Beschallungsfrei – The Campaign to Stamp Out Acoustic Pollution

Press Release
Friday, 19 December 2008

Beschallungsfrei names Acoustic Polluter of the Year 2008
Honor goes to the Pimkie outlet on Landstraße in downtown Linz

The managers of the Pimkie shop at Landstraße 28 can take rather dubious pride in an award they’ve just received. Campaign spokesperson Peter Androsch announced that the clothing retailer frequented mostly by teens has been crowned 2008 Acoustic Polluter of the Year by Beschallungsfrei – The Campaign to Stamp Out Acoustic Pollution. Calling attention to this “honor” is a billboard temporarily set up in front of Pimkie’s shop window. The mangers were presented with an official certificate as well as a trophy in the shape of the Beschallungsfrei logo—an ear pierced by a big nail.

The award is based on the results of noise level measurements conducted by professional technicians at various shopping centers and retail outlets in downtown Linz as well as at Plus City, Uno-Shopping and Haid Center on the outskirts of town. “In many stores, the acoustic bombardment of customers takes place at a decibel level that is nothing less than outrageous,” Peter Androsch stated in his comments on the measurement results. “But in Pimkie, the values are on the verge of endangering the health of not only the employees but also the customers—primarily young people, and thus a group in particular need of protection.”

In Pimkie, the testers measured a peak value of 87 decibels and an average sound level of 77 decibels. Even the lowest level measured was a speaker-thumping 72 decibels! “These are values that are relevant in the field of occupational medicine and health care,” said Androsch. “According to Austrian federal law, proprietors of a workplace in which the noise level is 80 decibels or higher must make hearing protection devices available to employees working there, and wearing such protective devices is mandatory when the noise level is 85 decibels or higher.”

High-tech digital equipment was used to measure the noise level in 30 stores and shopping centers.

Beschallungsfrei—sponsored by Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture, ÖGB Linz-City, GPA-Djp and the Catholic Church in Upper Austria/City Pastoral—is a campaign against subjecting people in public places involuntarily to noise and in favor of more publicly accessible zones of peace and quiet.

www.beschallungsfrei.at