Noise pollution: future policy. Green paper

In adopting the report by Mrs DIEZ DE RIVERA ICAZA (PSE, E), Parliament endorsed the Commission's Green Paper and called for a framework directive to be adopted in the near future on the reduction of ambient noise. It called on the Commission to establish common methods for measuring and evaluating noise and common exposure indices, relating to both daytime and night-time, and urged it to encourage, in addition, a reduction in noise levels within private dwellings. Moreover, it calls for the noise level of walkmen and household hi-fi systems to be limited, for 'noise maps' to be drawn up for the benefit of the general public, for a study into the actual cost of the damage caused by noise, including health costs, to be carried out, for a reduction in aircraft movements at night, for 'noise education' of the general public, for the formulation of common methods for measuring noise, for effective soundproofing of buildings and for the setting of noise limits for equipment used outdoors. Parliament also calls for measures designed to reduce the main source of ambient noise, namely passenger and freight transport, in particular by road. The Commission is called upon to submit by the end of the year, a new directive on directive on rail transport involving a reduction in noise on heavily used lines. �