daily in various ways.
