Showing papers on "Annoyance published in 2012"
TL;DR: People living in the vicinity of wind turbines are at risk of being annoyed by the noise, an adverse effect in itself, which could lead to sleep disturbance and psychological distress.
173 citations
TL;DR: Annoyance as a reaction indicator should be evaluated with caution as non-acoustical factors play an important role in annoyance ratings, and technical interventions reducing noise levels may not have impacts on annoyance proportionate to their impacts on sound levels.
109 citations
TL;DR: The results of this research indicate that it may be important for the public's health to update existing noise-related policies or develop new ones to control and abate noise concerns in urban communities.
107 citations
TL;DR: Type of housing, length of residence, location of rooms and the use of noise reducing remedies modified the relationship between noise and hypertension, however, the effects were not always in the direction of a stronger association in higher exposed subjects.
Abstract: In the cross-sectional hypertension and exposure to noise near airports study the relationship between road traffic noise, aircraft noise and hypertension and annoyance was investigated. The data collection comprised a variety of potentially exposure modifying factors, including type of housing, location of rooms, window opening habits, use of noise-reducing remedies, shielding due to obstacles, lengths of exposure. In the present paper the quantitative role of these factors on the relationship between road and aircraft noise exposure and outcomes was analyzed. Multiple logistic and linear regression models were calculated including these co-factors and related interaction terms with noise indicators, as well as stratified analyses. Type of housing, length of residence, location of rooms and the use of noise reducing remedies modified the relationship between noise and hypertension. However, the effects were not always in the direction of a stronger association in higher exposed subjects. Regarding annoyance, type of housing, location of rooms, noise barriers, window opening habits, noise insulation, the use of noise reducing remedies, hours spent at home during daytime were significant effect modifiers. The use of noise-reducing remedies turned out to be indicators of perceived noise disturbance rather than modifiers reducing the annoyance.
90 citations
TL;DR: Nocturnal freight train noise exposure in Germany was associated with increased awakening probabilities exceeding those for aircraft noise and contrasting the findings of many annoyance surveys and annoyance ratings of the study.
81 citations
TL;DR: Investigating the relationship between noise levels from railway traffic and general annoyance is influenced by number of trains, the presence of ground borne vibrations, and building situational factors, such as orientation of balcony/patio and bedroom window implies that, for the proportion annoyed to be equal, a 5 - 7 dB lower noise level is needed.
Abstract: Internationally accepted exposure-response relationships show that railway noise causes less annoyance than road traffic and aircraft noise. Railway transport, both passenger and freight transport, is increasing, and new railway lines are planned for environmental reasons. The combination of more frequent railway traffic and faster and heavier trains will, most probably, lead to more disturbances from railway traffic in the near future. To effectively plan for mitigations against noise and vibration from railway traffic, new studies are needed to obtain a better basis of knowledge. The main objectives of the present study was to investigate how the relationship between noise levels from railway traffic and general annoyance is influenced by (i) number of trains, (ii) the presence of ground borne vibrations, and (iii) building situational factors, such as orientation of balcony/patio and bedroom window. Socio-acoustic field studies were executed in residential areas; (1) with relatively intense railway traffic; (2) with strong vibrations, and; (3) with the most intense railway traffic in the country. Data was obtained for 1695 respondents exposed to sound levels ranging from L(Aeq,24h) 45 to 65 dB. Both number of trains and presence of ground-borne vibrations, and not just the noise level per se, are of relevance for how annoying railway noise is perceived. The results imply that, for the proportion annoyed to be equal, a 5 - 7 dB lower noise level is needed in areas where the railway traffic causes strong ground-borne vibrations and in areas with a very large number of trains. General noise annoyance was twice as high among residents in dwellings with balcony / patio oriented towards the railway and about 1.5 times higher among residents with bedroom windows facing the railway.
76 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the annoyance caused by combined noises coming from road traffic and an industrial site was investigated in an area of a French town exposed to these two noise sources and the results highlight the link between the noise levels measured and the annoyance felt by the respondents.
73 citations
TL;DR: It was found that cobblestones pavements are the most annoying; also while open asphalt rubber pavement imposes less annoyance than dense asphalt it is not significantly different.
Abstract: In this paper, annoyance ratings from traffic noise recorded on cobblestones, dense asphalt, and open asphalt rubber pavements are assessed with regard to car speeds and traffic densities. It was found that cobblestones pavements are the most annoying; also while open asphalt rubber pavement imposes less annoyance than dense asphalt it is not significantly different. Higher car speeds always lead to greater annoyance, as does higher traffic densities. LAeq and LAmax correlate well with annoyance, but loudness is the best predictor. Roughness and sharpness exhibit inconsistent interactions.
