Shanxi province in North China will assign functional areas of urban sound environment to further control noise pollution, Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The provincial government plans to complete the program by the end of 2014 with five sound environment zones that have different noise limits.

Statistics from the Shanxi Environmental Protection Department show noise has become the third major pollution type after air and water pollution, with about 40 percent of environmental protection complaints were related to noise. Serious noise pollution can cause harm to people's nervous systems and assigning sound environment zones is expected to help control noise pollution and improve residents' daily life and health.