Auditory and non-auditory effects of noise on health

Characteristics of the physical environment that influence child development are discussed. Topics include behavioral toxicology, noise, crowding, housing and neighborhood quality, natural settings, schools, and day care settings. Socioemotional, cognitive, motivation, and psychophysiological outcomes in children and youths are reviewed. Necessary methodological and conceptual advances are introduced as well.

Child Development and the Physical Environment

Exposure to green space has been associated with better physical and mental health. Although this exposure could also influence cognitive development in children, available epidemiological evidence on such an impact is scarce. This study aimed to assess the association between exposure to green space and measures of cognitive development in primary schoolchildren. This study was based on 2,593 schoolchildren in the second to fourth grades (7–10 y) of 36 primary schools in Barcelona, Spain (2012–2013). Cognitive development was assessed as 12-mo change in developmental trajectory of working memory, superior working memory, and inattentiveness by using four repeated (every 3 mo) computerized cognitive tests for each outcome. We assessed exposure to green space by characterizing outdoor surrounding greenness at home and school and during commuting by using high-resolution (5 m × 5 m) satellite data on greenness (normalized difference vegetation index). Multilevel modeling was used to estimate the associations between green spaces and cognitive development. We observed an enhanced 12-mo progress in working memory and superior working memory and a greater 12-mo reduction in inattentiveness associated with greenness within and surrounding school boundaries and with total surrounding greenness index (including greenness surrounding home, commuting route, and school). Adding a traffic-related air pollutant (elemental carbon) to models explained 20–65% of our estimated associations between school greenness and 12-mo cognitive development. Our study showed a beneficial association between exposure to green space and cognitive development among schoolchildren that was partly mediated by reduction in exposure to air pollution.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/112/26/7937.full.pdf

Green spaces and cognitive development in primary schoolchildren

The dramatic increase in human activities all over the world has caused, on an evolutionary time scale, a sudden rise in especially low-pitched noise levels. Ambient noise may be detrimental to birds through direct stress, masking of predator arrival or associated alarm calls, and by interference of acoustic signals in general. Two of the most important functions of avian acoustic signals are territory defence and mate attraction. Both of these functions are hampered when signal efficiency is reduced through rising noise levels, resulting in direct negative fitness consequences. Many bird species are less abundant near highways and studies are becoming available on reduced reproductive success in noisy territories. Urbanization typically leads to homogenization of bird communities over large geographical ranges. We review current evidence for whether and how anthropogenic noise plays a role in these patterns of decline in diversity and density. We also provide details of a case study on great tits (Parus major), a successful urban species. Great tits show features that other species may lack and make them unsuitable for city life. We hypothesize that behavioural plasticity in singing behaviour may allow species more time to adapt to human-altered environments and we address the potential for microevolutionary changes and urban speciation in European blackbirds (Turdus merula). We conclude by providing an overview of mitigating measures available to abate noise levels that are degrading bird breeding areas. Bird conservationists probably gain most by realizing that birds and humans often benefit from the same or only slightly modified measures.

https://www.rosemonteis.us/files/references/045644.pdf

Birdsong and anthropogenic noise: implications and applications for conservation.

The literature on neighborhood effects frequently is evaluated or interpreted in relation to the question, “Do neighborhoods matter?” We argue that this question has had a disproportionate influence on the field and does not align with the complexity of theoretical models of neighborhood effects or empirical findings that have arisen from the literature. In this article, we focus on empirical work that considers how different dimensions of individuals' residential contexts become salient in their lives, how contexts influence individuals' lives over different timeframes, how individuals are affected by social processes operating at different scales, and how residential contexts influence the lives of individuals in heterogeneous ways. In other words, we review research that examines where, when, why, and for whom do residential contexts matter. Using the large literature on neighborhoods and educational and cognitive outcomes as an example, the research we review suggests that any attempt to reduce the li...

