All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodies
An official website of the European Union | How do you know?
Environmental information systems
Key messages: In its latest EU-wide noise health risk assessment, the EEA estimated that long-term exposure to environmental noise from transport leaves 18.4 million people highly annoyed and 5.5 million highly sleep disturbed, and results in 39,800 new cases yearly of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) causing nearly 10,600 premature deaths. New evidence shows that noise from transport, mainly road traffic, is associated with a higher risk of other diseases not evaluated in previous EU-wide health impact assessments. Future EU-wide noise health risk assessments will consider additional health outcomes and lower effect thresholds. It is anticipated that the disease burden related to noise from transport will be higher than previously estimated.
Table 1. Growing evidence of the health impacts of noise since publication of the WHO 2018 Environmental Noise Guidlines
Health outcome | New evidence |
|---|---|
Mortality | High-quality evidence shows that road noise is associated with various cause-specific mortality outcomes, including all natural-cause mortality. |
Cardiovascular diseases | Several studies have provided consolidating evidence that noise from transport sources (especially road traffic) increases the risk of developing a wide range of cardiovascular diseases including IHD, stroke and heart failure. |
Diabetes | Several studies have provided consolidating evidence that noise from road transport sources increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. |
Depression | Several studies have investigated the association between transport noise and depression. However, evidence is still limited for road and railway due to the low number and quality of studies. |
Cognition | A growing number of studies are investigating the association between transport noise and children’s cognition. Evidence is limited due to the heterogeneity in cognition used. |
Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease | A number of studies have investigated the association between transport noise and dementia. Although some studies found positive strong associations between exposure to road or railway noise and the risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, evidence is still limited. |
Cancer | Cancer is an emerging health outcome in the field of noise and health. Associations between different types of cancer and exposure to transport noise have been investigated, but further studies are needed for confirmation. |
Other | In recent years there have been studies linking traffic noise to other health outcomes such as infertility, suicide, respiratory problems and tinnitus. However, they are still limited in number. |
Sources: Adapted from ETC HE, forthcoming for mortality, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Based on Andersen et al., 2018; Sørensen et al., 2015, 2021; Thacher et al., 2023; Abbasi et al., 2022 for cancer and Wicki et al., 2023; Min and Min, 2017; Sørensen, 2023; Liu et al., 2021 for other outcomes.
The health risks presented in the first Zero Pollution Monitoring Assessment Report (EEA, 2022) were estimated using the relationships presented in the WHO 2018 Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region (WHO Europe, 2019) and data from the strategic noise maps 2017 reported by Member States under the Environmental Noise Directive (END). The health outcomes included annoyance, sleep disturbance, incidence and mortality of IHD.
However, since the publication of the WHO 2018 guidelines, the body of evidence for the health effects of noise has increased (see Table 1). For instance, several publications in recent years have linked traffic noise to other health outcomes including cancer, dementia, suicide, tinnitus, respiratory problems and infertility, as well as to various cause-specific mortality outcomes. In addition, there have been newer studies on cardiometabolic outcomes.
New research also consolidates the evidence that negative health effects start to occur at much lower levels than END thresholds i.e. 55dB Lden (day, evening and night noise, decibels) and 50dB Lnight (nighttime noise, decibels), and in some cases even below the WHO recommendations. Many studies show effects from as low as 45dB Lden (ETC HE, forthcoming).
Implications for future EU-wide noise health risk assessments
A growing body of evidence indicates that the disease burden due to noise from road, rail and aircraft may be higher than previously estimated. Although there is still not sufficient evidence for all outcomes listed in Table 1, the estimation of the impacts of noise should be extended to capture other effects that were not quantified in previous EEA noise assessments and for which there is now higher evidence.
Based on a systematic review and a meta-analysis from the European Topic Centre on Human Health and the Environment (ETC HE) (forthcoming) it is suggested that new EU-wide noise risk assessments consider the following additional health outcomes:
diabetes;
a wider range of cardiovascular diseases including not only IHD but also heart failure, hypertension and stroke;
all natural-cause mortality.
In addition, lower thresholds of effect starting at 45 dB Lden should also be considered.
The inclusion of multiple cardiovascular disease outcomes together, as opposed to using only IHD, is expected to result in a significant increase in the burden of disease morbidity due to noise, compared to previous EEA noise health risk assessments. Mortality estimates will also be significantly higher due to the change from IHD mortality to all-natural cause mortality.
The inclusion of multiple cardiovascular disease outcomes together, as opposed to using only IHD, is expected to result in a significant increase in the burden of disease morbidity due to noise, compared to previous EEA noise health risk assessments. Mortality estimates will also be significantly higher due to the change from IHD mortality to all-natural cause mortality.
Please consult the relevant indicators and signals below for a more comprehensive overview on the topic.
Zero Pollution Action Plan 2030 target or policy objectives
- Reduce the share of people chronically disturbed by transport noise by 30%.
Return to the main pages:
Other relevant indicators and signals
References and footnotes
- ETC HE, forthcoming, Environmental noise health risk assessment: methodology for assessing health risks using data reported under the Environmental Noise Directive, European Topic Centre on Human Health and the Environment.a b
- Andersen, Z. J., et al., 2018, ‘Long-term exposure to road traffic noise and incidence of breast cancer: a cohort study’, Breast Cancer Research 20 (1), pp. 119↵
- Sørensen, M., et al., 2015, ‘Residential exposure to traffic noise and risk for non-hodgkin lymphoma among adults’, Environmental Research 142, pp. 61-65↵
- Sørensen, M., et al., 2021, ‘Road and railway noise and risk for breast cancer: A nationwide study covering Denmark’, Environmental Research 195, pp. 110739.↵
- Thacher, J. D., et al., 2023, ‘Exposure to long-term source-specific transportation noise and incident breast cancer: A pooled study of eight Nordic cohorts’, Environment International 178, pp. 108108↵
- Abbasi, M., et al., 2022, ‘Noise exposure and the risk of cancer: a comprehensive systematic review’, Reviews on Environmental Health, 38 (4), pp. 713-726.↵
- Wicki, B., et al., 2023, ‘Suicide and Transportation Noise: A Prospective Cohort Study from Switzerland’, Environmental Health Perspectives 131 (3), pp. 037013↵
- Min, K-B. and Min, J-Y., 2017, ‘Exposure to environmental noise and risk for male infertility: A population-based cohort study’, Environmental Pollution 226, pp. 118-124↵
- Sørensen, M., 2023, ‘Emerging adverse health effects of traffic noise’. 14th ICBEN Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem, 18-22 June, Belgrade.↵
- Liu, S., et al., 2021, ‘Long-term air pollution and road traffic noise exposure and COPD: the Danish Nurse Cohort’, The European Respiratory Journal 58 (6), p. 2004594.↵
- ↵EEA, 2022, ' Noise pollution and health' (https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/zero-pollution/health/noise-pollution) accessed 28 August 2024.
- ↵WHO Europe, 2019, 'Environmental noise guidelines for the European Region' (https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/9789289053563) accessed 22 November 2023.