  In low background and low threshold particle astrophysics experiments using
observation of Cherenkov or scintillation light it is common to use pairs or
arrays of photomultipliers operated in coincidence. In such circumstances, for
instance in dark matter and neutrino experiments, unexpected PMT noise events
have been observed, probably arising from generation of light from one PMT
being detected by one or more other PMTs. We describe here experimental
investigation of such coincident noise events and development of new techniques
to remove them using novel pulse shape discrimination procedures. When applied
to data from a low background NaI detector with facing PMTs the new procedures
are found to improve noise rejection by a factor of 20 over conventional
techniques, with significantly reduced loss of signal events.
