Galery

1

“Athens is a 6 million city, lack of noise is impossible. There are adopted laws for noise pollution, but it is a matter of culture - what can I do if your TV is at high volume, or you are shouting at home or pressing the horn?,” said Nikos Karameros, an expert at the Ministry of Environment.

Noise is one of the main reasons for the low quality of life seriously damaging health and psychology – it damages hearing, it stresses and entirely changes the health status of people who are constantly subjected to noise pollution.
 
Indeed, the noise in the city is unbearable - daily exposed to the sounds of forced cars, horns, construction sites, heavy trucks traveling on highways, noise from bars, but also to noise caused by unscrupulous neighbours that leave the dog to bark from the balcony in the morning, the Greeks are undergoing major hazards associated with their health.

Every second Greek who lives in a big city is likely to squirt blood pressure due to constant exposure to noise irritants, according to a study on the effects of noise on health. But the worst is that high decibels cause problems with concentration in children, which affects their performance at school. High decibels are the reason for aggressive behaviour, depression, panic attacks and heartbeat.

The areas around the boulevards Kifisia, Alexandra, Patision, Aharnon, Kifisu and many others are considered the noisiest in Athens. Noise levels there exceed 65 decibels from 8 in the morning to 11 in the evening. Noise pollution does not stop at night when the decibels fall by only 5 points but at night the noise levels in bedrooms should not exceed 35 decibels.

Numerous studies show that noise is strongly causing blood pressure rising and the numerous mopeds in Athens are one of the most serious problems as they move anywhere day and night. A survey conducted in Greece the last year showed that there were 122 mopeds per 1000 people, while the average value for the EU countries is two times less. Mopeds and motorcycles in the country make up 10.8 % of all the vehicles, while in other Mediterranean countries such as Spain they are 3.2% and in Italy - 7.5%, reads the article of Ta Nea newspaper. According to the Ministry of Environment, the police checked 100,000 cars and motor bikes in Athens between 1999 and 2009 and imposed fines on law violators. Meanwhile, residents of central neighbourhoods continue to complain of the noise the mopeds make.

"Motorcycles are noisy when the exhaust-pipe is changed. Factories do not produce them with noisy exhaust-pipes, this happens later. I've made my motor noisy some years ago too but the police stopped me and measured the noise my motor bike made. The imposed a fine on me and then I dismantled the noisy exhaust-pipe and put the ordinary exhaust. So, I went back to the police to measure the noise of my motor bike and everything was fine. I did not pay the fine. But when you're young you do not care that you are making noise. When you are getting old you realize that and it irritates you," said George, who is a mechanic at car repairing company.

According to a study of Metsovio University, the rapid car movement is of great importance in Greece, which ultimately is not in favour of residents of neighbourhoods. To avoid traffic jams the cars often drive through the small narrow streets in the neighbourhoods or have been forwarded around by the police in their attempts to save urban roads of traffic jams. Thus, cars increase the noise volume in the neighbourhood as in many places, especially in the center of Athens, there are the so-called noise trap streets that are narrow and tightly built, which “traps” the noise and increases its volume.