The impact of noise pollution on health

What you need to know Noise pollution affects over 100 million people in Europe and is estimated to contribute to around 12 000 premature deaths and the loss of over one million healthy life years annually Long term exposure to environmental noise is associated with a wide range of adverse health outcomes, including sleep disturbance and cardiovascular diseases Effective management requires a multidisciplinary approach at the patient, provider, and policy levels to restore health, restrict exposure, reduce noise at its source, or, as a last resort, remodel the receiver's environment A 52 year old man presents with persistent sleep disturbance, tiredness, and difficulty concentrating.His partner reports increasing irritability.The couple have recently moved to a house near a busy motorway.After managing his immediate concerns, the GP considers cardiometabolic risk reduction and the health effects of long term exposure to transport noise pollution from road, rail, and aircraft.Environmental noise contributes to a wide range of adverse health outcomes, including sleep disturbance, cardiovascular disease, and premature death. 1 -3 Estimates from the World Health Organization and the European Environment Agency, based on epidemiological studies, suggest that long term exposure to harmful levels of environmental noise contributes to 48 000 new cases of heart disease and 12 000 premature deaths annually across Europe. 4 Noise exposure is also estimated to result in the loss of over one million healthy life years in Europe each year. 5In the UK in 2018, about 40% of the population were exposed to road traffic noise, 4.5% to rail noise, and 4.8% to aircraft noise exceeding 50 decibels (dB) Lden (day-evening-night average over 24 hours).These exposures were associated with a loss of approximately 130 000 healthy life years in that year. 6mpared with air pollution, noise is a relatively neglected pollutant, less well understood, and insufficiently regulated. 2This article reviews the evidence of its impact on health, outlines how to identify patients whose symptoms may be linked to noise exposure, and suggests strategies to mitigate its adverse effects.