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motorways the best spot for wind turbines?’ describes a listening experiment in which participants detected turbine noise even when it was 23 dBA quieter than accompanying motorway noise, and they could hear turbines above any volume of noise from local roads. NOISE IMPACTS ON HEALTH 6 Transport noise mitigation must consider the medical impacts People living close to road, rail and aircra! noise are likely to experience negative health effects. Long-term noise exposure may lead to problems with their heart and circulatory (cardiovascular) system and night-time noise is particularly disruptive of sleep patterns, which in turn may lead to cardiovascular health problems, a review of research into the effects of noise on cardiovascular diseases has found. In addition to annoyance and a perception of a lower quality of life, long-term exposure to environmental noise can afect people’s health in other ways. Tis study, based on current literature, reviewed research into the impact that exposure to transport noise has on the cardiovascular system, to help improve noise mitigation policies. Night-time noise may have more of an impact on cardiovascular health than day-time noise, and noise exposure at night is a particular problem because sleep is disturbed. Exposure to noise may lead to changes in the way the body functions: laboratory studies have demonstrated that the body reacts to acute noise exposure by releasing stress hormones, such as adrenaline. As shown by feld studies, these acute efects occur not only at high sound levels in workplace settings, but also at relatively low environmental noise levels when concentration, relaxation, or sleep is disturbed. Tis fight-or-fght reaction is automatic and does not even require a conscious awareness to occur. As a result, people do not get enough sleep and their sleep pattern is broken - disrupted sleep can lead to cardiovascular health problems. For example, exposure to aircraft noise at night was linked with increased blood pressure. If night-time noise levels stimulate high blood pressure – preventing blood vessels from relaxing in order to restore themselves overnight – this can lead to continued high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries and cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes in people who have long-term exposure to high enough noise levels. Population studies on long-term exposure to road, rail trafc and aircraft noise have used diferent research methods, but in general reveal a link between noise Source: Münzel, T., Gori, T., Babisch, W. and Basner, M. (2014) Cardiovascular efects of environmental noise exposure. European Heart Journal. DOI:10.1093/ eurheartj/ehu030 Contact: tmuenzel@uni-mainz. de Temes: Environment and health, Noise exposure and raised blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. Te World Health Organisation (WHO) considers night-time noise levels of less than 55 dBA to be necessary to prevent adverse health efects from noise in the short term, although the long-term goal is 40 dBA. Around 40% of the European population is exposed to road-trafc noise of more than 55 dBA LDN, according to the WHO. Results from a number of studies suggest that the risk of heart disease increases for people exposed to road trafc noise of between 55 and 60 dBA. Te risk of having a stroke was also found to increase, particularly in the elderly. Several studies on people living near airports have found a link between increased exposure to aircraft noise and the risk of having high blood pressure. Recent studies have also associated exposure to day and night-time aircraft noise with an increased risk of heart disease and strokes in people living close to airports. Te researchers suggest that the association between road, rail and aircraft trafc noise with adverse health efects requires policies to reduce the burden of noise that take into account the associated medical efects. Tey suggest that noise should be targeted at source, for example take-of and landing procedures of aircraft should be controlled to reduce noise levels, trafc curfews could be imposed, and better sound insulation could be installed where source control measures are not feasible.4 4 Te energy-equivalent average A-weighted SPL (LAeq) as expressed in decibels is the most commonly used indicator of the noise exposure that people perceive outside and inside their homes. Te A-weighting accounts for the different sensitivity of the human ear at different sound frequencies. “Night-time noise may have more of an impact on cardiovascular health than day-time noise, and noise exposure at night is a particular problem because sleep is disturbed.” SPL: Te sound pressure level (SPL) is a logarithmic measure of the effective pressure of a sound relative to a reference value. It is measured in decibels higher than a reference level. Te reference sound pressure in air is 20 µPa (2×10-5 Pa), which is equivalent to the human hearing threshold at a sound frequency of 1000 Hz. NOISE IMPACTS ON HEALTH 7 Loss of healthy life due to UK noise exposure valued at €1.34 billion Exposure to environmental noise levels above recommended levels results in 1169 cases of dementia, 788 strokes and 542 heart attacks every year in the UK alone, new research suggests. Valuing a year of healthy life at £60 000 (€74 002) means that these health impacts together have a ‘cost’ of £1.09 billion (€1.34 

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