Night noise guidelines for Europe - WHO/Europe - World Health ...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
IX
INTRODUCTION
The aim of this document is to present the conclusions of the WHO working group
responsible for preparing guidelines for exposure to noise during sleep. This document
can be seen as an extension of the WHO Guidelines for community noise
(1999). The need for “health-based” guidelines originated in part from the European
Union Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental
noise (commonly known as the Environmental Noise Directive and abbreviated
as END) which compels European Union Member States to produce noise maps
and data about night exposure from mid-2007. The work was made possible by a
grant from the European Commission and contributions from the Swiss and German
governments.
Although a number of countries do have legislation directed at controlling night
noise exposure, there is little information on actual exposure and its subsequent
effects on the population. Estimates made in some countries of the number of people
highly disturbed by noise during sleep (see Fig. 1 for the Netherlands as an example)
indicate that a substantial part of the population could be exposed to levels that
might risk their health and well-being.
Percentage of population
30 Year
28
26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0TOTAL
Total
Road traffic
Neighbours
Air traffic
Recreation
1998
2003
Rail traffic
Industry
Construction
Fig. 1.
Percentage of
population highly
disturbed by noise
during sleep in the
Netherlands:
survey results for
1998 and 2003
As direct evidence concerning the effects of night noise on health is rarely available,
these guidelines also use indirect evidence: the effects of noise on sleep and the relations
between sleep and health. The advantage of this approach is that a lot of medical
evidence is available on the relation between sleep and health, and detailed information
also exists on sleep disturbance by noise.