68 citations
TL;DR: It is resulted that PTW are a relevant cause of specific environmental annoyance on pedestrians when low background noise levels and sparse traffic flow allow identifying the PTW.
63 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed models that describe the relationship between long-term averaged outdoor residential ammonia (NH(3)) exposures and livestock odor annoyance experienced by rural residents, and investigated person-related variables associated with annoyance responses.
53 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that the planning permission buildings whose L(dn) of road-rail combined traffic noise exceeds 63.5-dB be reviewed more strictly and the relationships between %HA induced by different traffic noise and the distance to transportation artery were analyzed.
TL;DR: The model fits all of the road traffic findings well, but the prevalence of annoyance due to rail noise is more accurately predicted separately for interviewing sites with and without high levels of vibration and/or rattle.
Abstract: Fidell et al. [(2011), J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 130(2), 791-806] have shown (1) that the rate of growth of annoyance with noise exposure reported in attitudinal surveys of the annoyance of aircraft noise closely resembles the exponential rate of change of loudness with sound level, and (2) that the proportion of a community highly annoyed and the variability in annoyance prevalence rates in communities are well accounted for by a simple model with a single free parameter: a community tolerance level (abbreviated CTL, and represented symbolically in mathematical expressions as Lct), expressed in units of DNL. The current study applies the same modeling approach to predicting the prevalence of annoyance of road traffic and rail noise. The prevalence of noise-induced annoyance of all forms of transportation noise is well accounted for by a simple, loudness-like exponential function with community-specific offsets. The model fits all of the road traffic findings well, but the prevalence of annoyance due to rail no...
TL;DR: The results suggest that atmospheric NH3 levels at local air quality stations could be used as indicators of prevalence of odor annoyance in non-urban residential communities.
Abstract: Odor exposure is an environmental stressor that is responsible of many citizens complains about air pollution in non-urban areas. However, information about the exposure-response relation is scarce. One of the main challenges is to identify a measurable compound that can be related with odor annoyance responses. We investigated the association between regional and temporal variation of ammonia (NH3) concentrations in five Danish non-urban regions and environmental odor annoyance as perceived by the local residents. A cross-sectional study where NH3 concentration was obtained from the national air quality monitoring program and from emission-dispersion modelling, and odor pollution perception from questionnaires. The exposure-response model was a sigmoid model. Linear regression analyses were used to estimate the model constants after equation transformations. The model was validated using leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV) statistical method. About 45% of the respondents were annoyed by odor pollution at their residential areas. The perceived odor was characterized by all respondents as animal waste odor. The exposure-annoyance sigmoid model showed that the prevalence of odor annoyance was significantly associated with NH3 concentrations (measured and estimated) at the local air quality monitoring stations (p < 0.01,R2 = 0.99; and p < 0.05,R2 = 0.93; respectively). Prediction errors were below 5.1% and 20% respectively. The seasonal pattern of odor perception was associated with the seasonal variation in NH3 concentrations (p < 0.001, adjusted R2 = 0.68). The results suggest that atmospheric NH3 levels at local air quality stations could be used as indicators of prevalence of odor annoyance in non-urban residential communities.
TL;DR: The results suggest that both a greenery view and a sea view can moderate annoyance responses, and several individual's personal characteristics are found to affect individuals' annoyance perception.
Abstract: Noise annoyance has caused significant adverse impacts on human beings and numerous efforts have been spent on mitigating annoyance problems. Natural greenery has been shown to be able to moderate annoyance problems at home but this conclusion was drawn without properly controlling the potential confounding factors. Furthermore, few have explored the moderation effect of a sea view. Accordingly, this study formulated a multivariate model to examine the impacts of natural views as well as personal characteristics on annoyance perception. A housing estate was selected in Hong Kong as the survey site for which some of the residents were exposed to greenery views, sea views, or both from their homes. Eight hundred and sixty-one responses were collected via questionnaire surveys and analyzed using an ordered logit model. The results suggest that both a greenery view and a sea view can moderate annoyance responses. Several individual’s personal characteristics are found to affect individuals’ annoyance perception. The duration of time spent daily at home is shown to have an influence on the moderation impact exerted by a greenery view, while the age of an individual is shown to have an influence on noise moderation effect exerted by a sea view.
