NEIGHBOUR NOISE: A RATIONAL APPROACH

Although there are local differences, in EU countries most people have neighbours. The number of detached houses is traditionally low. Apartment buildings – up to 4 neighbours – are common, and even in new terraced residential areas you still have to deal with 2 neighbours. It easy underestimated that this living close may require considerable social skills, and the cases where neighbours quarrel are countless. A frequent motive for discontent between neighbours is noise. The usual thing that happens when it gets out of hand is that the police is called to stop the offenders. An awkward situation, because it doesn't improve the relations and it best it gives a temporal relieve, and easily it makes things worse. Although a number of countries have policies to reduce neighbour noise, often these miss to present a complete coherent approach to limit the total impact on the population. In this paper the impact of neighbour noise on health is explored and the contours of a rational approach are put on the map.