14.05.26
Noise Action Week: Salford experts working to make the world sound better
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Research, School of Science, Engineering and Environment
This week is Noise Action Week, aimed at raising awareness of the impact excessive noise in our environment can have on people. The World Health Organisation identifies noise as the second most harmful environmental pollutant after air pollution. The problem is linked to serious health impacts including hearing loss, stress, sleep disturbance, heart disease, and strokes, affecting millions of people nationwide.
The University of Salford has been at the forefront of research in this field for over 60 years and is investing in a £24m facility to help make our world sound better and healthier.
Dr Daniel Wong-Mcsweeney, of the University of Salford, works with companies to help make their products, and our homes, quieter.
He said: “Businesses are much more aware of the acoustics properties of their products these days. It’s becoming a bigger issue all the time as the world gets noisier and is being planned from the start in product design.
“We do a lot of testing here on noise mitigation. How can we make things quieter? For example around the home, can we help design products that are less intrusive from an acoustics perspective. We have the facilities to be able to test to an extremely high degree and our new building will take this even further.”
One major area of work is in the potential impact drone noise could have on our environment after Amazon tested a drone to deliver packages in Darlington just last week.
Professor Antonio J Torija Martinez also works at Salford. He is co-lead of the EPSRC funded Noise Network Plus, planning a mission to halve the costs of noise by 2040.
He said: “One of the most important areas of our work is investigating new and emerging sources of noise, particularly those with unconventional sound characteristics such as high pitch, strong tonal components and temporal variability, which can increase the potential for noise annoyance.
“A good example is drone operations, like the trials that took place in Darlington last week, where we still don’t fully understand how communities will respond to this new type of noise.
“At the University of Salford, we are unique in our ability to directly link the noise emitted by drones to people’s experience of noise annoyance. By combining detailed acoustic measurements with research into the perception of noise, we generate evidence that helps industry and regulators deploy drones in ways that minimise noise impacts on communities.”
For all press office enquiries please email communications@salford.ac.uk.
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