Family, friends, and acquaintances often ask me why I am an acoustic consultant. Other than the rather obvious answer that it helps pay the bills, the simple answer is that it makes me happy and enthusiastic about solving acoustic problems.

When I first started in this industry, I was unsure what it meant to be an acoustic consultant. I envisioned designing concert halls and recording studios, monitoring pop concerts, etc. I was not wrong – I have “done” all that and still enjoy working on various projects.

However, what became clear early on in my career was that environmental acoustics – how noise affects people’s daily health and well-being – piqued my interest. So, environmental acoustic remains my passion, and I still get a buzz helping our clients deliver new residential developments, knowing that I have been able to do “my bit” in helping to provide sustainable new homes and add something and protect the well-being of the development’s future residents.

That said, it is clear that the UK still has a long way to go in ensuring that health and wellbeing impacts are fully addressed. This is perhaps amply demonstrated in a recent research report prepared for the Health Security Agency (KKSHA) (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2023.107966), which provides a novel assessment of the spatial variation of the health impacts from noise within England. 

The approach taken by the study considered health impacts in terms of an internationally recognised metric called “Disability Adjusted Life Years” (DALYs). In essence, one DALY represents losing one year of good health. 

The team’s findings show that the most health impacts from transportation noise were associated with road traffic. For the study year of 2018, the study found that around 100,000 DALYs were lost in England due to road traffic noise. An additional 13,000 DALYs were lost from railway noise and 17,000 from aircraft noise. Most of these losses resulted from chronic annoyance and sleep disturbance, followed by other adverse health impacts, including stroke, ischemic heart disease, and diabetes. 

The need for the extent of potentially harmful noise within the UK due to transportation noise is now well established following the introduction of the Environmental Noise (England) Regulations 2006 - which transpose the provisions of the European Commission’s Environmental Noise Directive (END 2002/49/EC). However, when looking at traffic noise, these Regulations only require the assessment of roads handling a traffic volume of 3,000,000 vehicle passages per year.

While such a threshold would readily capture strategic roads, including motorways, trunk roads, and A-roads, roads handling a lesser traffic volume may not be readily highlighted by current strategic noise mapping but remain capable of causing adverse noise-related outcomes. This concern is supported by the recent study's findings, which conclude that omitting “minor” roads from noise exposure modelling leads to underestimating the disease burden. 

The Government has developed and is implementing Noise Action Plans (as required by the Environmental Noise (England) Regulations) to address road noise “hot spots” and is taking other steps, including the recent implementation of Approved Document O of the Building Regulations 2010 (which seeks to limit the night-time exposure of homeowners to noise). However, a recent (July 2023) report published by the House of Lords also raises alarm bells regarding the need for increased action, including the need to address noise in the 25-year environmental plan, better inter-departmental coordination on policies, and ensure that local authorities are adequately resourced and incentivised to provide effective regulation and share best practice.

Until such measures are implemented, many sites not near “noisy” roads will likely be slipping through the system - being developed inappropriately and either knowingly or inadvertently contributing to society’s health burden of lost DALYs.  

Unfortunately, such an outcome is unnecessary – the UK has an excellent acoustic consultancy industry capable of advising developers on the best way to approach the development of their sites.  

I am lucky to have loyal and conscientious Clients who trust my advice – even where this may not immediately align with their initial aspirations – but who are happy to implement good acoustic design principles to achieve an optimal auditory outcome for a site and ensure future residents of their properties are provided with a sustainable home providing high quality internal and external spaces.   

The design process isn’t easy on many noise-constrained sites. However, being able to guide developers in achieving an optimal acoustic result that will protect people’s daily health and well-being is rewarding.

And that is what makes me happy and why I enjoy working as an acoustic consultant.

Note:

Paul Gray joined the Board of Quantum Acoustics in May 2023. Paul has over thirty-five years of practical acoustic consultancy experience and a well-proven track record for project delivery.