Exposure to Noise Pollution is Shortening Lives

Exposure to noise pollution is shortening lives and causing significant health problems in Western Europe, and is second only to air pollution as a cause of environmental health problems, according to the world’s first comprehensive report on the health effects of noise.

An analysis of existing epidemiological studies found that at least 1 million healthy years of living are lost annually among the region’s 340 million adults as a result of exposure to environmental noise, according to the study by the World Health Organization and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.

Heart disease caused by noise exposure — which can lead to elevated blood pressure and increased concentrations of stress hormones — costs western Europeans about 61,000 healthy life years annually, and causes about 3,000 deaths, the study says. Health impacts associated with sleep deprivation alone costs about 903,000 years of healthy living each year. “I think this really puts noise on a footing where it needs to be taken seriously,” Deepak Prasher, an expert on the health effects of noise exposure, told NewScientist. “Governments need to acknowledge that it is a problem.”

Source: Yale Environment 360

Urban dwellers unfortunately have noise from numerous sources to contend with. Vehicular traffic and airliners contribute to a high proportion of dangerous environmental noise levels.  Then there is noise from social meeting places where music is played at ear-damaging levels.  Noise pollution and its affects are not often taken seriously and noise laws are often not enforced.  South African noise laws are fairly comprehensive but enforcement is lacking.  Noise pollution is a social problem as well as a health and environmental problem and should be given far more publicity.

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