Environmental Noise and Annoyance in the Urban Area at Different Time Intervals

Abstract

Environmental (community) noise, particularly road traffic noise, has attracted widespread attention in recent decades as a major environmental health concern. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of environmental noise on psychosocial well-being of young healthy individuals and to follow the time trends of exposure in the period of 10, 15, 20, 25 years. The validated methodology was used to assess noise annoyance, interference with activities and sleep disturbance; the objectification of noise levels was done by direct measurement using sound level analyzer with a module for frequency analysis. The results revealed the sharp increase during the years 1989 and 1999 (the period of political and socio-economic transformation and the changes in traffic management) and the decrease in the year 2013. The findings of our study indicate the need for preventive measures to reduce environmental noise exposure in residential areas and to emphasize the importance of the elaboration of methods for environmental noise exposure risk assessment.

Evidence Relating to Environmental Noise Exposure and Annoyance, Sleep Disturbance, Cardio-Vascular and Metabolic Health Outcomes in the Context of IGCB (N): A Scoping Review of New Evidence

“…The results are presented in Supplementary 2, Tables S1.1-S1.9. This review yielded thirty-four new (sub) studies investigating the association between environmental noise and sleep disturbance described in 16 papers [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]. Fifteen papers described self-reported sleep disturbance as an outcome and three objective measures.…”

Environmental Noise Exposure and Its Effect on Population Health

“…Vplyvom hluku z cestnej dopravy na rušenie obyvateľstva sídlisk sa zaoberali aj autori zo Slovenska a Či-ech (21,29,30,(31)(32)(33)(34). V štúdiách Argalášovej-Sobotovej a kol.…”

Social Noise Exposure in a Sample of Slovak University Students

“…It concerns mainly the population living in urban areas but also in rural areas with the main sources being road, rail and air traffic, industries, construction and public work, and the neighborhood [1][2][3][4]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), excessive environmental noise interferes with people's daily activities at school, at work, at home, and during leisure time.…”

“…According to the World Health Organization (WHO), excessive environmental noise interferes with people's daily activities at school, at work, at home, and during leisure time. It can disturb sleep, cause cardiovascular and psychophysiological effects, reduce performance, and provoke annoyance responses and changes in social behavior [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. According to the environmental burden of disease (EBD) approach, traffic noise exposure features cause an annual loss of 31 disability-adjusted life years per 100,000 population in the WHO European region [1].…”