Perception of Health-impacts of Environmental Noise in an Ambient Noise Context in Owerri-urban, Imo State, Nigeria

This paper reports the results of the investigation, of health impacts of environmental noise context in Owerri-urban, due to incessant complaints of urban dwellers of noise pollution and their effects on the health. This was measured by the use of 210 questionnaires on urban dwellers along the major routes in which 30 questionnaires were randomly administered between sampled routes designated NP1- NP7. The observed results indicates, that the automobile has 32.3%, the church has 3.3%, the construction work has 19.5%, the market has 5.7%, industrial activities 9.0%, hawking 10%, and school 6.6%, with the automobile recording the highest response as the main source of environmental noise pollution and the church having the least response. For the perceived health problems caused by environmental noise, the results further show that Cardiovascular and Physiological effects constituted 20.5%, Hearing Impairment did 25.2%, Sleeplessness did 21.9%, mental health did 11.4%, annoyance did 6.6% and human performance did 14.2%, with hearing impairment ranking the highest and the lowest being annoyance. Environmental noise was at the peak between the hours of eight- 11 A.M constituting 49.1%. The hours between three-seven pm constitutes 39.5%, while <10pm has 11.4% indicating the noise pollution is less in the evening time of the day where people are indoor for rest. These call for best management practice like enforcement of pollution law, maintenance of vehicles and creation of awareness on health implications of environmental noise.