Noise Pollution

Noise pollution is unwanted human-created sound that disrupts the environment. The dominant form of noise pollution is from transportation sources, principally motor vehicles, referred to as environmental noise. The word noise comes from the Latin word nausea meaning seasickness. The overarching cause of most noise worldwide is generated by transportation systems, principally motor vehicle noise, but also including aircraft noise and rail noise.

And here: Noise health effects, the collection of health consequences of elevated sound levels, constitute one of the most widespread public health threats in industrialized countries. Current conditions expose tens of millions of people to sound levels capable of causing hearing loss[1], but also are known to induce tinnitus, hypertension, vasoconstriction and other cardiovascular impacts.

The World Health Organization writes here on the Health impact of Noise pollution:

The recognition of the noise as a serious health hazard as opposed to a nuisance is a recent development and the health effects of the hazardous noise exposure are now considered to be an increasingly important public health problem.

• Globally, some 120 million people are estimated to have disabling hearing difficulties. (ref. Guidelines p.X)

• More than half citizens of Europe live in noisy surroundings; a third experience levels of noise at night that disturb sleep. (ref. Guidelines p.XII)

• In the USA in 1990 about 30 million people were daily exposed to a daily occupational noise level above 85 dB, compared with more than nine million people in 1981; these people mostly in the production and manufacturing industries. (ref Noise Sources p.85)

• In Germany and other developed countries as many as 4 to 5 million, that is 12-15% of all employed people, are exposed to noise levels of 85 dB or more. In Germany, an acquired noise-related hearing impairment that results in 20% or more reduction in earning ability is compensatable; in 1993, nearly 12 500 new such cases were registered. (ref Noise Sources p.85 and p. 86)

• Prolonged or excessive exposure to noise, whether in the community or at work, can cause permanent medical conditions, such as hypertension and ischaemic heart disease. (ref. Guidelines p.XII)

• Noise can adversely affect performance, for example in reading, attentiveness, problem solving and memory. Deficits in performance can lead to accidents. (ref. Guidelines p.XII)

• Noise above 80 dB may increase aggressive behavior. (ref. Guidelines p.XIII)

• A link between community noise and mental health problems is suggested by the demand for tranquillizers and sleeping pills, the incidence of psychiatric symptoms and the number of admissions to mental hospitals. (ref. Guidelines p.XII)

Noise can cause hearing impairment, interfere with communication, disturb sleep, cause cardiovascular and psycho-physiological effects, reduce performance, and provoke annoyance responses and changes in social behavior. The main social consequence of hearing impairment is the inability to understand speech in normal conditions, which is considered a severe social handicap.