Annoyance

About: Annoyance is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2015 publications have been published within this topic receiving 38300 citations. The topic is also known as: annoy.

Transportation noise exposure and children's health and cognition

Abstract: This thesis focuses on the effects of transportation noise on children. Children are suspected of being more susceptible to noise exposure. There is a lack of source-specific exposure-response relations describing the association between noise exposure and specific health and cognitive outcomes in children. This is because different, sometimes competing, working mechanisms of how noise affects children are suggested. Furthermore, there are shortcomings in the design and methods of studies investigating the effects of transportation noise on children such as a limited noise exposure range, and the lack of uniformity of the measurement of end points which hamper the possibilities for quantitative meta-analysis and subsequent assessment of the noise impact on children in The Netherlands. To investigate the effects of transportation noise exposure on children's annoyance reactions, perceived health, blood pressure and cognitive functioning, a meta-analysis investigating the relation between noise exposure, blood pressure and/or ischemic heart disease (ICD-9: 410-414) was conducted. Secondly, the data of a cross-sectional field study investigating the effects of aircraft and road traffic noise on cognition, annoyance, behaviour and health in children attending primary schools around three European airports, gathered for the European 5th framework project RANCH, were used. The number of children affected by aircraft noise exposure was estimated using exposure-response relations that were derived in this thesis. The results indicate that transportation noise exposure impairs children's performance mainly on the difficult tasks: noise exposure at school was related to an increase in mistakes on the Switching Attention Test. This was consistent with the results of other recent studies. This was one of the first this studies that systematically measured children's annoyance reactions due to aircraft and road traffic noise in both the home and school setting. The findings were consistent across the samples, and allowed the estimation of source-specific exposure-response relations for children. The relation between noise exposure and blood pressure was not quite consistent: In the Dutch sample blood pressure increased as aircraft noise increased; this was not the case for the British sample. There were differences in the effects of noise on blood pressure between road traffic and aircraft noise. The results of previous studies were inconsistent. As a consequence no exposure-response relation for blood pressure could be derived. No direct association between transportation noise exposure and perceived health in children was found. The findings partly support the idea that noise may act as a physiological stressor. In addition, the effects of noise exposure on children's perceived health and cognitive functioning may be a result of the appraisal of noise as a stressor. Children per se are not more impaired than adults by noise exposure. Exposure-response relations for the association between aircraft noise and annoyance among children were broadly comparable to those among their parents. It was indicatively estimated that 110-720 pupils per school year visiting primary schools around Schiphol airport have a low test result for reading comprehension due to aircraft noise exposure. An estimated 850 pupils per school year are severely annoyed at school due to aircraft noise.

Exposure-response relationships for annoyance by wind turbine noise: A comparison with other stationary sources

Abstract: There are indications that, given a certain level of noise exposure, the expected annoyance by wind turbine noise is higher than that by noise from other sources such as industrial noise or transportation noise. The aim of the present study was to establish the exposure-response relationship between wind turbine noise exposure and the expected percentage annoyed residents on the basis of available data. Data from two surveys in Sweden (N=341, N=754) and one survey in the Netherlands (N=725) were combined to achieve relationships between Lden and annoyance indoors as well as annoyance outdoors at the dwelling. In addition, the influence of several individual and situational factors was assessed. In particular, annoyance was lower in residents who received economical benefit from wind turbines, and higher in residents for whom the wind turbine was visible from the dwelling. Age and noise sensitivity had similar effects on annoyance to those found in research on annoyance by other sources. The exposure-response relationship for wind turbine noise is compared to previously established relationships for industrial noise.

Hinder, slaapverstoring, gezondheids- en belevingsaspecten in de regio Schiphol, resultaten van een vragenlijstonderzoek

Abstract: As part of the Evaluation and Monitoring Programme for Schiphol airport, a questionnaire on the prevalence of self-rated annoyance, sleep disturbance, perceived general health, respiratory complaints, use of medication, and the perception of risks and the quality of life in the study area was sent to a randomly selected sample of 30,000 people living within 25 kilometers around Schiphol airport. The purpose of this study was to assess these factors in relation to the exposure to aircraft noise and air pollution. Exposure to aircraft noise was based on model calculations. The airport's proximity of the respondent's home was used as a proxy for air pollution caused by aircraft. The survey response rate was 39%. The results of this study show that annoyance from aircraft noise is greater than expected, also when the effect of selective non-response is taken into account. There is a relation between aircraft noise and noise annoyance, sleep disturbance, perceived health, the use of medication, and the perception of risks and the quality of life in the study area. The proximity of the airport was related to annoyance due to odors and soot from aircraft, respiratory complaints, and the use of medication for asthma and/or allergy. The result of this study will be used in developing a system to monitor the health status of those living in the vicinity when Schiphol airport is expanded.

Burdens due to noise and air pollution in residents of areas near streets with heavy traffic

Abstract: The residents of different streets with varying traffic density and building density were questioned about annoyance due to traffic noise and air pollution. Frequency and extent of annoyance felt, effects of immissions on such living aspects as recreation, or communication, and also the reactions to the disturbance felt (such as closing windows and taking sleeping pills) were investigated. Noise levels as well as particulate matter and gaseous air pollutant concentrations were measured along the streets under investigation. The evaluation of 1300 questionaires showed that reactions to noise were different in different quarters although noise levels were the same. In general, about 40% of residents were heavily disturbed during daytime when the noise level Leq was around 65 dB(A); while for the same noise level at night about 55% reported to be heavily disturbed. Strong correlations were also obtained between annoyance due to noise and that due to air pollution. The results show that annoyance felt is dependent not only on the measured noise levels and/or air pollution concentrations, but that there do exist interactions between the residential quarters and annoyance. These interactions should be considered while fixing the limits and standards.