The authors concluded that ‘there is overwhelming evidence that exposure to environmental noise has adverse effects on the health of the population’ and ranked traffic noise second among environmental threats to public health (the first being air pollution). They found that at least one million healthy years of life are lost each year in Europe alone due to noise pollution (and this figure does not include noise from industrial workplaces). Exposure to prolonged or excessive noise has been shown to cause a range of health problems The WHO team used the information to calculate the disability-adjusted life-years or DALYs-basically the healthy years of life―lost to ‘unwanted’ human-induced dissonance. The studies analysed environmental noise from planes, trains and vehicles, as well as other city sources, and then looked at links to health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, sleep disturbance, tinnitus, cognitive impairment in children, and annoyance. This study collated data from various large-scale epidemiological studies of environmental noise in Western Europe, collected over a 10-year period. In 2011 the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report titled ‘ Burden of disease from environmental noise’.

It won’t kill us … right? Well, maybe.Įxposure to prolonged or excessive noise has been shown to cause a range of health problems ranging from stress, poor concentration, productivity losses in the workplace, and communication difficulties and fatigue from lack of sleep, to more serious issues such as cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, tinnitus and hearing loss. It might be tempting to think that noise isn’t a serious health issue, after all, it’s just noise.

Noise Pollution Powerpoint