My News Files

1. Wednesday, April 27, 2016
International Noise Awareness Day Tomorrow
FE Report
All over the world, people, organizations, and governments will commemorate the 21st Annual
International Noise Awareness Day (INAD) on Wednesday, April 27, 2016.
The Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC) founded this yearly event in 1996 to
encourage people to do something about bothersome noise where they work, live, and play.
Contact us to share what you’re planning for INAD so we can publish it on the Noise Center.
In the short term, noise causes stress, and as most of us understand, stress is terrible for your
health. In the long term, noise causes hearing loss—and hearing loss is also detrimental to your
health.
Individuals and communities no longer accept that noise is a natural by-product of an industrial
society. Grassroots activist groups address the issue of noise in their own communities. New
Yorkers gave noise as the leading complaint to quality to the city’s life quality hotline.
Adults may be the ones to have the greatest concerns about and problems dealing with noise,
but children can suffer just as much, and there may be no indication as such to their parents.
Health effects of noise
According to the findings of the World Health Organisation (WHO), noise is the second largest environmental cause of health problems, just after
the impact of air quality (particulate matter).
The World Health Organization's Night Noise Guidelines for Europe present evidence of the health damage of night-time noise exposure and
recommend threshold values above which adverse effects on human health are observed. An annual average night exposure not exceeding 40
decibel (dB) has been recommended in the Guidelines.
Sleepers that are exposed to night noise levels above 40dB on average throughout the year can suffer health effects like sleep disturbance
and awakenings. Above 55dB long-term average exposure, noise can trigger elevated blood pressure and lead to ischaemic heart disease.
A study commissioned by DG Environment on the Health implication of road, railway and aircraft noise in the European Union found that exposure to noise
in Europe contributes to:
• about 910 thousand additional prevalent cases of hypertension,
• 43 thousand hospital admissions per year, and
• at least 10 thousand premature deaths per year related to coronary heart disease and stroke.
Since this study was based on partial data on noise exposure, the overall health effects in the entire EU are likely to be even higher than
currently estimated.
The WHO is currently working on revised
Community Noise Guidelines for Europe, which are
expected to present state-of-the-art evidence on the
health effects of noise and updated recommendations
on acceptable exposures levels.

2. The WHO defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Therefore, a high level of annoyance caused by environmental noise is considered as one of the environmental health burdens, and thus taken
into account when estimating the health effects of noise.
Searching for noise solutions on awareness day To mark the International Noise Awareness Day on 27
April, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the Noise Abatement Society (NAS) seek submissions
for the new European Soundscape Award which will recognise innovative solutions to noise problems.
Exposure to unwanted noise can cause stress and interfere with basic activities such as sleep, rest and
study. Prolonged exposure can also trigger illnesses as serious as hypertension and cardiovascular
disease. This has recently been documented in the report 'Burden of disease from environmental noise'
from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which estimates that each year Europeans lose at least one
million healthy life years due to noise from road traffic alone. The EEA is teaming up with the Noise
Abatement Society to raise awareness about the health impacts of noise and to reward European
initiatives that can help reduce excessive noise. Any product, campaign, innovation or scheme offering a
creative solution to a noise problem can be nominated for the Award. The Award will be presented for
the first time at a prestigious ceremony in London in November 2011. For more information on how to
submit an application, visit the European Soundscape Award webpage. The closing date for applications
is 2 September 2011. About the International Noise Awareness Day The Centre for Hearing and
Communication founded International Noise Awareness Day to promote awareness of the dangers of
long-term exposure to noise. This year, the event is taking place on 27 April. Related content Good
practice guide on noise exposure and potential health effects Turn down the noise - softening the
impact of excess transport noise Noise Observation and Information Service for Europe
All over the world, people, organizations, and governments will commemorate the 21st annual International Noise Awareness Day (INAD) on
Wednesday, April 27, 2016. The Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC) founded this yearly event in 1996 to encourage people to do
something about bothersome noise where they work, live, and play. Click here for more information or contact the Right to Quiet Society.
Exposure to unwanted noise can cause stress and interfere with basic activities such as sleep, rest and study. Prolonged
exposure can also trigger illnesses as serious as hypertension and cardiovascular disease. This has recently been
documented in the report 'Burden of disease from environmental noise' from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which
estimates that each year Europeans lose at least one million healthy life years due to noise from road traffic alone.
The EEA is teaming up with the Noise Abatement Society to raise awareness about the health impacts of noise and to
reward European initiatives that can help reduce excessive noise. Any product, campaign, innovation or scheme offering a
creative solution to a noise problem can be nominated for the Award. The Award will be presented for the first time at a
prestigious ceremony in London in November 2011.
For more information on how to submit an application, visit the European Soundscape Award webpage. The closing date for
applications is 2 September 2011.

