Kuehne Lauren M, Habtour Ed, Echenagucia Tomás Méndez, Orfield Steven J
Omfishient Consulting, Bremerton, WA, 98310, USA.
Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA.
J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2025 Jan;35(1):6-15. doi: 10.1038/s41370-024-00679-6. Epub 2024 Jun 10.
Environmental movements of the late 20th century resulted in sweeping legislation and regulatory actions to reduce the prevalence of diverse pollutants. Although the consequences of noise pollution to public health, environment, and the economy have been recognized over the same time period, noise has received far less policy attention. Correspondingly, even while evidence of the diverse and detrimental effects of noise pollution on human health has grown, solutions and actual reductions in environmental noise remain seemingly out of reach.
To address this shortcoming, we developed a prospectus for environmental noise reduction through technology-forcing policies. Technology-forcing describes intent to encourage technological solutions for pollution control through policy and regulations, and has been a critical component of national and global progress in reducing environmental pollutants.
We take advantage of the unique policy history for noise in the United States - which initially enacted, but then abandoned federal noise regulation. We compare this history against outcomes from contemporaneous environmental legislation for air, water, and occupational pollution control, to demonstrate the potential for technology-forcing to reduce noise pollution. Our review then identifies promising solutions, in the form of existing technologies suitable for innovation and diffusion through technology-forcing regulations and incentives.
Based on this review, we outline a program for noise policy development to support efforts to reduce environmental noise pollution worldwide. The proposed program consists of three steps, which are to (i) identify dominant sources of noise pollution, (ii) combine legislative or regulatory provisions with suitable systems of enforcement and incentives, and (iii) anticipate and prepare for stages of technological change.
Analysis of noise policy often focuses on justifying the need to reduce noise pollution. In this article, we demonstrate how technology-forcing regulations could also promote much-needed innovation and diffusion of technologies to reduce environmental noise pollution. We first establish the potential for technology-forcing by comparing technology outcomes from environmental legislation passed contemporaneously to the inactive US Noise Control Act. We next review promising innovations available for diffusion in multiple sectors to reduce environmental noise. Lastly, we recommend a program to support development of technology-forcing noise policies, to help ensure that the benefits of reduced noise pollution are distributed equitably.
20世纪后期的环境运动导致了全面的立法和监管行动，以减少各种污染物的流行。尽管在同一时期人们已经认识到噪声污染对公众健康、环境和经济的影响，但噪声受到的政策关注要少得多。相应地，即使噪声污染对人类健康的各种有害影响的证据不断增加，但环境噪声的解决方案和实际减少似乎仍然遥不可及。
为解决这一缺陷，我们制定了一份通过技术强制政策减少环境噪声的计划书。技术强制是指通过政策和法规鼓励采用技术解决方案来控制污染的意图，并且一直是国家和全球在减少环境污染物方面取得进展的关键组成部分。
我们利用了美国独特的噪声政策历史——美国最初颁布了联邦噪声法规，但后来又放弃了。我们将这段历史与同期空气、水和职业污染控制的环境立法结果进行比较，以证明技术强制在减少噪声污染方面的潜力。然后，我们的审查确定了有前景的解决方案，这些方案以现有技术的形式呈现，适合通过技术强制法规和激励措施进行创新和推广。
基于此次审查，我们概述了一项噪声政策制定计划，以支持全球减少环境噪声污染的努力。拟议的计划包括三个步骤，即（i）确定噪声污染的主要来源，（ii）将立法或监管规定与适当的执法和激励系统相结合，以及（iii）预测并为技术变革阶段做好准备。
噪声政策分析通常侧重于证明减少噪声污染的必要性。在本文中，我们展示了技术强制法规如何还能促进减少环境噪声污染所需的技术创新和推广。我们首先通过将同期通过的环境立法的技术成果与已失效的美国《噪声控制法》进行比较，确立技术强制的潜力。接下来，我们审查了多个部门中可用于推广以减少环境噪声的有前景的创新。最后，我们推荐一项支持技术强制噪声政策制定的计划，以帮助确保减少噪声污染的益处得到公平分配。