Where, When, Why, and For Whom Do Residential Contexts Matter? Moving Away from the Dichotomous Understanding of Neighborhood Effects

https://teamsofangels.org/publication/medical_journal_articles/Noise.pdf

Aircraft and road traffic noise and children's cognition and health: a cross-national study

Background: Conclusions that can be drawn from earlier studies on noise and children’s blood pressure are limited due to inconsistent results, methodological problems, and the focus on school noise exposure. Objectives: To investigate the effects of aircraft and road traffic noise exposure on children’s blood pressure and heart rate. Methods: Participants were 1283 children (age 9–11 years) attending 62 primary schools around two European airports. Data were pooled and analysed using multilevel modelling. Adjustments were made for a range of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors. Results: After pooling the data, aircraft noise exposure at school was related to a statistically non-significant increase in blood pressure and heart rate. Aircraft noise exposure at home was related to a statistically significant increase in blood pressure. Aircraft noise exposure during the night at home was positively and significantly associated with blood pressure. The findings differed between the Dutch and British samples. Negative associations were found between road traffic noise exposure and blood pressure, which cannot be explained. Conclusion: On the basis of this study and previous scientific literature, no unequivocal conclusions can be drawn about the relationship between community noise and children’s blood pressure.

/pdf/noise-exposure-and-children-s-blood-pressure-and-heart-rate-1j285644u6.pdf

Noise exposure and children's blood pressure and heart rate : the RANCH project

Aircraft and road traffic noise exposure and children's mental health

Background: Few quantitative health impact assessments (HIAs) of transport policies have been published so far and there is a lack of a common methodology for such assessments. Objective: To evaluate the usability of existing HIA methodology to quantify health effects of transport policies at the local level. Methods: Health impact of two simulated but realistic transport interventions — speed limit reduction and traffic re-allocation — was quantified by selecting traffic-related exposures and health endpoints, modelling of population exposure, selecting exposure-effect relations and estimating the number of local traffic-related cases and disease burden, expressed in disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), before and after the intervention. Results: Exposure information was difficult to retrieve because of the local scale of the interventions, and exposure-effect relations for subgroups and combined effects were missing. Given uncertainty in the outcomes originating from this kind of missing information, simulated changes in population health by two local traffic interventions were estimated to be small ( Conclusions: Quantitative HIA of transport policies at a local scale is possible, provided that data on exposures, the exposed population and their baseline health status are available. The interpretation of the HIA information should be carried out in the context of the quality of input data and assumptions and uncertainties of the analysis.

https://oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/66/10/691.full.pdf

Quantitative health impact assessment of transport policies: two simulations related to speed limit reduction and traffic re-allocation in the Netherlands

People who consider themselves sensitive to noise, experience more noise annoyance, sleep disturbance and reduced daytime performance. Besides psychological factors, an association with cardiovascular reactions during noise has been established in noise sensitives. Decreased efficiency of the parasympathetic nervous system in the regulation of heart rate has been hypothesized. In this study the effect of background noise (65 dB(A)) on cortical arousal levels and heart rate variability was studied in a group of high and low Noise Sensitivity (NS). Subjects (N=30) were selected based on their score on the NSS. EEG and ECG were recorded during task performance with and without background noise. The results showed a non-significant trend: high NS subjects seemed to have slightly higher baseline arousal levels. When controlling for baseline arousal levels high NS subjects showed more high arousal activity during noise condition than during silence. This was not the case for low NS subjects, who remained at intermediate levels during both conditions. Mean heartbeat variation was significantly higher within the high NS group compared to the low NS group. Even moderate background noise levels resulted in different physiological responses between groups. When exploring the association between NS and personality traits, neuroticism appeared to be a predictor for NS. High correlations were found with introversion and overall sensitivity to (non-acoustical) stimuli. This led us to conclude that NS might not be a single construct, but part of a more generic sensitivity to environmental stimuli as has been suggested previously.

I van Kamp

Papers

Aircraft and road traffic noise and children's cognition and health: a cross-national study

Noise exposure and children's blood pressure and heart rate : the RANCH project

Aircraft and road traffic noise exposure and children's mental health

Quantitative health impact assessment of transport policies: two simulations related to speed limit reduction and traffic re-allocation in the Netherlands

Noise sensitivity in relation to baseline arousal, physiological response and psychological features to noise exposure during task performance