3. About the International Noise Awareness Day
The Centre for Hearing and Communication founded International Noise Awareness Day to promote awareness of the
dangers of long-term exposure to noise. This year, the event is taking place on 27 April.
Related content
urn down the noise - softening the impact of excess transport noise
• PDF
Article Published 20 May 2009 Last modified 08 Dec 2015, 02:56 PM
Topics: Transport Urban environment Noise
As a major contributor to greenhouse gases, the
transport sector figures high on the international
climate change agenda. But for many living in cities,
under flight paths or near major road and rail links, it's
another of transport's by-products that causes most
immediate harm: noise.
Fig. 1: Image © House of Hall
Clearly, transport noise's long-term impacts fall a long way short of the apocalyptic projections for unabated global
warming. Equally clearly, however, they're not limited to annoyance. As a growing body of research reveals, transport
noise can cause sleep disturbance, cardiovascular disease, elevated hormone levels, psychological problems and even

4. premature death; studies on children have identified cognitive impairment, worsened behaviour and diminished quality of
life.
The serious effects of transport noise have been recognised since the 1970s. For a long time, however, they received
relatively little attention while the public focused instead on transport's air pollution impact. Little effort went to collecting
harmonised transport noise data in Europe, which in turn weakened the case for an effective response.
The situation is at last changing. Following the adoption of the Environmental Noise Directive in 2002, the EEA's recent
TERM 2008 report Transports at a crossroads is the first to contain an assessment of EU-wide noise data. Its findings give
cause for concern. Fifty-five per cent of those living in urban areas with more than 250 000 inhabitants in the EU-27 —
almost 67 million people — endure daily road noise levels above the lower EU benchmark (55 Lden) for excess exposure.
Cutting noise takes more than cutting traffic
If the extent of the problem is pretty clear, the appropriate policy response is perhaps less so. At first glance, the obvious
remedy would be measures that reduce transport volumes. These would address the source of noise pollution but also
provide additional gains such as cutting transport's greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. By contrast, other
responses, such as building new roads further from homes, may offer few ancillary benefits or even exacerbate other
environmental problems.
Cutting traffic will clearly be crucial in addressing many of transport's environmental impacts. As a strategy to reduce noise
volumes, however, it has limitations. Reducing car traffic on roads with a high proportion of lorries and busses, for
instance, has little impact on the overall traffic noise since car noise is masked by the heaviest vehicles. To be effective,
therefore, the noisiest vehicles have to be targeted first. But even on roads where vehicles produce roughly the same
amount of noise (e.g. mostly cars), a traffic reduction of at least 40 % would be needed to start perceiving reduced noise.
Policymakers therefore need to identify complementary, cost-effective measures that primarily reduce noise at source
(while bearing in mind the potential to mitigate or exacerbate transport's other environmental impacts). Fortunately, many
potential measures are already available, including:
 technological improvements to vehicles and aircraft aerodynamics and components, including low noise tyres,
train wheels, brake-blocks, and landing gears;
 improvements to infrastructure, such as low noise road surfaces and rail tracks;
 urban planning that limits encroachment close to busy roads, railways or airports, and rules on the location,
layout and acoustic quality of buildings;
 traffic management techniques, such as traffic calming, controlling the speed of road vehicles, and low noise
operational procedures for aircraft;
 restricting access for the noisiest vehicles and aircraft (e.g. at night);

