Environmental noise protection problems of Hungary's old heavy industrial areas

Hungary's first domestic environmental noise regulation entered into force in 1984. Several heavy industrial areas operate in the country, which were established in the first half of the last century or in the decades following the Second World War. During this period, aspects of environmental noise protection were not yet considered. These heavy industry plants are usually located in huge industrial areas, operate thousands of diverse technological equipment and still remain significant factors of the Hungarian national economy. The reason for the development of the environmental noise problem is that during the intensive socialist industrialization, to satisfy the huge demand for labor, they developed residential areas around the industrial areas. This led to a situation, when environmental noise protection legislation came into force, these heavy industry plants found themselves in violation without any changes in their operations. The plants implemented noise reductions and attempted to comply with the limits, but mostly with little success. This presented an unsolvable problem to the plants, the authorities, and the residents too. The solution to the problem is the introduction of regulations on the designated highly noisy areas and several additional measures, following the international practice of designating noise protection zones.