Shanghai to start enforcing new noise rules

The municipal government will begin enforcing the city's new noise regulations on March 1, local media reported.

The regulations will for the first time stipulate what activities are considered too noisy and how much violators should be fined.

For example, the new regulations prohibit home renovations from 6 pm to 8 am and ban physical exercise and recreational activities that use loudspeakers from 10 pm to 6 am in public spaces adjacent to hospitals, schools and residential areas, according to a report in the Oriental Morning Post. They also cover things like car alarms going off and commercial promotion activities in public places.

The regulations augment the national Environmental Noise Pollution Control Act, which went into effect in 1997. However, the law only provided an outline for general noise control.

Violators can be warned or fined from 200 yuan ($32) to 50,000 yuan by local police and environmental protection authorities, depending on the severity of the violation.

Noise from activities such as public exercise, home renovations and car alarms are more difficult for authorities to control compared with traffic and construction noise, said an official from the Hongkou District Environmental Protection Authority, who asked not to be named. The details of the new regulations would help optimize their noise control and prevention work. 

Noise control in a city should be an integrated process, said Dai Xingyi, a professor from the Urban Environmental Management Research Center of Fudan University.

Besides the regulations and penalties, the city should also put more effort into urban planning, in order to designate different function areas in the city to help prevent noisy activities from bothering too many people, Dai told the Global Times.