Auditory and non-auditory effects of noise on health

Exploring pathways linking greenspace to health: Theoretical and methodological guidance.

Noise is pervasive in everyday life and can cause both auditory and non-auditory health eff ects. Noise-induced hearing loss remains highly prevalent in occupational settings, and is increasingly caused by social noise exposure (eg, through personal music players). Our understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in noise-induced haircell and nerve damage has substantially increased, and preventive and therapeutic drugs will probably become available within 10 years. Evidence of the non-auditory eff ects of environmental noise exposure on public health is growing. Observational and experimental studies have shown that noise exposure leads to annoyance, disturbs sleep and causes daytime sleepiness, aff ects patient outcomes and staff performance in hospitals, increases the occurrence of hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and impairs cognitive performance in schoolchildren. In this Review, we stress the importance of adequate noise prevention and mitigation strategies for public health.

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Auditory and non-auditory eff ects of noise on health

The role of noise as an environmental pollutant and its impact on health are being increasingly recognized. Beyond its effects on the auditory system, noise causes annoyance and disturbs sleep, and it impairs cognitive performance. Furthermore, evidence from epidemiologic studies demonstrates that environmental noise is associated with an increased incidence of arterial hypertension, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Both observational and experimental studies indicate that in particular night-time noise can cause disruptions of sleep structure, vegetative arousals (e.g. increases of blood pressure and heart rate) and increases in stress hormone levels and oxidative stress, which in turn may result in endothelial dysfunction and arterial hypertension. This review focuses on the cardiovascular consequences of environmental noise exposure and stresses the importance of noise mitigation strategies for public health.

https://www.klein-winternheim.de/lokale-agenda/d43d5e550c96630fc05d6c66ec88f0f4_Elsner-eurheartj.ehu030.full.pdf

Cardiovascular effects of environmental noise exposure

Background Air pollution is a suspected developmental neurotoxicant. Many schools are located in close proximity to busy roads, and traffic air pollution peaks when children are at school. We aimed to assess whether exposure of children in primary school to traffic-related air pollutants is associated with impaired cognitive development.

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Association between Traffic-Related Air Pollution in Schools and Cognitive Development in Primary School Children: A Prospective Cohort Study

This article reports the two extensive aircraft noise annoyance surveys subsequently carried out among residents in the vicinity of Zurich Airport in 2001 and 2003 in order to update and validate existing exposure-effect relationships for aircraft noise and annoyance in Switzerland. Logistic and polynomial approximations of the exposure-annoyance relationships for both the years 2001 and 2003 are presented for the Ldn, Lden, and LA,eq24 noise metrics. The results confirm other recently published international research and provide further evidence that community annoyance due to aircraft noise has increased over the past decades. Between the two survey years, a considerable amount of early morning and late evening flight operations have been relocated to use an other runway than before; thus both the effects of a recent step decrease and recent step increase on the exposure-annoyance relationship could be investigated. Residents that experienced a step increase elicited a quite pronounced over-reaction of annoyance which correlated with the magnitude of the change. Two logistic regression models are provided to forecast the effects of changes in exposure during shoulder hours in the early morning and the late evening.

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Annoyance responses to stable and changing aircraft noise exposure

Some of the activations that occur during sleep, e.g. awakening reactions, can be considered adverse effects of noise events (e.g., airplane overflights or train passings) during the night. The occurrence of such reactions is an important indicator of the sleep disturbing potential of the particular noise stimulus and it is often desired to exactly quantify that potential in terms of a probability. Awakenings are considered the strongest form of reaction to noise stimuli during sleep and are one of the most often adopted criteria in night time noise protection concepts. However, the correct determination of noise induced awakening probability has given rise to debate in the scientific community in recent years. Because during every night’s sleep, spontaneous awakenings can occur at any time, it remains unknown in principle, whether a particular awakening observed during the presence of a noise stimulus was induced by that stimulus or emerged spontaneously. Nevertheless, correctly determining the awakening probability in question is key when it comes to forecasting noise effects during the night. This article introduces two definitions of reaction probability, discusses their advantages and disadvantages, and develops a model of the influence of the time window duration in which reactions of sleepers are screened on the calculated reaction probability.

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Determining physiological reaction probabilities to noise events during sleep

Lärmstudie 2000: Zusammenfassung

Bericht zum Workshop: Bestimmung lärminduzierter Aufwachwahrscheinlichkeiten in der Nachtlärmwirkungsforschung und Anwendung entsprechender Wirkungsmodelle für Prognosezwecke

Mark Brink

Papers

Auditory and non-auditory eff ects of noise on health

Annoyance responses to stable and changing aircraft noise exposure

Determining physiological reaction probabilities to noise events during sleep

Lärmstudie 2000: Zusammenfassung

Bericht zum Workshop: Bestimmung lärminduzierter Aufwachwahrscheinlichkeiten in der Nachtlärmwirkungsforschung und Anwendung entsprechender Wirkungsmodelle für Prognosezwecke