5.  noise barriers and improved soundproofing of dwellings (although only as a last resort because these measures
are rarely cost-effective).
Integrated policy packages are needed
Both market-based and regulatory measures can be used to give transport manufacturers, planners, consumers and
service providers the right incentives to adopt new technologies and practices. These could be based on vehicle noise
standards or product labelling (e.g. tax rebates based upon tyres noise label). Fines or subsidies can also encourage noise
reduction, while helping victims of noise pollution take steps to protect themselves.
Experience in the air transport sector illustrates the idea. Life under a flight path can be very noisy and looks likely to get
noisier if air travel continues to grow. Happily for those living close to France's ten largest airports, help is at
hand. ACNUSA, an independent body established in 1999, charges airlines according to aircraft noise levels and time of
departure and fines airlines that don't comply with noise restrictions.
These fees mean that airlines and their customers are compelled to bear some of the social costs of air travel, which are
seldom reflected in ticket prices. By reducing demand for tickets, this helps ensure that flight volumes correctly balance
society's desire for air travel against its wish to avoid noise and other forms of pollution. The varying fees also sharpen
incentives to fly at less disruptive times of day and to adopt technologies and practices that minimise noise. Better still, the
revenues of the scheme (EUR 20–55 million a year) are used to subsidise soundproofing the most exposed dwellings, with
between three and eight thousands dwellings upgraded every year.
As experience in London and elsewhere has demonstrated, the technology now exists to charge road users according to
vehicle type and time of day, with proceeds supporting, for example, expanded public transport systems. As recognition of
noise pollution's impact grows, such technology should facilitate the introduction of creative policies like France's airport
charging scheme across the entire transport sector.
NOISE is the Noise Observation and Information Service for Europe maintained by theEuropean
Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Topic Centre for Air Pollution and Climate Change
Mitigation (ETC-ACM) on behalf of the European Commission. It contains data related to strategic noise
maps delivered in accordance with European Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and
management of environmental noise.
Otherwise known as the Environmental Noise Directive, or END, it establishes a system of source
identification, noise mapping and population exposure assessments based upon harmonised noise
indicators for Europe.
The EEA requests all its member and collaborating countries to provide the information required by the
Environmental Noise Directive because noise pollution is a pan European issue. EEA produces
assessments of the impact of noise, which aim to cover all of the geographical areas of Europe that are
most affected by major transport network and industrial noise sources.
Sir,
Globally, almost 360 million individuals suffer from moderate to profound hearing loss due to various causes, with maximum prevalence in the regions
of South Asia, Asia Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa; almost half of these cases are avoidable. [1]
,[2]
The recent estimates released by the World Health
Organization (WHO) suggest that around 1.1 billion teenagers and young adults worldwide are at the risk of developing noise-induced hearing loss. [3]
A

6. wide range of long-term devastating aftermaths has been observed because of the hearing loss for the individuals, especially pertaining to their
physical/mental health and education/occupation. [3]
,[4]
Safe listening levels are established by assessing three factors, namely intensity (loudness),
duration (length of time), and frequency (how often). [5]
Most of the noise induced hearing loss cases have been attributed to the unsafe use of personal audio devices, or because of exposure to damaging
levels of sound at noisy entertainment venues (viz. nightclubs, sporting events, etc.). [3]
In fact, in the year 2011, in excess of 470 million smartphones
were sold globally, which is another indirect indicator of growing potential risk (because of increased accessibility combined with their use at high
volume and for longer durations). [5]
Furthermore, it was revealed that almost 50% and 40% of teenagers and young adults (12-35 years old), from
middle/high income nations are exposed to unsafe sound levels (viz. >85 decibels for 8 hours or 100 decibels for 15 minutes) by personal audio
devices and at entertainment venues respectively. [3]
Acknowledging the magnitude of the problem and its impact on the quality of life of people, it is high time that nations should join hands with WHO's
Make Listening Safe initiative to reduce the incidence of hearing loss attributed to recreational noise. Multiple provisions have been proposed to tackle
this emerging epidemic:
• Individuals: People can minimize the risk of hearing loss by reducing the volume of personal audio devices; using audio devices for <1
hour/day; preferring noise-cancelling earphones; using ear plugs at noisy venues; reducing the duration of stay at noisy places; self-
monitoring of sound levels; seeking medical attention on realizing the presence of any warning signs of hearing loss; and by adhering to the
practice of periodic hearing checkups. [3],[5],[6],[7]
• Policy makers and other stakeholders: Even policy makers can play a defining role by formulating and enforcing strict legislation on
recreational noise; creating awareness among the general population about the risks of hearing loss; involving different stakeholders (like
parents, teachers, physicians, health workers, etc.) to educate young people about safe listening; manufacturers of personal audio devices
should be motivated to display information about safe listening on products and packaging; conducting periodic training sessions for the
health workers; instructing managers of entertainment venues to adhere to the safe noise levels/deploy sound limiters/provide earplugs to
customers; and promoting research work in different settings to estimate the prevalence/etiology/impact of hearing loss. [3],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11]
In fact, to set an example, in one of the states of United States in 2014, an ordinance was passed to make it compulsory for bars and clubs
to offer free earplugs to patrons. [5]
Also, the Ear Science Institute of Australia initiated a campaign in school settings to educate and
encourage healthy behaviors to prevent noise-induced hearing loss. [5]
• Internationally: International agencies can work in a coordinated manner with the global partners to reduce the magnitude of hearing loss;
utilizing the opportunity of International Ear Care Day (annually observed by WHO on March 3), to draw attention to young people and their
families about the risks of noise-induced hearing loss and ways to prevent it; ensuring that the governments of various countries
acknowledge noise-induced hearing loss as a priority issue; supporting nations to develop and implement comprehensive programs for
hearing care, and integrating the same with the primary health-care system; and by sharing findings of different studies to assist policy
makers to effectively deal with the menace. [3],[11],[12],[13],[14]
To conclude, as noise-induced hearing loss is irreversible, the need of the hour is to involve the community, program managers, other stakeholders,
and international agencies to effectively reduce the magnitude of the problem worldwide.
http://www.noiseandhealth.org/article.asp?issn=1463-
1741;year=2015;volume=17;issue=76;spage=173;epage=174;aulast=Shrivastava