TL;DR: The review of papers showed that road traffic noise is a cause for annoyance to a variety of degree among the respondents and a generalization of impacts and meta-analysis was not possible due to variability of the study designs and outputs preferred.
Abstract: This article reviews the literature on research conducted during the last two decades on traffic noise impacts in India. Road traffic noise studies in India are fewer and restricted only to the metropolitan areas. The studies over the years have also focused on the monitoring, recording, analysis, modeling, and to some extent mapping related themes. Negligible studies are observed in areas of physiological and sleep research exposure-effect context. Most impact studies have been associated with annoyance and attitudinal surveys only. Little scientific literature exists related to effects of traffic noise on human physiology in the Indian context. The findings of this review search and analysis observe that very little studies are available relating to traffic noise and health impacts. All of them are subjective response studies and only a small portion of them quantify the exposure-effect chain and model the noise index with annoyance. The review of papers showed that road traffic noise is a cause for annoyance to a variety of degree among the respondents. A generalization of impacts and meta-analysis was not possible due to variability of the study designs and outputs preferred.
TL;DR: Results indicate that vibration annoyance differs with time of day and that separate time-of- day weights can be applied when considering exposure-response relationships from railway vibration in residential environments.
Abstract: The time of day when vibration occurs is considered as a factor influencing the human response to vibration. The aim of the present paper is to identify the times of day during which railway vibration causes the greatest annoyance, to measure the differences between annoyance responses for different time periods and to obtain estimates of the time of day penalties. This was achieved using data from case studies comprised of face-to-face interviews and internal vibration measurements (N = 755). Results indicate that vibration annoyance differs with time of day and that separate time of day weights can be applied when considering exposure–response relationships from railway vibration in residential environments.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied the relationship between transportation noise and the level of annoyance attributed to a certain noise source in children and found that the relationship is well established in adults.
Abstract: Relationships between transportation noise and the level of annoyance attributed to a certain noise source are well established in adults. Little is known about the noise annoyance in children. The...
TL;DR: The results showed that annoyance might be the main characteristic of irritability in TBI patients and patients themselves might be unaware of their verbal aggression post-injury.
Abstract: Primary objectives: To evaluate irritability following traumatic brain injury.Research design: A prospective study was conducted at a level I trauma centre.Methods and procedures: One hundred and forty-four participants, which included 80 healthy subjects and 64 patients suffering from TBI, were recruited. Irritability was assessed by the National Taiwan University Irritability Scale (NTUIS) from patients themselves and their families.Main outcomes and results: the results showed 14.8% of patients and 29.4% of their families reported patients’ problems of irritability. Meanwhile, both self-reported and family-reported irritability post-injury were significantly higher than those reported by the healthy subjects. When evaluating two sub-components of irritability, respectively, both family- and self-reported post-injury annoyance were significantly higher than the pre-injury one, while the self-reported post-injury verbal aggression was not.Conclusions: TBI patients have remarkable problems of irritability...
TL;DR: Annoyance ratings increased significantly with the total number of trains and freight trains per night, and non-significantly with rising number of passenger trains and energy equivalent sound pressure level, but no other aspects of subjective sleep disturbances were examined.
Abstract: Railway noise interferes with daytime activities and disturbs sleep leading to annoyance of exposed residents. The main objective of this paper was to establish exposure-response relationships between nocturnal railway noise exposure and annoyance and to examine self-reported sleep disturbances as short-term reactions to noise. In a field study 33 residents living close to railway tracks in the Cologne/Bonn area (Germany) were investigated. Railway noise was measured indoors during nine consecutive nights at each site. Questionnaires referring to annoyance and non-acoustical factors were performed. Annoyance ratings increased significantly with the total number of trains and freight trains per night, and non-significantly with rising number of passenger trains and energy equivalent sound pressure level (L(Aeq)), when adjusting the model for non-acoustical variables. The total number of trains and the number of freight trains also significantly affected self-reported awakening frequency, but no other aspects of subjective sleep disturbances. The responses of this subject sample referring to railway noise in the previous night point to rather low impairments of exposed residents.
TL;DR: In this paper, seven models were compared in terms of the ability to predict the annoyance due to the combination of aircraft and road traffic noises on the basis of data collected around airports in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam.
TL;DR: Annoyance at least once a week due to road traffic noise was significantly more prevalent in the survey investigating environment and health compared to the public health survey at levels > 45 dB(A), but not at lower exposure levels.
