Heath and hearing

Fred Cohen sums it up perfectly in this excerpt;

"Helicopters rank especially high in causing undesirable noise. Eight different studies have found that the annoyance created by a helicopter does not correlate with the decibels it registers. The helicopter’s unique sound, created by blade vortex interaction, causes people to rate its sound level as much as 10 dB’s higher than it actually registers, doubling the noise impact. This would place perceived helicopter noise at around 97 dB, or a whopping 30 dB’s over the generally accepted noise level of residential areas.

These findings certainly suggest that helicopter flight should be regulated in response to the exceptional levels of noise they produce. Despite the findings on helicopter noise and the aesthetic-health issues linked to excessive, annoying noise, local and municipal legislators have no jurisdiction in this field of noise regulation — leaving us to bemoan our fate, visit a BOSE outlet for noise cancelling headphones, or invest in lead-lined walls and remain indoors."

http://hearinghealthmatters.org/lawandhearing/2011/helicopter-noise/

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New York City and Noisy tourist Helicopter flips

And I found this point to be particularly pertinent to the Cape Town situation: Tourists will not stop coming if helicopter tours are ended. Most tourists (more than 58 million last year) come to New York to enjoy its magnificent public spaces, visit theaters and museums, shop, dine in restaurants, and perhaps get a view from a tall building. New York City almost banned Tourism helicopter activities all together. Various articles have been published on this matter and the most pertinent point has been around noise pollution and how bad it is for people. A Plague of Helicopters New York Times 31 January 2016 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/opinion/sunday/a-plague-of-helicopters-is-ruining-new-york.html City leaders should consider the high price we pay for helicopter tourism, a cost to our environment and to the quality of life in our parks and neighborhoods. Source: Photo by Frank Köhntopp on Unsplash

Video - LOW FLYING HELICOPTERS OVER CAPE TOWN SUBURBS

A video from a Claremont resident On Friday, 24 th February 2017, between 08H55 and 09H55, helicopters were flying low over the houses in Claremont. Footage of one of the helicopters shows how low this helicopter was flying against a backdrop of trees and the mountain. Despite numerous complaints to the Waterfront, City of Cape Town (Noise Control) and Operators themselves, helicopters continue to operate with no consideration of his residence below.

Archive: Noisy Cape Town Helicopters

Original Article: http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/noisy-helicopters-leave-residents-outraged-264583 Excerpt from an article published on 2006, this is a long ongoing issue in Cape Town. Outraged residents and the Table Mountain National Park have had enough of noisy helicopters which they said were flying "irresponsibly" low over protected areas and Cape Town suburbs. Fiona Kalk, park spokesperson, said: "Under the Protected Areas Act, all aircraft must be 1 500ft above the highest point of the park. In the park that is McClear's Beacon on top of Table Mountain." Although helicopter companies insist they do keep to this regulated height, Kalk said, helicopters in fact do not abide by this regulation. continue reading...

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