7. wide range of long-term devastating aftermaths has been observed because of the hearing loss for the individuals, especially pertaining to their
physical/mental health and education/occupation. [3]
,[4]
Safe listening levels are established by assessing three factors, namely intensity (loudness),
duration (length of time), and frequency (how often). [5]
Most of the noise induced hearing loss cases have been attributed to the unsafe use of personal audio devices, or because of exposure to damaging
levels of sound at noisy entertainment venues (viz. nightclubs, sporting events, etc.). [3]
In fact, in the year 2011, in excess of 470 million smartphones
were sold globally, which is another indirect indicator of growing potential risk (because of increased accessibility combined with their use at high
volume and for longer durations). [5]
Furthermore, it was revealed that almost 50% and 40% of teenagers and young adults (12-35 years old), from
middle/high income nations are exposed to unsafe sound levels (viz. >85 decibels for 8 hours or 100 decibels for 15 minutes) by personal audio
devices and at entertainment venues respectively. [3]
Acknowledging the magnitude of the problem and its impact on the quality of life of people, it is high time that nations should join hands with WHO's
Make Listening Safe initiative to reduce the incidence of hearing loss attributed to recreational noise. Multiple provisions have been proposed to tackle
this emerging epidemic:
• Individuals: People can minimize the risk of hearing loss by reducing the volume of personal audio devices; using audio devices for <1
hour/day; preferring noise-cancelling earphones; using ear plugs at noisy venues; reducing the duration of stay at noisy places; self-
monitoring of sound levels; seeking medical attention on realizing the presence of any warning signs of hearing loss; and by adhering to the
practice of periodic hearing checkups. [3],[5],[6],[7]
• Policy makers and other stakeholders: Even policy makers can play a defining role by formulating and enforcing strict legislation on
recreational noise; creating awareness among the general population about the risks of hearing loss; involving different stakeholders (like
parents, teachers, physicians, health workers, etc.) to educate young people about safe listening; manufacturers of personal audio devices
should be motivated to display information about safe listening on products and packaging; conducting periodic training sessions for the
health workers; instructing managers of entertainment venues to adhere to the safe noise levels/deploy sound limiters/provide earplugs to
customers; and promoting research work in different settings to estimate the prevalence/etiology/impact of hearing loss. [3],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11]
In fact, to set an example, in one of the states of United States in 2014, an ordinance was passed to make it compulsory for bars and clubs
to offer free earplugs to patrons. [5]
Also, the Ear Science Institute of Australia initiated a campaign in school settings to educate and
encourage healthy behaviors to prevent noise-induced hearing loss. [5]
• Internationally: International agencies can work in a coordinated manner with the global partners to reduce the magnitude of hearing loss;
utilizing the opportunity of International Ear Care Day (annually observed by WHO on March 3), to draw attention to young people and their
families about the risks of noise-induced hearing loss and ways to prevent it; ensuring that the governments of various countries
acknowledge noise-induced hearing loss as a priority issue; supporting nations to develop and implement comprehensive programs for
hearing care, and integrating the same with the primary health-care system; and by sharing findings of different studies to assist policy
makers to effectively deal with the menace. [3],[11],[12],[13],[14]
To conclude, as noise-induced hearing loss is irreversible, the need of the hour is to involve the community, program managers, other stakeholders,
and international agencies to effectively reduce the magnitude of the problem worldwide.
http://www.noiseandhealth.org/article.asp?issn=1463-
1741;year=2015;volume=17;issue=76;spage=173;epage=174;aulast=Shrivastava