Implications of environmental noise on health and wellbeing in Europe EIONET Report — ETC/ACM 2018/10

Based on data from the second (2012) and third (2017) round of noise assessment in the framework of the European Noise Directive

Based on the reported and gap filled data of the second round of noise mapping, it is estimated that 21.7 million adults are highly annoyed due to noise from road traffic, railways, aircrafts or industry. 6.4 Million adults are expect to suffer from noise related sleep disturbance. Environmental noise exposure contributed to 49 thousand incidence cases each year of ischaemic heart disease and to 12 thousand cases of premature mortality each year which leads to about 150 thousand years of life lost. About three quarter of the health impact is related to road traffic noise exposure.

The completeness of reported data for the third round is about 50%. Primary analyses indicate that the burden of disease of noise related health endpoints in 2017 is similar to the findings for 2012.

Prepared by: ETC/ACM members Danny Houthuijs, Wim Swart, Elise van Kempen (all RIVM)

Published by: ETC/ACM, February 2018, 56 pp.