Auditory and non-auditory effects of noise on health

An Ecological View of Schools and Their Impact on Development During Adolescence
Level 1: Classrooms
Level 1: Summary
Level 2: School Buildings
Summary of School-Level Effects
Level 3: School Districts and Secondary School Transitions
Level 4: Schools as Embedded Organizations in the Larger Community
Secondary School Reform Efforts
Summary and Conclusions


Keywords:

schools;
teachers;
achievement;
motivation;
social contexts

Schools, Academic Motivation, and Stage-Environment Fit

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.

/pdf/auditory-and-non-auditory-eff-ects-of-noise-on-health-1ozea6l4sq.pdf

Auditory and non-auditory eff ects of noise on health

The health impacts of environmental noise are a growing concern. At least one million healthy life years are lost every year from traffic-related noise in the western part of Europe. This publication summarises the evidence on the relationship between environmental noise and health effects, including cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, sleep disturbance, tinnitus, and annoyance. For each one, the environmental burden of disease methodology, based on exposure-response relationship, exposure distribution, background prevalence of disease and disability weights of the outcome, is applied to calculate the burden of disease in terms of disability-adjusted life-years. Data are still lacking for the rest of the WHO European Region. This publication provides policy-makers and their advisers with technical support in their quantitative risk assessment of environmental noise. International, national and local authorities can use the procedure for estimating burdens presented here to prioritize and plan environmental and public health policies.

Burden of Disease from Environmental Noise: Quantification of Healthy Life Years Lost in Europe

With the surging of smartphone sensing, wireless networking, and mobile social networking techniques, Mobile Crowd Sensing and Computing (MCSC) has become a promising paradigm for cross-space and large-scale sensing. MCSC extends the vision of participatory sensing by leveraging both participatory sensory data from mobile devices (offline) and user-contributed data from mobile social networking services (online). Further, it explores the complementary roles and presents the fusion/collaboration of machine and human intelligence in the crowd sensing and computing processes. This article characterizes the unique features and novel application areas of MCSC and proposes a reference framework for building human-in-the-loop MCSC systems. We further clarify the complementary nature of human and machine intelligence and envision the potential of deep-fused human--machine systems. We conclude by discussing the limitations, open issues, and research opportunities of MCSC.

Mobile Crowd Sensing and Computing: The Review of an Emerging Human-Powered Sensing Paradigm

Noise is a prominent feature of the environment including noise from transport, industry and neighbours. Exposure to transport noise disturbs sleep in the laboratory, but not generally in field studies where adaptation occurs. Noise interferes in complex task performance, modifies social behaviour and causes annoyance. Studies of occupational and environmental noise exposure suggest an association with hypertension, whereas community studies show only weak relationships between noise and cardiovascular disease. Aircraft and road traffic noise exposure are associated with psychological symptoms but not with clinically defined psychiatric disorder. In both industrial studies and community studies, noise exposure is related to raised catecholamine secretion. In children, chronic aircraft noise exposure impairs reading comprehension and long-term memory and may be associated with raised blood pressure. Further research is needed examining coping strategies and the possible health consequences of adaptation to noise.

/pdf/noise-pollution-non-auditory-effects-on-health-5fmte691k3.pdf

Noise pollution: non-auditory effects on health

Transport noise is an increasingly prominent feature of the urban environment, making noise pollution an important environmental public health issue. This paper reports on the 2001-2003 RANCH project, the first cross-national epidemiologic study known to examine exposure-effect relations between aircraft and road traffic noise exposure and reading comprehension. Participants were 2,010 children aged 9-10 years from 89 schools around Amsterdam Schiphol, Madrid Barajas, and London Heathrow airports. Data from The Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom were pooled and analyzed using multilevel modeling. Aircraft noise exposure at school was linearly associated with impaired reading comprehension; the association was maintained after adjustment for socioeconomic variables (beta = -0.008, p = 0.012), aircraft noise annoyance, and other cognitive abilities (episodic memory, working memory, and sustained attention). Aircraft noise exposure at home was highly correlated with aircraft noise exposure at school and demonstrated a similar linear association with impaired reading comprehension. Road traffic noise exposure at school was not associated with reading comprehension in either the absence or the presence of aircraft noise (beta = 0.003, p = 0.509; beta = 0.002, p = 0.540, respectively). Findings were consistent across the three countries, which varied with respect to a range of socioeconomic and environmental variables, thus offering robust evidence of a direct exposure-effect relation between aircraft noise and reading comprehension.

