I was reading a news item today where a noise complaint turned into murder. It's not an isolated case. Noise issues can contribute to heightened tensions between neighbors and be a catalyst for violent crime.

Excessive noise is probably one of the most underrated forms of environmental pollution around. Since writing my article on noise pollution, I've had many emails from people telling me how noise problems led to marital and health issues. One person suffered a full nervous breakdown.

I can certainly empathize with these folks having been subjected to excessive noise for extended periods many times throughout my life.

The most frustrating thing is it's often been unnecessary - issues ranging from irresponsible owners of incessantly barking dogs (not the dog's fault), idiots who don't understand (or perhaps do) the impacts of jacked up bass emanating from their stereos, petrol heads with 4 cylinder fart-boxes fitted with exhausts to make them sound like a much bigger engines running up and down the street, inconsiderate dirt bike riders and fools with remote control planes.

You can understand someone making a bit of noise to complete a task, but to drive a noisy car, ride an under-muffled bike or fly a toy around in circles for hours on end just for kicks when others live close by? Insanity. Immature. Inconsiderate. Incomprehensible. Imbecilic.

Aside from the general environmental and emissions issues involved with dirt bikes for example and just generally tooling around in other noisy, gas powered vehicles for the hell of it, you'd think the very least these folks could do would be to ensure their inane and environmentally destructive past-times were kept as quiet as possible - to show a degree of respect for the health and well being of nearby humans and fauna.

Quite simply, noise pollution is a form of assault and in a world where we're increasing being squashed together through medium and high density housing; there needs to be more done to control it.

It's never ceased to amaze me how people can take up certain hobbies or have a bit of "fun" without giving a second thought to how it may affect others;  showing a degree of ignorance to the point the perpetrator starts to spew crap about his or her "rights" and "freedom" when challenged.

With freedom comes responsibility and accountability in my opinion; without those two elements, it's just the worst form of anarchy.

Learn more about the human and environmental impacts of noise pollution.