Dr. William H. Stewart, Former U.S. General Surgeon, 1978
“Calling noise a nuisance is like calling smog an inconvenience. Noise must be considered a hazard to the health of people everywhere.”
The main documented impacts of noise on health are : hearing loss (tinnitus), sleep disturbance, performance of cognitive tasks, and it may induce acute cardiovascular and metabolic effects.
Here are some in-depth studies relating noise and health.
- WHO – Noise guidelines (1999)
- DSPQ – Urban transport, a health issue (2006)
- WHO – Noise studies synthesis (2011)
- Noise impact in Quebec city (2013)
- WHO – Summary of the noise studies (2018)
- WHO – Relationship noise-heart (2018)
- DSPQ – Pollution: noise and air vs the 20 (2019)
- Journées du bruit environnemental (2019)
Summary
- The 1999 WHO study is possibly the most comprehensive summary of the impacts of noise along highways on the health of local residents.
- In 2006, the DSPQ adopted several of the essential conclusions of the WHO
- In 2011, WHO synthesized several scientific studies on environmental noise and the link between highway and train noise and disease.
- In 2013, as part of the lawsuit by the citizens of Charlebourg against the MTQ and Quebec City, Dr. Laroche presented a review of the literature on the noise-health relationship and quality of life and concluded: “There is no longer any doubt that noise affects people’s quality of life and health. “
- In 2018, WHO summarizes the state of scientific research on the impact of noise and recommends guidelines to protect human health from exposure to environmental noise from, among other things, transport
- In 2018, WHO produces a review of recent scientific studies linking cardiovascular and metabolic diseases with environmental noise
- In 2019, the DSPQ gave a conference in Beaconsfield. This conference takes up known facts (link between noise, polluted air and the health of residents along polluted corridors) and adds specific noise pollution measures taken by the DSP in Montreal and Beaconsfield in recent years
- In 2019, the Quebec Ministry of Health organized the “Environmental Noise Days” bringing together several Ministries and Municipalities.
Noise pollution, a form of air pollution, is a threat to health and well-being, particularly along highways and railways.
The potential health effects of noise pollution are many, pervasive, persistent, and of great medical and social significance. Noise produces direct and cumulative negative effects that harm health and degrade residential, social, work and learning environments with corresponding real (economic) and intangible (well-being) losses. It interferes with sleep, concentration, communication and leisure.
The objective of informed government controls should be to protect citizens from the harmful effects of air pollution, including those produced by noise. People have the right to choose the nature of their acoustic environment; it should not be imposed by others.
Noise will also continue to grow due to the sustained growth in road, rail and air traffic, which remain major sources of environmental noise.
WHO – Noise guidelines (1999)
Guidelines for community noise
This scientific document from the World Health Organization (WHO) is the comprehensive report on the effects of noise on health, particularly along motorways.
RELEVANT QUOTES
It talks about several effects of noise, but, in particular:
“Hearing loss is defined as an increase in the hearing threshold. Hearing impairments can be accompanied by tinnitus (ringing in the ears). (…)
Speech comprehension is compromised by noise. (…)
Sleep disturbance is an important consequence of noise in the environment. Environmental noise can cause primary effects during sleep, and side effects that can be seen during the day after exposure to noise at night. Uninterrupted sleep is a prerequisite for proper physiological and mental functioning, and the primary effects of sleep disturbance are: difficulty falling asleep; awakenings and changes in phase or depth of sleep; blood pressure, heart rate, and increased pulse in the fingers; vasoconstriction; breathing changes; cardiac arrhythmia; and increased body movements. (…)
Mental Illness. Environmental noise is not expected to have a direct impact on mental illness, but it is believed to be able to accelerate and intensify the development of latent mental illness. (…)
Performance level. It has been shown, mainly for workers and children, that noise can compromise the performance of cognitive tasks. Although wakefulness from noise can produce better execution of simple tasks in the short term, performance declines significantly for more complex tasks. Reading, attention, problem solving and memorization are among the cognitive effects most strongly affected by noise. »P.3-7
“However where there are distinct noises, such as airplane noise or train noise, measurements of different events such as the maximum noise level (LAmax), or the weighed sound exposure level (SEL), should also be obtained in addition to LAeq T. ”P.2
“For the implementation of the directives, it is recommended that:
Governments assume the protection of the population against noise from the community, and consider it as an integral part of their environmental protection policy.
Governments are considering implementing action plans with short-term, medium-term and long-term goals to reduce noise levels.
Governments adopt the values of the Community Noise Health Guidelines as long-term goals
Governments include noise as an important public health element in environmental impact studies. (…)” P.18
DSPQ – Urban transport, a health issue (2006)
DSPQ 2006 Annual report – Chapter 2
This link (French only) includes chapter 2 of the annual report of the Direction de la Santé Publique du Québec (DSPQ) on transportation. It mainly summarizes the effects of air pollution, for noise, it rather refers to the 1999 WHO study (above).
