The inhabitants of Bangkok are increasingly suffering from noise with about 3,000 complaints in 2008 called in to a phone hotline given to the public to protest against excessive noise. According to a study conducted in 2003 by four Asian institutes (Monitoring and Assessment of Daily Exposure for Roadside Workers to Traffic Noise Levels in Asian City Streets), the “city of angels” of Southeast Asia is very noisy. People working in the central areas of Bangkok are more exposed to noise pollution especially taxi drivers, street vendors and traffic policemen. Some neighborhoods of the city such as Yaowarat Road, Din Daeng Road and Ratchaprarop Road even reach a constant frequency higher than 80 decibels during the day. The results are clear: professionals who work there have a hearing threshold between 37 and 58 decibels compared to 10 and 34 decibels for people who live in the quieter sections of the city. Despite some initiatives such as the one by the Pollution Control Department (PCD), which posted an online noise level indicator in real time in several neighborhoods of the city and that advises Bangkokians to “wear hearing protectors in difficult zones” or “to avoid places that are too noisy,” it seems that sound pollution is here to stay for a long time yet in the Thai capital. Proof of this is that the legal sound limit in the country is set at 115 decibels… or the threshold of auditory pain, according to the criteria set by the World Health Organization (WHO).  Source: http://www.lepetitjournal.com