Sound, it's a fact of life. We hear it every day to one degree or another. It could be the background hum of everyday life; the TV set in the corner, the rain against the window, the birds in the trees and the cars on the road. We have become accustomed to these sounds and think nothing of them. Sound can simply be considered as any variation in air pressure that is detected by the human ear. The simplest definition of noise is "unwanted or harmful sound" but noise surrounds us everywhere. We endure noise in crowded, busy workplaces, the din of the city centre and the irritating hum of a neighbour’s lawn mower early Saturday morning or next door's booming music; a boy racer with his loud exhaust and booming sound system, a low flying jet and so on. On the other hand we also expose ourselves, quite voluntarily, to a variety of other noisy activities that we enjoy: loud concerts or gigs, loud cinemas, high volume settings on personal CD players & iPods, fitness classes with loud music, recreational sports and on and on. We are exposed to a barrage of unwanted sounds but it is only when we hear things that we are not used to, or are so loud as to cause annoyance that we sit up and take notice. There we fears that the Polkemmet reclamation scheme and Heartlands operations would have an accumulative effect, what with blasting, excavations, construction work and so on.

Sound measurement is quite complex and a number of factors must be taken into account. First of all sound can be characterised in three ways, the intensity, frequency and duration.
Intensity is a physical measurement of sound in decibels (dB), but it should not be confused with loudness. Loudness is a perception of sound e.g listen to the TV during the day, it may not seem that loud but without changing the controls lsten to the TV during the middle of the night and all of a sudden it seems awfully loud, even to a point that you turn down the volume so as not to annoy the neighbours. So, in the presence of background noise, something may not seem loud and yet that same sound in the absence of background noise may seem very loud. Even though our perception of the loudness of the sound changed, its intensity (the decibel level emitted by the sound) hasn't.
Frequency is a physical measurement of sound in Hertz (cycles per second), the perception of which is pitch (what we consider high and low sounds). A dog whistle emits a sound at so high a frequency that we don't hear it, however Rover, Robbie or Bouncer do. On the other hand, sub woofers in surround sound systems bump out low frequency sound, some of which is too low to actually hear but we still feel it.
Duration simply refers to the length of time the sound continues.

The human condition is affected in a number of ways depending upon the intensity of the sound, the frequency and how long we listen or are exposed to it. We can get stressed out, have an increase in blood pressure or even get headaches, permanent tinnitus (ringing or buzzing) or at the extreme end, we can loose our hearing...for ever. So just watch out for our boy racer in 20 years time adjusting his hearing aid !
The decibel, as previosuly explained, is the unit used to measure the intensity of sound. Pay attention, here comes the science bit. Sound intensity increases logarithmically i.e each increase of 3 dB represents a doubling of sound energy. So an increase of only 3 dB doubles the hearing hazard, therefore, to be safe, we should cut our exposure time in half for every increase of 3 dB. However, we are rather insensitive creatures, and although a 3 dB increase is noticeable, it doesn’t sound much louder, so just be careful. Different weighting scales are used in the measurement of decibels. The scale we see most often in everyday life is the A scale while the B, C and D scales are used by specialists for measuring such things as airport jet engine noise. An acoustics engineer may need a sophisticated analyser in conjunction with a bank of filters to break the noise down into its individual frequency components. You can tell which scale has been used to measure decibels by the way it is written. dB(A) indicates a decibel reading taken on the A scale. The science behind weighting is outwith the scope of this page but there are plenty of websites on the internet which explain the theory.

The following table should give you an idea of how loud is loud:

dBA
0	Threshold of normal human hearing
10	Normal breathing
30	Soft whisper
50	Large office
60	Normal coversation
70	Television (audio)
110	Large Motorbike
109	Powersaw
110	Baby Crying
120	Rock concert - Extremely loud & you have to shout to be heard
130	Thunder overhead - Threshold of pain
150	Jet taking off nearby
170	Shotgun (at close range)
180	Space Shuttle launch (nearby) - without protection you would lose your hearing
	Table compiled from various internet sources.

Detailed surveys have shown that the regeneration and development work would not cause any major disruption and where there was a risk to the agreed limits being exceeded, additional measures would be put in place to lessen the disruption. The site itself is operating on a two-shift basis during weekdays and although work continues into the evening it only involves excavation and transportation of overburden and not coal production.

Consideration was given as to whether the Polkemmet reclamation scheme would have an adverse effect on newly occupied dwellings, constructed as part of the Heartlands development and the effects of an operational Cowhill Business Park on nearby sensitive locations including Polkemmet Country Park and existing residential properties such as Polkemmet Road. It was found that the construction of the Heartlands development is unlikely to lead to noise nuisance at noise sensitive locations, even when considered as a cumulative effect with the ongoing operation of the Polkemmet reclamation scheme. This is mainly because the construction operations located nearest to existing properties use low numbers of relatively small-scale machinery. In addition, the Heartlands construction phases have been designed to follow opencast mining operations, and when operating at the same time in the vicinity of noise sensitive locations, will be a minimum of 500 m apart.
The new housing areas are also unlikely to be affected by noise generated by the Polkemmet reclamation scheme, although, as previously stated, if a risk emerges that limits agreed with West Lothian Council will be exceeded, additional mitigation measures will be implemented. This could involve the use of additional noise barriers or a change to the phased construction and sale of housing plots. Industrial noise generated by the proposed Cowhill Business Park will also be subject to noise limits agreed with West Lothian Council, which will affect the detailed design and selection of occupiers of the site. It is therefore unlikely that the Heartlands development will lead to significant effects at noise sensitive locations, such as residential properties and the recreational users of Polkemmet Country Park.

Webmaster note

I live in the very near vicinity of Polkemmet Road and although, with my windows open, I can hear the occasional clank of heavy plant material, the overall noise is nothing, if anything, the birds are louder and you quickly become accustomed to any new sounds. In fact, the sounds remind me of when I lived in Polkemmet Road as a boy.when Polkemmet Colliery was in full swing.