/pdf/exposure-effect-relations-between-aircraft-and-road-traffic-52ohxq8l1q.pdf

Exposure-effect relations between aircraft and road traffic noise exposure at school and reading comprehension: the RANCH project.

Previous studies have found that chronic exposure to aircraft noise has a negative effect on children's performance on tests of episodic memory. The present study extended the design of earlier studies in three ways: firstly, by examining the effects of two noise sources, aircraft and road traffic, secondly, by examining exposure-effect relationships, and thirdly, by carrying out parallel field studies in three European countries, allowing cross-country comparisons to be made. A total of 2844 children aged between 8 years 10 months and 12 years 10 months (mean age 10 years 6 months) completed classroom-based tests of cued recall, recognition memory and prospective memory. Questionnaires were also completed by the children and their parents in order to provide information about socioeconomic context. Multilevel modeling analysis revealed aircraft noise to be associated with an impairment of recognition memory in a linear exposure-effect relationship. The analysis also found road traffic noise to be associated with improved performance on cued recall in a linear exposure-effect relationship. No significant association was found between exposure to aircraft noise and cued recall or prospective memory. Likewise, no significant association was found between road traffic noise and recognition or prospective memory. Taken together, these findings indicate that exposure to aircraft noise and road traffic noise can impact on certain aspects of children's episodic memory.

The effects of road traffic and aircraft noise exposure on children's episodic memory: The RANCH Project

This article provides a review of three of the most important field studies to have examined the non-auditory effects of chronic aircraft noise exposure on children's cognition and health. The design of each of the studies is outlined, relevant methodological issues are highlighted and the findings from the studies are reported. Effects are reported on annoyance and quality of life, motivation and helplessness, stress responses as indexed by neuroendocrine tests and blood pressure measurements. In terms of cognitive performance, effects are reported on reading, attention and long-term and working memory.

http://doutoramento.schiu.com/referencias/outras/Matheson,%20M.%20P.;%20Stansfeld,%20S.%20A.;%20Haines,%20M%20M.pdf

The effects of chronic aircraft noise exposure on children's cognition and health: 3 field studies.

Transport noise is an increasingly prominent feature of the urban environment, making noise pollution an important environmental public health issue. This paper reports on the RANCH study, the first cross-national epidemiological study to examine exposure-effect relationships between aircraft and road traffic noise exposure and reading comprehension. 2,010, 9-10 year old children from 89 schools around Amsterdam Schiphol, Madrid Barajas and London Heathrow airports participated. The data from the three countries was pooled and analysed using multilevel modelling. Aircraft noise exposure at school was linearly associated with impaired reading comprehension, maintained after adjustment for socioeconomic variables (ß=-0.008, p=0.012), aircraft noise annoyance and other cognitive abilities (episodic memory, working memory and sustained attention). Aircraft noise exposure at home was highly correlated with aircraft noise exposure at school and demonstrated a similar linear association with impaired reading comprehension. Road traffic noise exposure at school was not associated with reading comprehension, either in the absence or presence of aircraft noise (ß=0.003, p=0.509 ß =0.002, p=0.540, respectively. The findings were consistent across the three countries, which varied with respect to a range of socioeconomic and environmental variables, thus offering robust evidence of a direct exposure-effect relationship between aircraft noise and reading comprehension.

Mark Matheson

Papers

Noise pollution: non-auditory effects on health

Exposure-effect relations between aircraft and road traffic noise exposure at school and reading comprehension: the RANCH project.

The effects of road traffic and aircraft noise exposure on children's episodic memory: The RANCH Project

The effects of chronic aircraft noise exposure on children's cognition and health: 3 field studies.

Exposure-effect relationships between aircraft noise and road traffic noise exposure at school and reading comprehension: the RANCH Study