Noise Pollution and Human Health: An Emerging Threat to the Right to Health

Health is a fundamental requirement for a pleasant and dignified human life. Due to the importance ofhealth, it has been considered a form of wealth. In a welfare state, the state has the obligation to giveimportance to and protect the people’s right to health and to mitigate all factors that violate the right tohealth. Under the right to health, every person has the right, without any discrimination, to have theirhealth protected from all factors that affect their health; and every human being has the right to attainthe highest attainable standard of health. The concept of the right to health is linked to the holisticnature of health; it encompasses being healthy, maintaining health, easy and equal approach tohealthcare services, and protection from various factors that affect health. Since the emergence ofhuman rights, the right to health has been given importance in all human rights instruments. The IndianConstitution does not explicitly enshrine the right to health as a fundamental right, but the Indianjudiciary has recognized it as a fundamental right by considering it an important component of theright to life. Any form of environmental pollution directly affects human life and health. Noisepollution, a silent, overlooked, yet significant environmental issue, affect human health, causingvarious physical and mental diseases. Regarding noise pollution, the common perception is that it isonly related to the loss of human hearing capacity and is therefore overlooked as a serious healthhazard. Noise pollution, by affecting human health, causes many serious and incurable diseases thatendanger human life. This research paper examines the meaning, necessity, and importance of the rightto health and assesses the various diseases caused by noise pollution that violate the right to health.