In 2011 the World Health Organization (WHO) published the report Burden of
disease from environmental noise: Quantification of healthy life years lost in
Europe (read here). The report estimated that at least one million healthy life years 14
are lost every year from environmental noise in the western part of Europe,
specifically:
61,000 years for ischemic heart disease;
45,000 years for cognitive impairment of children;
903,000 years for sleep disturbance;
22,000 years for tinnitus; and
654,000 years for annoyance.
In 2018, the WHO published its updated Environmental Noise Guidelines for
the European Region. The main purpose of these guidelines is to provide
recommendations for protecting human health from exposure to
environmental noise originating from various sources. They are underpinned
by evidence reviews relating to the specific health endpoints chosen by the
guideline development group. To download a copy of this updated report, click here.