Abstract: Background
Surveys are a common way to measure annoyance due to road traffic noise, but the method has some draw-backs. Survey context, question wording and answer alternatives could affect participation and answers and could have implications when comparing studies and/or performing pooled analyses. The aim of this study was to investigate the difference in annoyance reporting due to road traffic noise in two types of surveys of which one was introduced broadly and the other with the clearly stated aim of investigating noise and health.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors estimate that airport noise annoyance costs amount to about €7.5 million a year, while the noise protection fund recovers annoyance costs, the charging regime of the airport fails to fully internalize them.
Abstract: This study estimates airport noise annoyance cost around Dusseldorf, Germany by examining rental apartment market data. Using data on regional apartment offers we estimate rent discounts of 1.04% per additional decibel of airport noise. Other sources of traffic noise induce significantly lower price effects. As a result, airport noise annoyance costs amount to about €7.5 million a year. While the noise protection fund recovers annoyance costs, the charging regime of the airport fails to fully internalize them.
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between wind turbine noise annoyance, exposure indicators, operational characteristics and environmental variables was investigated, and the results suggest that operational restrictions based on wind direction together with the angular blade velocity might help to reduce noise annoyance while preserving cost-effectiveness.
Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between wind turbine noise annoyance, exposure indicators, operational characteristics and environmental variables. A six-month field experiment at an industrial site near a residential area includes regular on-line annoyance reports, continuous 1/3-octave band noise level registrations, periodic sound recordings, data on electricity production per minute and meteorological observations. Here the risk of. high annoyance does not only depend on the angular blade velocity, but also on the wind turbines' nacelle position relative to the location of the dwellings, i.e. the wind direction. This directivity effect can be captured when noise parameters such as the background noise level caused by other sources and a so-called fluctuation-indicator are introduced, the latter calculated from the 1/3-octave band spectra to quantify the periodic part of wind turbine noise. In addition, the calculated turbine's specific emission levels are closely related to the angular blade velocity, and an important parameter to predict the risk of high annoyance. Finally, these results suggest that operational restrictions based on wind direction together with the angular blade velocity might help to reduce noise annoyance while preserving cost-effectiveness.
TL;DR: In this paper, a multi-faceted study was conducted with the objective of estimating the potential fiscal savings in annoyance and sleep disturbance related health costs due to providing improved building acoustic design standards.
01 Sep 2012
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a well-documented psychophysical approach to identify the relationship between specific auditory parameters, perceived urgency and perceived annoyance, and found that increases in all parameters led to increases in both urgency and annoyance.
Abstract: Complex in-vehicle technology and safety systems are finding their way into many cars on the road today. These systems require alerts and warnings that appropriately convey multiple levels of urgency, but if these are deemed excessively annoying, then their implementation may be of little consequence. In this study we used a well-documented psychophysical approach to identify the relationship between specific auditory parameters, perceived urgency and perceived annoyance. In agreement with existing literature, increases in all parameters led to increases in both urgency and annoyance - although differentially. Of the parameters investigated, only pulse rate exhibited a stronger psychophysical relationship with urgency than annoyance. The tradeoff between urgency and annoyance is of practical concern and results from this study provide a potential guideline to determine the viability of future in vehicle alerts based on this relationship. Language: en
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare the impact of environmental odour emissions in different national jurisdictions using a variety of odour impact criteria, such as peak-to-mean factor, odour concentration threshold and its exceedance probability.
Abstract: The assessment of the impact of environmental odour emissions is based on four steps: (1) the determination of the odour flow rate of the source, (2) the dilution in the atmosphere, described by dispersion models, calculating time series of one-hour mean values, (3) short-time peak concentrations derived from one-hour mean values, to mimic odour sensation of the human nose, and (4) odour impact criteria, defined by the odour concentration threshold and its exceedance probability. The procedure of the determination of odour annoyance by the last two steps (peak-to-mean factor and odour impact criteria) is compared for various national jurisdictions showing a great variety of criteria. To reach a better comparability for separation distances, calculated by impact criteria for different countries, an alignment of the peak-to-mean factors and the odour impact criteria should be aspired. An important requirement to improve the reliability of the calculated separation distances is the use of a peak-to-mean factor, which decreases with distance from the source. The separation distances calculated for the same protection level but with different national odour impact criteria, contrary to expectation, are very different and show a stronger dependence on wind direction for higher exceedance probabilities. It must be concluded that the concept of odour impact criteria used in various jurisdictions should be harmonized. It is obvious that separation distances, calculated for an identical protection level, should be similar.
