Editor's note issued by the newspaper "pump noise exceeded disturbing Beijing owners get compensation for one hundred thousand" article on the city of Fengtai District, Beijing, owner of Victoria Park Lee Lee for noise disturbances caused by downstairs basement to prosecute reports, the Fengtai District People's Court The first trial ordered developers to adopt sound insulation and noise reduction measures, and compensate Lee Lee 100,000 spirit loss (the case recently concluded, the court of second instance to maintain the original verdict). The case hit the highest Beijing hearing nuisance damage compensation record. After the article was published, the newspaper received many readers' phone calls asking about the noise measurement method, the application of noise standards and the hearing of the case. This newspaper specially invited the first instance court judge Xu Lin to write this manuscript to readers. At present, environmental standards are still the most direct basis for hearing environmental cases. The author believes that if the application of a standard to protect the environmental rights of the plaintiff should be strictly followed, if the reference can not reflect the spirit and principles of environmental legislation, it should be no fault liability, the burden of proof inversion and other considerations. First, the pump noise facts and referee Plaintiffs Lee, Wang couple in June 2001 with the defendant Zhuangwei real estate development company signed a "real estate sales contract" to buy a set of Beijing Zhuangwei Garden Building 7, and In December 31 the same year stay. Shortly after the arrival of the building basement pump room that noise problems, affecting their normal rest and life. Since then, the development company has reformed the pipeline, but the noise problem still exists. On September 10, 2004, Li entrusted Beijing Fengtai District Environmental Protection Monitoring Station to test its housing noise. The test showed that the main sound source was a water pump in the basement at 22:10 of the same day, and the measured value of the living room center was 39.7 dB , The living room background value of 29.4 dB. Subsequently, the plaintiff appealed to the Fengtai District People's Court for the defendant to completely eliminate the noise pollution in his house and compensate for the mental damage caused by his stay of $ 100,000. December 23, 2004, Lee and Wang to the hospital for treatment, the diagnosis of cerebral insufficiency, neurasthenia and so on. On December 28, 2004, the son of the plaintiff visited the Beijing Children's Hospital for medical treatment. The chief complaint of medical records shows intermittent and irregular headaches occurring in two or three months. During the trial of the case, Fengtai District People's Court entrusted the Beijing Fengtai District Environmental Protection Monitoring Station to carry out noise tests again on the plaintiff's house. The main source of sound was the water pump. The measured values ​​were 44.1 dB at daytime and 43.5 dB at night, The normal operation of the pump is 36.2 dB during daytime and 35.4 dB at night. The daytime value is 30.6 dB and the nighttime is 30.0 dB. The court of first instance held that in order to protect the living environment of citizens, the State Environmental Protection Administration formulated the maximum environmental noise standards. Among them, the "Urban Area Environmental Noise Standard" stipulates that in the first category of residential areas, the daytime noise standard is 55 dB, The night noise standard is 45 dB; Article 5.4 of GB / T14623-93 stipulates: "the indoor noise limit shall be lower than the standard value of 10 dB in the area when having to measure indoors; The Noise Criteria for Industrial Enterprises at Boundary of Enterprises also stipulates that in the first category of residential areas, the daytime noise standard is 55 dB and the nighttime noise standard is 45 dB. The Noise Measurement Method for Industrial Enterprises at Boundary (GB12349-90) Article 2.6.2 stipulates: "If the factory boundaries and residential buildings connected to the factory noise can not be measured, the measuring point should be selected in the center of the room, the indoor limit should be lower than the corresponding standard value of 10 dB." Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau in 2001 On December 17, 2009, in response to the "Letter on Issues Related to Indoor Noise Pollution" issued by the government regarding noise problems caused by elevators, pump rooms, electrical transformers and other equipment in residential buildings, "Reply The state and Beijing Municipality do not clearly stipulate such issues. However, according to Paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the "Law of the People's Republic of China on Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution", the environmental protection administrative department of the local people's government at or above the county level shall, Prevention and control of the implementation of unified supervision and management of 'the provisions of the people in order to solve practical problems, the environmental protection department can manage such noise issues, in accordance with the "Urban Area Environmental Noise Measurement Method" (GB / T14623-93) and "Urban Regional Environment Noise standard "(GB3096-93), indoor noise limit shall be less than 10dB of the standard value in the area when measured indoors, and the window shall be closed and other indoor and outdoor noise sources shall be prevented from monitoring." The plaintiff purchased Residential area belongs to category 1 of "Urban Area Environmental Noise Standard" and "Industrial Enterprise Boundary Noise Standard", and the noise is detected twice by the environmental protection monitoring station. The measured values ​​of night noise are 39.7 dB and 43.5 dB respectively (when the pump is started ) And 35.4 dB (when the pump is in normal operation) all surpass the "Urban Area Environmental Noise Standard "And" urban area environmental noise measurement method, "the night maximum limit standards; if you take full account of the interests of the defendant, according to" Industrial Enterprise Boundary Noise Measurement Method "(GB12349-90) Article 3.2" background noise level value should be Is lower than the noise level of the noise to be measured by 10 dB or more, and if the difference between the measured value and the background value is less than 10 dB, then the correction should be made. Considering the noise floor of the residential area of ​​Lee, the noise at 39.7 dB and 43.5 dB exceeds The nighttime maximum limits set forth in the Noise Standards for Industrial Enterprises and Noise Methods for Measurement of Noise at the Boundary of Industrial Enterprises; the noise generated when the pumps are started up at night is also higher than the mandatory national standards that the defendants adhere to. "Residential Design Code "Article 5.3.1" residential bedroom, living room (hall) allowed noise level (A sound level) should be less than or equal to 40dB at night "standard. In summary, the court verdict: First, the defendant Zhuangwei Real Estate Development Company within 60 days from the effective date of the verdict to take effective measures to the noise of the pump No 7 Building Zhuangwei Garden noise reduction so that the plaintiff Lee, Wang Pump noise within the residential area to meet the State Environmental Protection Administration set the following limits; overdue standards, the daily 100 yuan on the plaintiff Lee, Wang compensation. Second, the defendant Zhuangwei Real Estate Development Company within the effective date of the judgment within 7 days of compensation to the plaintiff Lee, Wang spiritual damage solatium 100000 yuan. Second, the comprehensive application of environmental standards to the current environmental standards is the country in accordance with legal procedures developed by the strong scientific and technical mandatory legal norms. Environmental standards are established and developed with the establishment of an environmental legal system, which, like our environmental legal system, is still far from perfect. Many of them lag behind in real life. According to Article 2 of Law on Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution, "Environmental noise pollution refers to the discharge of environmental noise exceeding the national standards and interfering with the normal life, work and study of others." Therefore, environmental noise pollution must have two First, the emission of environmental noise exceeds the national emission standards for environmental noise; Second, environmental noise interferes with the lives, work and study of others. That is to say, if the environmental noise emission standard stipulated by the state is exceeded, it shall be deemed that it constitutes environmental noise pollution and constitutes infringement. The applicable environmental noise standard of the case is the basis for judging whether the facts of the case infringe. As the current environmental laws, regulations and standards lag, imperfect or even contradictory, resulting in the trial of the difficulties. Relevant departments have not yet promulgated the low-frequency noise standard specifically for residential indoors, and the "Urban Area Environmental Noise Standard", "Measurement Method of Environmental Noise in Urban Areas", "Noise Standard for Industrial Enterprises at Boundary" and "Industrial Enterprises Noise measurement methods at the factory boundary "are all measures to protect the quality of regional environmental noise formulated by the local area environment. In this case, the defendant had proposed that construction quality supervision and appraisal units should test and apply the "Residential Design Code" standard. Judge believes that the environmental protection department has made a forensic monitoring stations, and appraisal conclusions are objective, scientific, neutral and authoritative, to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties; and environmental noise is not a problem of housing construction quality, construction quality supervision, Accredited testing unit is not properly, it did not agree to the defendant to apply. However, measuring individual cases according to the regional environmental noise standards enacted by the environmental protection department many years ago will result in citizens applying different noise limit standards depending on the area they live in. Such as Beijing Tongzhou District People's Court heard a complaint Zhao pump noise pollution damage compensation dispute case, the noise value has reached 47.4 dB, the elderly suffering from neurological deafness, granddaughter mental retardation, but the case because the pump noise is not Exceed the standard limit of environmental noise in Tongzhou area and the first instance. We hope that the Constitution and environmental laws and regulations in our country will make more and more explicit provisions for protecting the environmental rights of citizens, improve and perfect various environmental standards so as to better protect citizens' environmental rights and achieve a harmonious social development. (Author of Beijing Fengtai District People's Court judge)