China revises Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law

On December 24, 2021, the NPC Standing Committee promulgated the revised Law of the People’s Republic of China on Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution. The revised law will come into effect on June 5, 2022. This revised law expands the scope of application and includes provisions such as product noise limits and inclusion of noise in the pollutant emission permit system. The outline is as follows.

Expanded scope of application

Under the current law, the provisions on industrial noise, construction noise, and traffic and transport noise apply only to urban areas of cities. However, the revised law extends the applicable area to rural areas (the provision “meets the (omitted) noise standard within the scope of a city” was deleted). In addition, in the current law, “industrial noise” is defined as “sound generated when using fixed equipment in industrial production activities,” but in the revised law, it was changed to “sound generated in industrial production activities,” expanding the scope of application.

Establishment of product noise limits

The current law stipulates that the limit value for noise is set by the technical specifications and product quality standards for industrial machines, etc., but the revised law aims to expand the machines and products that are subject to the law. According to Article 16 of the revised law, the following products are subject to the law:

• Construction machinery
• Automobiles
• Civil aircraft
• Motorized ships
• Electrical and electronic devices

Article 16 stipulates that sampling inspections shall be conducted by the market supervision and control department for the target products, and that the production, import, and sale of products that do not meet the noise limit requirements shall be prohibited.

Reinforcement of industrial noise regulations

In the revised law, industrial noise has been incorporated into the scope of application of the pollutant emission permit system. Business operators subject to pollutant emission control must not generate industrial noise without obtaining a pollutant emission permit and must implement noise pollution prevention measures in accordance with the requirements of the permit. In addition, a provision was added to prohibit the establishment of new industrial companies that generate noise in areas with high concentrations of noise-sensitive buildings.

Penalty provision

If industrial noise is generated without obtaining a pollutant emission permit or in excess of the noise emission standard, the ecological and environmental control department will order a correction, production restriction, or production suspension, and a penalty of not less than 20,000 yuan (approximately 360,000 yen) and not more than 200,000 yen (approximately 3.6 million yen) will be applied.

The original text of this revision can be viewed at the following URL (in Simplified Chinese).
http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/202112/528c29567316465894e6bf6040c33a8c.shtml