This study investigates the association between night time road traffic noise exposure (Lnight) and self-reported sleep problems. Logistic regression was performed in a large population based cohort study (GLOBE), including over 18 000 subjects, to study the association between exposure at the dwelling facade and sleep problems. Measures of sleep problems were collected by questionnaire with two questions: “Do you in general get up tired and not well rested in the morning?” and “Do you often use sleep medication or tranquilizers?” After adjustment for potential confounders, a significant association was found between noise exposure and the risk of getting up tired and not rested in the morning. Although prevalence of medication use was higher at higher noise levels compared to the reference category (Lnight<35 dB), after adjustment for covariates this association was not significant. Long-term road traffic noise exposure is associated with increased risk of getting up tired and not rested in the morning i...

Long-term road traffic noise exposure is associated with an increase in morning tiredness.

This study assessed the ability of Neem oil to disinfect an Escherichia coli isolate in pure laboratory-grade water and total and fecal coliform bacteria in two unfiltered surface waters. Neem oil doses as low as 2.13 g·L−1 with 5 min of mixing time achieved high levels of inactivation of the E. coli in pure laboratory-grade water (>99% inactivation). However, the disinfection of total and fecal coliforms in the unfiltered surface waters was variable and limited to <70% inactivation typically. Increasing the Neem oil dose and mixing time generally resulted in an increase in the mean inactivation of total coliform bacteria but not always of fecal coliform bacteria. The inactivation of total coliforms was consistently greater than the inactivation of fecal coliforms, suggesting a potential range of sensitivities to Neem oil among coliform bacteria. Reduced effectiveness of the Neem oil in the unfiltered surface waters compared to the pure laboratory-grade water suggests a possible interference by n...

http://calmtheskies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/NoiseFromTransportArticle.pdf

Disinfection of waterborne coliform bacteria by neem oil.

Noise from transport is an increasingly prominent feature of the urban environment. Whilst the auditory effects of noise on humans are established, non-auditory effects - the effects of noise exposure on human health, well-being and cognitive development - are less well established. This narrative review evaluates recent studies of aircraft and road traffic noise that have advanced or synthesized knowledge about several aspects of adult and child health and cognition. Studies have demonstrated a moderate effect of transport noise on hypertension, cardiovascular disease and catecholamine secretion: there is also evidence for an effect on psychological symptoms but not for the onset of more serious clinically defined psychiatric disorder. One way noise may affect health is through annoyance: noise causes annoyance responses in both children and adults and annoyance may cause stress-responses and subsequent illness. Another possible mechanism is sleep disturbance: transport noise has been found to disturb sleep in laboratory and field studies, although there is evidence for adaptation to noise exposure. For children effects of aircraft and road traffic noise have been observed for impaired reading comprehension and memory skills: there is equivocal evidence for an association with blood pressure. To date most health effects have been very little researched and studies have yet to examine in detail how noise exposure interacts with other environmental stressors. In conclusion, noise is a main cause of environmental annoyance and it negatively affects the quality of life of a large proportion of the population. In addition, health and cognitive effects, although modest, may be of importance given the number of people increasingly exposed to environmental noise and the chronic nature of exposure.

/pdf/the-effect-of-transportation-noise-on-health-and-cognitive-47jwpfr1fj.pdf

The Effect of Transportation Noise on Health and Cognitive Development:A Review of Recent Evidence - eScholarship

Objectives Studies on the health effects of aircraft and road traffic noise exposure suggest excess risks of hypertension, cardiovascular disease and the use of sedatives and hypnotics. Our aim was to assess the use of medication in relation to noise from aircraft and road traffic. Methods This cross-sectional study measured the use of prescribed antihypertensives, antacids, anxiolytics, hypnotics, antidepressants and antasthmatics in 4,861 persons living near seven airports in six European countries (UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, and Greece). Exposure was assessed using models with 1dB resolution (5dB for UK road traffic noise) and spatial resolution of 250×250m for aircraft and 10×10m for road traffic noise. Data were analysed using multilevel logistic regression, adjusting for potential confounders. Results We found marked differences between countries in the effect of aircraft noise on antihypertensive use; for night-time aircraft noise, a 10dB increase in exposure was associated with ORs of 1.34 (95% CI 1.14 to1.57) for the UK and 1.19 (1.02 to 1.38) for the Netherlands but no significant associations were found for other countries. For day-time aircraft noise, excess risks were found for the UK (OR 1.35; CI: 1.13 to 1.60) but a risk deficit for Italy (OR 0.82; CI: 0.71 to 0.96). There was an excess risk of taking anxiolytic medication in relation to aircraft noise (OR 1.28; CI: 1.04 to 1.57 for daytime and OR 1.27; CI: 1.01 to 1.59 for night-time) which held across countries. We also found an association between exposure to 24hr road traffic noise and the use of antacids by men (OR 1.39; CI 1.11 to 1.74). Conclusion Our results suggest an effect of aircraft noise on the use of antihypertensive medication, but this effect did not hold for all countries. Results were more consistent across countries for the increased use of anxiolytics in relation to aircraft noise.

https://oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/68/7/518.full.pdf?with-ds=yes

Medication use in relation to noise from aircraft and road traffic in six European countries: results of the HYENA study.

