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

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12 METHODS AND CRITERIA 1.3.6 BACKGROUND LEVEL A simple definition of background level or “ambient noise” level is the noise that is not targeted for measurement or calculation. Background noise can interfere with the target noise in a number of ways. It can: • mask the signal • interact physically • interact psychologically. As this report is often dealing with low-level target noise, masking is an important issue. The other two interactions are more important in the domain of annoyance. Masking, however, is a complex process. The human auditory system is uncannily good at separating signals from “background”. Microphones (and the software behind them) have been slow to catch up, as the unsatisfactory results show when it comes to automatically recognizing aircraft in long-term unmanned measuring stations. The rule of thumb that a noise can be considered masked if the signal is 10 dB below the background is only valid if the noises have the same frequency composition and if they actually occur at the same time. This is particularly important to stress where L Aeq levels are compared: even a relatively continuous motorway of 50 dB cannot mask aircraft noise of 30 dB, because this may be composed of five aircraft arriving at an L Amax of 57 dB. Neither can birdsong, because the frequency domains do not overlap. Another factor relevant for this report is that background levels are lower at nighttime than they are in the daytime. This is true for most man-made noises, but also for the natural background levels as wind speeds at night slow down. Most levels mentioned in this report do not take background levels into account – explicitly. Where long-term L Aeq levels are related to effects like hypertension and self-reported sleep disturbance, background levels are ignored, but they could obscure the effect at the lower end of the scale. This then influences the lowest level where an effect starts to occur. In sleep laboratory studies the background level is kept as low as possible, around 30 dB. The background of the instrumentation is 20 dB. In semi-field experiments it has been found that background noise levels inside bedrooms are very low, partly because people tend to choose their bedrooms on the quiet side of the building. This may have the side-effect of exposing children to higher levels. 1.3.7 CHOICE OF INDICATORS FOR REGULATORY PURPOSES From the scientific point of view the correct choice for a noise indicator is its performance in predicting the effect. There are, however, a number of additional criteria which may influence the choice. Firstly, for different health end points different indicators could be suitable. Further considerations are of a more political nature, as mentioned in the Position Paper on EU noise indicators (European Commission, 2000). Indicators should also be easy to explain to the public – intuitively understandable, avoiding unnecessary breaks with current practice and enforceable. This is probably why in many countries L Amax is a popular indicator: it has undeniable qualities in these areas. NIGHT NOISE GUIDELINES FOR EUROPE
METHODS AND CRITERIA 13 This is also the case for L Aeq indicators for short periods of, for example, one or a few hours in the middle of the night. Other fashionable indicators are those looking at numbers above a threshold. For these indicators the relation between health end points and their values is either not well established, or the correlation between them and current indicators is high, or the correlation between the indicator and an effect is low. 1.4 EXPOSURE IN THE POPULATION 1.4.1 NOISE LEVELS Surprisingly little information is available on the exposure of houses to night-time noise. It is possible that, in a few years time, the END will lead to the creation of a substantial database on these levels, but up till now only two countries have detailed data available (Table 1.5). L night in dB Country 40–45 46–50 51–55 56–60 61–65+ Switzerland (Müller-Wenk, 2002) – 24% 14% 7% 2% Netherlands 25% 31% 19% 6% 1% (Nijland and Jabben, 2004) Table 1.5 Percentage of dwellings per noise class of L night in dB Notwithstanding the obvious differences between these two countries, the data show a remarkable similarity. A first result of the END (see Table 1.6) comes from a study into night regulations for (large) airports (Wubben and Busink, 2004). Airport Number of Number of night Night operations as inhabitants operations per year percentage of daytime operations Amsterdam 21 863 23 462 5.8% Frankfurt 134 651 46 662 10.1% London 477 289 26 465 5.7% Paris 180 184 51 683 10.3% Table 1.6 Number of inhabitants within 45 L night contour 1.4.2 REPORTED NIGHT-TIME NOISE DISTURBANCE Complaints about night-time exposure to noise are widespread and not exactly new: Roman writers used to complain about the racket in the streets at night (Juvenal, 160). Surprisingly, little detailed information is available today. Nevertheless, data collected from a few Member States can help to give an impression of the order of magnitude of effects. NIGHT NOISE GUIDELINES FOR EUROPE
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Page 4 and 5: Keywords NOISE - ADVERSE EFFECTS -
Page 6 and 7: IV CONTENTS CHAPTER 3 EFFECTS OF NI
Page 8 and 9: VI ABSTRACT The WHO Regional Office
Page 10 and 11: VIII LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Torbjörn
Page 12 and 13: X EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PROCESS OF DEVE
Page 14 and 15: XII EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An example of
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Page 66 and 67: 46 EFFECTS ON SLEEP ing sleep stage
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62 EFFECTS ON HEALTH Noise Exposure
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64 EFFECTS ON HEALTH commonly accep
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66 EFFECTS ON HEALTH Regarding mean
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68 EFFECTS ON HEALTH 1992). The rel
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70 EFFECTS ON HEALTH Regarding airc
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72 EFFECTS ON HEALTH 4.5.10 DOSE-RE
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74 EFFECTS ON HEALTH larger increas
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76 EFFECTS ON HEALTH 4.5.14 RISK EV
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78 EFFECTS ON HEALTH No particular
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80 EFFECTS ON HEALTH Research into
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82 EFFECTS ON HEALTH tle direct res
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84 EFFECTS ON HEALTH level of expos
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86 EFFECTS ON HEALTH lage newly exp
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88 EFFECTS ON HEALTH ting the stres
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90 EFFECTS ON HEALTH In a United Ki
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92 EFFECTS ON HEALTH 4.8.14 ASSOCIA
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94 EFFECTS ON HEALTH noise-related
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96 EFFECTS ON HEALTH have had exper
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98 EFFECTS ON HEALTH • number of
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100 EFFECTS ON HEALTH Furthermore,
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102 GUIDELINES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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112 Ancoli-Israel S, Roth T (1999).
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114 Bistrup ML (2003). Prevention o
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116 Cartwright J, Flindell I (2000)
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118 der Streßforschung (Bonner Ver
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120 Goto K, Kaneko T (2002). Distri
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122 Ishihara K (1999). The effect o
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124 Kogi K, Ohta T (1975). Incidenc
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126 Marth E et al. (1988). Fluglär
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128 Nieminen P et al. (2002). Growt
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130 Reyner et al. (1995). Patterns
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132 Suter AH (1992). Noise sources
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134 Weed DL (2000). Interpreting ep
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136 APPENDICES Term/acronym Definit
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138 APPENDICES APPENDIX 3. ANIMAL S
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140 APPENDICES cause a certain habi
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142 APPENDICES • Acute exposure t
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144 APPENDICES dence indicate that
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146 APPENDICES Fig.1 Effects of 12
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) 148 APPENDICES 50 40 Young rats O
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150 APPENDICES neuronal degeneratio
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152 Gesi M et al. (2002a). Morpholo
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154 APPENDIX 4. NOISE AND SLEEP IN
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156 APPENDICES during quiet sleep (
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158 APPENDICES (American Academy of
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160 APPENDICES cents, 12.2% of adol
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162 REFERENCES Abel SM (1990). The
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The WHO Regional Office for Europe
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