Manmade noise 'major global pollutant'

PARIS, Nov 20 (AFP): It is well known that human hubbub can have a negative impact on some animals, but a new study on Wednesday says the noise we make should be treated as a "major global pollutant".

"We found that noise affects many species of amphibians, arthropods, birds, fish, mammals, molluscs and reptilians," scientists at Queen's University Belfast said in the Royal Society's Biology Letters.

Human noise pervades the environment, from vehicles and industry in dense urban centres, to planes flying overhead, to ocean going vessels whose propellor is thought to interfere with whale sonar communications and may be implicated in mass beaching as the disorientated animals lose their sense of direction.

"The interesting finding is that the species included range from little insects to large marine mammals such as whales," he Kunc told AFP.