What about the sounds produced by so-called boom-cars which are wandering, pulsating noise factories? What about annoying sound levels at concerts, theaters and public sporting events? What about the noise of slow-moving train horns in urbanized areas or the early morning sounds that accompany garbage collection? What about all the noise on our streets that buses, trams, horns, car alarms, motorcycles and unsilenced exhaust systems contribute to? What about the risks to children from noisy toys and personal sound systems? What about the noise of barking dogs, leaf blowers and recreational vehicles? And the noise of low-flying planes? In general, sounds that we deem unwanted or unnecessary are considered noise. Our society is plagued by noise, which is intrusive, pervasive and omnipresent; most of all, it's unhealthy. Most reasonable people would agree that much of the environmental noise we are subjected to serves no useful purpose and is therefore undesirable. The variety of devices and activities that pollute noise is wide and seems to grow daily, although there is no consensus on which items are useful and desirable or which devices are noise polluters and which