TL;DR: Parameters calculated from objective analysis of snoring sounds seem to provide information about the degree of annoyance that is objectively measurable and independent of the snorer’s bed partner.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to find out whether objective analysis of snoring sounds (sound pressure level and psychoacoustic parameters) correlates with the subjective rating by participants with respect to perceived annoyance and hence whether it is useful. 43 participants, aged 22-65 years with normal hearing, were asked to rate 60 snoring sounds from simple and obstructive snorers according to their level of annoyance. A correlation analysis according to Spearman was then performed on objectively calculated parameters. These were the A-weighted sound pressure level, the psychoacoustic parameters of loudness, sharpness, fluctuation strength and roughness and psychoacoustic annoyance (PA) calculated from those parameters. The subjective ratings showed high, highly significant correlations with, in particular, the mean A-weighted sound pressure level (r = 0.88; p < 0.01), the 5th percentile of psychoacoustic loudness (r = 0.89; p < 0.01) and psychoacoustic annoyance (r = 0.80; p < 0.01). These parameters seem to provide information about the degree of annoyance that is objectively measurable and independent of the snorer's bed partner. Further studies should follow in order to confirm these results, find out their generalizability and establish reference values.
TL;DR: There was an association between noise annoyance and noise level and any one of them could influence the workers to use the hearing protection devices.
Abstract: This cross-sectional study investigated noise annoyance, awareness and practice among the workers in two steel factories in UAE. The study involving 468 steel workers randomly selected. Noise exposure was estimated using the integrated sound level meter. A structured interview questionnaire was used to assess the noise annoyance, awareness and practice of workers towards the noise. The results showed that about 89 % of the workers exposed to a daily Leq above the permissible level which is 85 dB (A) and 45 % of them had never used any hearing protection devices. About 58% of the workers experienced a moderate or high degree of noise annoyance. Only 4.1% and 1.9 % of the workers aware about the health effects of noise and the methods of prevention respectively and awareness was positively associated with noise exposure. Few workers (13.2%) used the hearing protection devices during the working time. Thus workers within both factories are at high risk of developing noise annoyance, and other related ailments due to excessive occupational expo- sure to noise, and non-use of hearing protection devices. There was an association between noise annoyance and noise level and any one of them could influence the workers to use the hearing protection devices. There is a need to have a hearing conservation program in both factories one of its main components is education to raise the awareness of workers about noise hazards and methods of prevention. Finally, the factor noise annoyance should be incorporated into all future studies on the use of hearing protection devices.
TL;DR: To investigate the relationship curves between aircraft noise and the percentage of "highly annoyed" persons in China and also to get annoyance threshold of aircraft noise in China, a survey of community annoyance induced by aircraft noise exposure was carried out around Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport.
Abstract: A survey of community annoyance induced by aircraft noise exposure was carried out around Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport. To investigate the relationship curves between aircraft noise and the percentage of "highly annoyed" persons in China and also to get annoyance threshold of aircraft noise in China. Noise annoyance induced by aircraft noise exposure was assessed by 764 local residents around the airport using the International Commission on Biological Effect of Noise (ICBEN) scale. The status quo of aircraft noise pollution was measured by setting up 39 monitoring points. The interpolation was used to estimate the weighted effective continuous perceived noise levels (LWECPN) in different areas around the airport, and the graph of equal noise level contour was drawn. The membership function was used to calculate the annoyance threshold of aircraft noise. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0 and Origin 8.0. The results showed that if LWECPN was 64.3 dB (Ldn was 51.4 dB), then 15% respondents were highly annoyed. If LWECPN was 68.1 dB (Ldn was 55.0 dB), then 25% respondents were highly annoyed. The annoyance threshold of aircraft noise (LWECPN) was 73.7 dB, while the annoyance threshold of a single flight incident instantaneous noise level (LAmax) was 72.9 dB. People around the airport had felt annoyed before the aircraft noise LWECPN reached the standard limit.
TL;DR: In this article, a listening test was performed to investigate the influence of background sounds on perceived loudness of wind turbine noise, and the results showed that natural sounds may create pleasant soundscapes that mask turbine noise.
Abstract: Natural sounds may create pleasant soundscapes that mask wind turbine noise. To explore this, a listening test was performed to investigate the influence of background sounds on perceived loudness ...