Argentinas hovedstad Buenos Aires er ikke udelukkende tangoens, filmens og teatrets hovedstad, men også Latinamerikas mest støjplagede by, oplyser BBC News onsdag. I støjniveau overgås den udelukkende af New York, Tokyo og Nagasaki.
Roughly one-third of Argentina’s 40 million inhabitants live in or near the city, which is a lot of people in a relatively small space. They live largely in high-rise blocks of flats on long, straight streets which channel the sound.
Meanwhile, a thriving Argentine economy has resulted in more cars on the city’s already crowded roads, and an increase in construction work.
It is a city that works during the day but really comes alive at night, sometimes to the rhythmic beat of the tango – beguiling if you like that sort of thing, but not always welcome at 4am.
The World Health Organisation suggests that healthy noise levels should not surpass 55 decibels during the day and 45 at night, but measurements taken in Buenos Aires regularly hit 70 or even 80 decibels. .
