by CLARE O’DEA
Children express themselves at Basel’s carnival PHOTO/Keystone
The sound of children at play may be heart-warming for some but in Switzerland, where one in six residents suffers from harmful noise levels, children’s noise is a regular cause for complaint. The issue is beginning to make political waves.
Last year, Germany changed the law to protect children’s noise and put an end to a wave of legal complaints against playgrounds and day care centres. Swiss campaigners are now calling for a similar reform in Switzerland.
The organisation that has brought the issue to broader attention is the Zurich umbrella group of youth and children’s professionals Okaj. Following a conference last November it issued a call for the legal protection of children’s noise.
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