Bird Pollution

And finally, some nightingales have fallen foul of noise pollution laws in Europe. An ornithologist at the Free University of Berlin in Germany measured the calls of nightingales in busy urban areas and found that they increase the volume of their song to compete with traffic and other city noise. Some of them can reach 95 decibels, which is equivalent to being one meter away from a chainsaw. Producing that much sound requires five times the lung pressure, according to the researcher. It doesn稚 seem to worry the birds, though, as they appear quite capable of sustaining 95 decibel noise to competing with the city. Now, EU noise pollution laws allow workers to have exposure to sounds less than 87 decibels without ear protection. The nightingales in Berlin could, at those volumes, seriously damage your ears.
May 6, 2004

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