Nocturnal aircraft noise disturbs sleep and impairs recuperation. We investigated in laboratory and field studies whether noise-induced sleep fragmentation is associated with performance impairments in a psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) and a memory search task. In the laboratory, 112 participants were exposed to aircraft noise during 9 consecutive nights. In the field, 64 participants were examined during 9 consecutive nights in the vicinity of Cologne/Bonn airport. Reaction time, signal detection performance and subjective task load were recorded. Dose–response relationships showed significant, linear impairments in reaction times. In the laboratory, reaction time in PVT increased with 0.13 ms/dB equivalent noise level (LAeq) plus 0.02 ms/noise event. In the field study, reaction time increased with 0.3 ms/dB LAeq. Participants worked significantly less accurate after nocturnal noise exposure. Influences of LAeq and number of noise events on daytime performance were small but consistent and significant, stressing the potential public health impact of nocturnal noise exposure.

Effects of nocturnal aircraft noise on cognitive performance in the following morning: dose-response relationships in laboratory and field.

Aircraft noise-induced sleep disturbance (AN-ISD) is potentially among the more serious effects of aircraft noise on people. This literature review of recent field studies of AN-ISD finds that reliable generalization of findings to population-level effects is complicated by individual differences among subjects, methodological and analytic differences among studies, and predictive relationships that account for only a small fraction of the variance in the relationship between noise exposure and sleep disturbance. It is nonetheless apparent in the studied circumstances of residential exposure that sleep disturbance effects of nighttime aircraft noise intrusions are not dramatic on a per-event basis, and that linkages between outdoor aircraft noise exposure and sleep disturbance are tenuous. It is also apparent that AN-ISD occurs more often during later than earlier parts of the night; that indoor sound levels are more closely associated with sleep disturbance than outdoor measures; and that spontaneous awakenings, or awakenings attributable to nonaircraft indoor noises, occur more often than awakenings attributed to aircraft noise. Predictions of sleep disturbance due to aircraft noise should not be based on over-simplifications of the findings of the reviewed studies, and these reports should be treated with caution in developing regulatory policy for aircraft noise.

Review of field studies of aircraft noise-induced sleep disturbance

Aircraft noise-induced sleep disturbance (AN-ISD) is potentially among the more serious effects of aircraft noise on people. This literature review of recent field studies of AN-ISD finds that reliable generalization of findings to population-level effects is complicated by individual differences among subjects, methodological and analytic differences among studies, and predictive relationships that account for only a small fraction of the variance in the relationship between noise exposure and sleep disturbance. It is nonetheless apparent in the studied circumstances of residential exposure that sleep disturbance effects of nighttime aircraft noise intrusions are not dramatic on a per-event basis, and that linkages between outdoor aircraft noise exposure and sleep disturbance are tenuous. It is also apparent that AN-ISD occurs more often during later than earlier parts of the night; that indoor sound levels are more closely associated with sleep disturbance than outdoor measures; and that spontaneous awa...

The involuntary detection of acoustic change following presentation of rarely presented deviant auditory stimulus will elicit an event-related potential (ERP), the deviant-related negativity (DRN). If the deviant stimulus is potentially highly relevant, a later P3a may also be elicited. This is thought to reflect processes associated with the switching of attention away from current processing demands. Previous studies have indicated that cognitively healthy older adults are less able to switch processing priorities upon presentation of these stimuli compared to young adults. The present study examined if people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are less able to switch processing priorities than cognitively healthy older adults. Two experiments were run. In each, 20 healthy older adults and 20 people with MCI were presented with to-be-ignored auditory stimuli while engaged in a visual task. The auditory stimuli consisted of frequently-presented standards and different types of deviants. In Experiment 1, the deviants represented either decreases or increases in the intensity of the standard. In Experiment 2, six different deviants were presented. In both experiments, a DRN was elicited by all deviants. Its amplitude did not, however, significantly differ between the two groups. Only the increment, white noise, and environmental sound deviants elicited a P3a. This P3a also did not significantly differ between the two groups. These results indicate that there is no evidence that the ability to switch processing priorities differs between people with MCI and cognitively healthy older adults. 

The influence of different types of auditory change on processes associated with the switching of attention in older adults and people with mild cognitive impairment

Kenneth C. Campbell

Papers

Review of field studies of aircraft noise-induced sleep disturbance

Review of field studies of aircraft noise-induced sleep disturbance

The influence of different types of auditory change on processes associated with the switching of attention in older adults and people with mild cognitive impairment