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SEOUL: More than 70% of residential areas in major South Korean cities are plagued by excessive daytime noise while an even higher rate of them suffered from noise pollution at night, a government survey showed on Tuesday, Oct 18.
In the Environment Ministry's regular survey on nose levels in 44 cities across the country, only 12 of the cities had daytime noise levels lower than the 50 decibel (dB) guideline for residential areas, reports Yonhap News Agency.
At night, just six had noise levels acceptable by the residential area guideline of 40 dB, according to the test results for the first half of this year.
This year's survey of 1,766 residential and commercial areas in the 44 cities also found that daytime noise in the cities' residential areas reached an average 53 dB and the figure stood at 47 dB during nighttime, both exceeding the limit of 50 dB and 40 dB, respectively.
For the urban areas in the surveyed cities, daytime noise level reached an average of 64 dB, lower than the 65 dB guideline, while the nightly average stood at 58 dB, which exceeds the 55 dB standard.
Hwaseong, a city just south of Seoul, was the noisiest place with a daytime average of 62 dB and a nightly average of 61 dB, the survey showed.
"In addition to Hwaseong, cities adjacent to the capital like Gimpo, Yongin and Guri showed higher noise levels than other cities," a ministry official said. — Bernama
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