Annoyance and disturbance refer to distinct degrees of noise harm

Evidence

Noise is harmful or disturbing sound. This definition embodies two aspects: harmfulness and disturbance. Harmfulness is the more objective of the two: noise can be harmful even if it is perceived as comfortable and non-disturbing. The effects of harmful noise, for example hearing loss, can be measured using audiometric methods. The disturbance caused by sound and especially annoyance are more subjective concepts and can be measured, for example, in terms of a decrease in work efficiency or the ability to concentrate. As already discussed in Section 17.10, disturbance can be defined by how much a sound disturbs some action, while annoyance is a more subjective concept, which can be estimated based on individual experience. Subjective handicaps may have further indirect consequences, such as mental and physical illnesses. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2678

We use the term annoyance as a general concept of noise quality, but, also to describe how noise may upset an operation or activity. The term disturbance is connected to negative feelings where the functioning of the subject is not necessarily disrupted, the capacity of the subject to perform any task is merely hampered. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2488

Categorization

• DEFINE: Formal definition distinguishing objective harmfulness from subjective disturbance/annoyance, with measurement methods for each.
• XREF: The harm-vs-annoyance split parallels the objective/subjective distinction threaded through earlier soundscape reading.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2678; Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2488