One in five Europeans exposed to harmful transport noise levels

Copenhagen (dpa) – More than 20 percent of Europeans are exposed to unhealthily high levels of transport noise, according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) report released on Tuesday.

An estimated 112 million people across the 31 European countries analysed “are exposed to long-term noise levels from road, rail and aircraft sources that exceed the thresholds” set by European Union directives, the EEA writes in the new report.

As for Germany – the most populated country of those analysed for the report – the authors estimated that almost 22 million people (26 percent of the population) have to cope with noise levels above the threshold of 55 decibels.

Noise levels throughout the day were taken into account for this part of the report. For the night alone, there was also a second evaluation with a threshold value of 50 decibels. This was exceeded for almost 15 million people (18 percent of the population).

Such noise levels are harmful to human health, the environment and the economy, the experts said, taking aim at the slow progress being made in reducing noise pollution.

According to the EEA, long-term exposure to traffic noise is associated with a wide range of negative health effects, including cardiovascular disease, mental illness, diabetes and even premature death.

Children and young people are particularly susceptible to the effects of noise, which can contribute to issues including reading difficulties, behavioural problems and obesity.

Noise reduction in sight?

The Copenhagen-based EU authority warns that “the EU zero-pollution objective to reduce the number of people chronically disturbed by transport noise by 30 percent by 2030 is unlikely to be met without additional measures.”

More action needs to be taken to tackle the problem at both European and national level, for example by improving access to quiet and green spaces in cities, the report says, citing data collected in 2021 from 31 EEA member states. These include the 27 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

According to the report, the consequences of noise pollution go beyond human health: noise also affects wildlife on land and underwater, and there are high economic and social costs associated with diseases and health problems.

Each year, traffic-related noise pollution in Europe causes the loss of 1.3 million healthy life years, which corresponds to an annual cost of at least 95.6 billion Euro, representing around 0.6 percent of the region′s gross domestic product (GDP) each year. (25 June)