Noise & Sound - the differences - some clarifications and facts

If you go to the Occupational Health & Safety Web Site for Canada you will see that measuring sound and it's effects is far more complicated than one might believe.

Pitch, pressure and velocity have a lot to do with measuring SOUND.

NOISE is all about subjective interpretation.

I have researched a number of sounds and found some great comparison charts for you to look at to understand what's going on here and how our community is being judged and measured.

There are a lot of charts that measure the SOUND - decibels of various things:

Table 2 Typical Noise Levels
Noise Source	dB(A)
pneumatic chipper at 1 metre	115
hand-held circular saw at 1 metre	115
textile room	103
newspaper press	95
power lawn mower at 1 metre	92
diesel truck 50 km per hour at 20 metres	85
passenger car 60 km per hour at 20 metres	65
conversation at 1 metre	55
quiet room	40

From the Centre for Hearing and Communication:

Home	Work	Recreation
50 refrigerator 50 - 60 electric toothbrush 50 - 75 washing machine 50 - 75 air conditioner 50 - 80 electric shaver 55 coffee percolator 55 - 70 dishwasher 60 sewing machine 60 - 85 vacuum cleaner 60 - 95 hair dryer 65 - 80 alarm clock 70 TV audio 70 - 80 coffee grinder 70 - 95 garbage disposal 75 - 85 flush toilet 80 pop-up toaster 80 doorbell 80 ringing telephone 80 whistling kettle 80 - 90 food mixer or processor 80 - 90 blender 80 - 95 garbage disposal 110 baby crying 110 squeaky toy held close to the ear 135 noisy squeeze toys	40 quiet office, library 50 large office 65 - 95 power lawn mower 80 manual machine, tools 85 handsaw 90 tractor 90 - 115 subway 95 electric drill 100 factory machinery 100 woodworking class 105 snow blower 110 power saw 110 leafblower 120 chain saw, hammer on nail 120 pneumatic drills, heavy machine 120 jet plane (at ramp) 120 ambulance siren 125 chain saw 130 jackhammer, power drill 130 air raid 130 percussion section at symphony 140 airplane taking off 150 jet engine taking off 150 artillery fire at 500 feet 180 rocket launching from pad	40 quiet residential area 70 freeway traffic 85 heavy traffic, noisy restaurant 90 truck, shouted conversation 95 - 110 motorcycle 100 snowmobile 100 school dance, boom box 110 disco 110 busy video arcade 110 symphony concert 110 car horn 110 -120 rock concert 112 personal cassette player on high 117 football game (stadium) 120 band concert 125 auto stereo (factory installed) 130 stock car races 143 bicycle horn 150 firecracker 156 capgun 157 balloon pop 162 fireworks (at 3 feet) 163 rifle 166 handgun 170

So if you read these charts - your garbage disposal makes about the same sound levels as a motorcycle at 2000 RPM is being allowed in Edmonton, a leaf blower makes MORE as does a snow blower or a chainsaw. Hell a crying baby makes more sound than what they want to restrict motorcycles to...

Reading Federal Law says that any motorcycle over 175 cc's is not to exceed 82 db's
Canada does not "write" it's own laws in many cases but uses as in this case US law.

If you use the American Motorcycle Association Web Site you will see that in California the motorcycle noise emissions are capped at 96 db's: http://home.ama-cycle.org/amaccess/laws/result.asp?state=CA

Now according to many web sites - the pitch of a leaf blower is one of the most hated sounds around...and that has nothing to do with sound level and everything to do with pitch if I am understanding anything I read .

The more I read, the more I learn the more frustrated I get with what I perceive to be
BS being handed to us...I feel like we are being lied to by so many people and I can not wait for a lawyer to help us make sense of all of this. Truly - this is the most confusing mumbo jumbo I have ever read through.

In the news today:

The Fire Fighter's Burn Camp kicks off this week in BC

In Alberta a Ft McMurray rider was killed in the early morning hours Saturday.

In Ontario a man is dead and his passenger in hospital after a crash on highway 17 near Yesno Township.

Also in Ontario another squeaky wheel is complaining to Windsor council about motorcycle noise.

Newfoundland and Labrador is getting a motorcycle museum courtesy of Selwyn Rose who is revving up to tell as much of the motorcycle history of the province as he can.

In Cape Breton the rider that was killed on the weekend has been identified as 25-year-old Steven Andrew Sorrey of Sydney

If you are one of the fortunate and you are riding today, PLEASE, ride like everyone around you is blind, cannot see you and is out to get you and please, Ride Proud not Loud - save those pipes for when they are truly needed - when someone is about to violate your lane.

Belt Drive Betty