Noise pollution

About: Noise pollution is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4455 publications have been published within this topic receiving 67192 citations.

Aircraft noise, health, and residential sorting: evidence from two quasi-experiments.

Abstract: SUMMARY We explore two unexpected changes in flight regulations to estimate the causal effect of aircraft noise on health. Detailed measures of noise are linked with longitudinal data on individual health outcomes based on the exact address information. Controlling for individual heterogeneity and spatial sorting into different neighborhoods, we find that aircraft noise significantly increases sleeping problems and headaches. Models that do not control for such heterogeneity and sorting substantially underestimate the negative health effects, which suggests that individuals self-select into residence based on their unobserved sensitivity to noise. Our study demonstrates that the combination of quasi-experimental variation and panel data is very powerful for identifying causal effects in epidemiological field studies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Landscaping in reducing traffic noise problem in cities: Ankara case

Abstract: Cities have been getting overloaded due to the intense immigrations to urban areas and the population growth as a result of them, requiring new equipments and services, as the present infrastructure is insufficient. Besides, a host of problems arise in transportation and traffic infrastructure along with the corruption emerging in urban quarters as a result of socio-economical and technological changes. In big cities, ring roads aimed to increase the speed and capacity of transportation and highways reducing the transportation time between cities have been creating negative impacts as well as leading to facilities in terms of service functions, causing visual and audial pollution in urban areas. In this article, definitions regarding noise and its sources have been made and the precautions to be taken against noise have been mentioned earlier with the adverse effects of noise. Landscape design approaches and suggestions concerning the kinds to be used, which are peculiar to Ankara, have been developed, discussing the role and the function of plant material in reducing the noise of the traffic. Key words: Ankara, landscaping, landscape design, plant material, noise.

Noise and Health: Annoyance and Interference

Abstract: Noise annoyance is a growing global problem. Quantification of the burden of disease from noise exposure lists noise annoyance as the most prominent health impact from noise exposure together with sleep disturbances. Road traffic is a pervasive noise source often accounting for more than 70% of a country's noise annoyance problems. For all major noise sources, well-developed relationships have been established between noise exposure and the degree of population annoyance. However, newer research initiatives criticize the quality of many of the underlying aging data sets. Regional differences in noise reactions, nonnegligible impacts from contextual modifiers, and results that differ qualitatively and quantitatively from those predicted by standard static exposure–annoyance curves have also been reported. In Europe, noise policies targeting black areas where equivalent noise levels exceed 65 dB(A) have met some success. Nevertheless, the number of noise-annoyed people has increased steadily. This is due to the increase in gray urban areas with intermediary equivalent noise exposure levels between 55 and 65 dB(A). More than two-thirds of European citizens exposed to noise levels exceeding the norm of 55 dB(A) live in gray areas. Here an extended research paradigm needs to supplement the traditional approaches appropriate for targeting annoyance problems in the more easily identified black areas. More precise noise (sound) metrics, improved attention to modifying contextual factors such as quiet sides of apartments and dwellings, multisource situations, neighborhood contexts, vibrations, and other pollutants become important. Owing to the increased complexity of such research, cooperation between traditional and newer noise research initiatives, with researchers involved in air pollution epidemiology and socio-vibrational research, becomes important. Extended reporting for single-site studies and use of multisite, multi-exposure studies and meta-analytical approaches controlling for important contextual and individual modifying factors are thus also warranted.