RELEVANT QUOTE:
“Noise pollution is another type of pollution due to transport, which also has an impact on the health of people living near traffic lanes” P.23
“The main effect of environmental noise is sleep disturbance, but uninterrupted sleep is considered essential for good physiological and mental functioning. (…) Manifests itself not only by difficulty falling asleep, frequent awakenings and changes in phase and depth of sleep, but there are also certain cardiovascular changes (eg higher blood pressure and heart rate) . »P.24
(…) “Finally, on a cognitive level, environmental noise can also impair speech comprehension and the performance of complex tasks (eg reading, attention, problem solving and memorization) , and this is why the WHO recommends not to install day-care centers or schools near motorways or other sources of disturbing noise. »P.24
WHO – Noise studies synthesis (2011)
Burden of disease from environmental noise
This scientific report is a synthesis of several scientific studies on environmental noise and the link between noise and diseases. The numerous health impacts caused by highway and train noise are particularly illustrated.
Each chapter covers and summarizes the most recent studies of the link between noise and disease: cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment in children, sleep disorders, tinnitus, and various types of discomfort.
RELEVANT QUOTES:
« There is sufficient evidence from large-scale epidemiological studies linking the population’s exposure to environmental noise with adverse health effects. Therefore, environmental noise should be considered not only as a cause of nuisance but also a concern for public health and environmental health. » P.18
« noise-induced annoyance may be considered an adverse effect on health. People annoyed by noise may experience a variety of negative responses, such as anger, disappointment, dissatisfaction, withdrawal, helplessness, depression, anxiety, distraction, agitation or exhaustion. Furthermore, stress-related psychosocial symptoms such as tiredness, stomach discomfort and stress have been found to be associated with noise exposure as well as noise annoyance » P.110
« Compared to other effects of environmental noise and also compared to effects of environmental factors in general, there are relatively many data directly obtained from exposed humans in the field from which exposure–response relationships for noise annoyance could be derived. It appears that, with the increasing effort on noise mapping, more and better noise exposure data will become available so that, by combining them with the relationships, the prevalence of annoyance can be estimated. » P.116
Noise impact in Quebec city (2013)
This scientific report (French only) was prepared by Professor Chantal Laroche Ph.D., professor of speech-language pathology and audiology at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Ottawa. It is part of the documents used during the lawsuit by the residents of Charlebourg against the MTQ and Quebec City.
It includes a literature review on the noise-health relationship and the quality of life.
RELEVANT QUOTES:
“There is no longer any doubt that noise has an impact on people’s quality of life and health. All the documents dealing with the problem of noise emphasize this (see list of references) Socializing with friends or neighbors is more difficult when there is noise. All communications, however minimal, may be disturbed by noise (…). Sleep and rest are also largely affected by noise (…) See P. 7-25, 69
WHO – Summary of the noise studies (2018)
Environmental Noise Guidelines for European Region
This report summarizes the state of scientific research on the impact of noise. It recommends guidelines to protect human health from exposure to environmental noise from various sources: noise from transport (road, rail and air traffic), noise from wind turbines and noise from leisure.
RELEVANT QUOTE:
« Road traffic noise recommendations:
For average noise exposure, the GDG strongly recommends reducing noise levels produced by road traffic below 53 dB Lden, as road traffic noise above this level is associated with adverse health effects.
For night noise exposure, the GDG strongly recommends reducing noise levels produced by road traffic during night time below 45 dB Lnight, as road traffic noise above this level is associated with adverse effects on sleep.
To reduce health effects, the GDG strongly recommends that policy-makers implement suitable measures to reduce noise exposure from road traffic in the population exposed to levels above the guideline values for average and night noise exposure. For specific interventions, the GDG recommends reducing noise both at the source and on the route between the source and the affected population by changes in infrastructure. » P.50
WHO – Relationship noise-heart (2018)
This study brings together the results of several recent scientific studies linking cardiovascular and metabolic diseases with environmental noise.
RELEVANT QUOTE:
« Environmental noise may induce acute cardiovascular and metabolic effects both directly, through subcortical connections, and indirectly by projections via the auditory cortex. The main effects include secretion of stress hormones and blood pressure elevations caused by vasoconstriction. These effects occur even during sleep. » P.5
DSPQ – Pollution: noise and air vs the 20 (2019)
Conference slides (French only) given by two scientific experts from the Quebec public health department during the information conference of May 18, 2019 organized by the BPCI. This conference takes up known facts (link between noise, polluted air and the health of residents along polluted corridors) and adds specific measures taken by the DSPQ in Beaconsfield in recent years.
Journées du bruit environnemental (2019)
On November 12 and 13 2019, the Ministry of Health organized the first edition of this two-day event, in collaboration with several other ministries, including transport and environment. It was a great success! About 245 participants registered, including the GM of the City of Beaconsfield.
The event was intended for the municipal sector, representatives of citizen groups and non-profit organizations, academia, health and social services network and community stakeholders as well as the various government departments and agencies concerned by this issue.
We have heard lectures on several important dimensions of this scourge and we met with several important players in this field in Quebec, in ministries, research centers, other cities and dedicated organizations.