Environmental Noise
Encyclopedia of Environmental Health, (2011)Abstract
This article concentrates on the worldwide human exposure to environmental
noise. Owing to large-scale developments such as growing mechanization,
mobility, and particularly urbanization, a growing percentage of
the world's population is exposed to everyday noise levels that are
considered potentially harmful. The dominant source of the noise,
by far, is road traffic. Although other sources, such as mopeds,
neighbors, and bars, may give rise to complaints and annoyance, the
long-term noise exposure, decisive to health effects, is due to general
traffic noise.Exposure data from measurements are difficult to combine
and extrapolate, due to variations in indicators, measurement duration,
and source separation. Measured traffic noise data therefore do not
represent a sound basis to obtain worldwide exposure. Computed data
have the obvious advantage of comparable data covering larger areas.
Therefore, the first results of the noise mapping requested by the
European Directive on the Assessment and Management of Environmental
Noise have been extrapolated using the population density as the
prime parameter. This approach was suggested by Galloway et al. in
the 1970s; it turns out that the approach can still be used today,
with some modifications.It is estimated that a total of 2 billion
citizens all over the world are subject to environmental – road traffic
– noise levels of over 55 dB Lden, which are considered potentially
harmful for their health.For Europe only (European Union (EU) area),
this number is 125 million or 26% of the EU population. Demographic
developments indicate that these figures will worsen in the decades
to come.The estimate is based on the best available data for a large
scale. However, these data are European data and may include systematic
errors. Future estimates will improve when the experience with large-scale
noise mapping grows and data based on similar indicators become available
for other areas of the world.