Abstract
There is a lack of studies assessing the exposure-response relationship between transportation noise and annoyance in North America. Our aims were to investigate the prevalence of noise annoyance induced by road traffic, trains and airplanes in relation to distance to transportation noise sources, and to total environmental noise levels in Montreal, Canada; annoyance was assessed as noise-induced disturbance. A telephone-based survey among 4336 persons aged >18 years was conducted. Exposure to total environmental noise (A-weighted outdoor noise levels—LAeq24h and day-evening-night equivalent noise levels—Lden) for each study participant was determined using a statistical noise model (land use regression—LUR) that is based on actual outdoor noise measurements. The proportion of the population annoyed by road traffic, airplane and train noise was 20.1%, 13.0% and 6.1%, respectively. As the distance to major roads, railways and the Montreal International Airport increased, the percentage of people disturbed and highly disturbed due to the corresponding traffic noise significantly decreased. When applying the statistical noise model we found a relationship between noise levels and disturbance from road traffic and total environmental noise, with Prevalence Proportion Ratios (PPR) for highly disturbed people of 1.10 (95% CI: 1.07–1.13) and 1.04 (1.02–1.06) per 1 dB(A) Lden, respectively. Our study provides the first comprehensive information on the relationship between transportation noise levels and disturbance in a Canadian city. LUR models are still in development and further studies on transportation noise induced annoyance are consequently needed, especially for sources other than road traffic.
Highlights
Annoyance is the most prevalent health effect in a population exposed to environmental noise
Our aims were to investigate the prevalence of annoyance induced by road traffic, trains and airplanes in relation to (a) distance to transportation noise sources; and (b) to total environmental noise levels estimated with a land use regression model that is based on an extensive noise measurement campaign carried out in Montreal [18]
The socio-demographic characteristics of the study sample with complete data, as well as the noise exposure categories in relation to distance to transportation noise source and estimated LAeq24h noise levels are presented in Table 1
Summary
Annoyance is the most prevalent health effect in a population exposed to environmental noise. It can result from noise disrupting people during daily activities, sleep or rest and may cause a variety of negative responses such as anger, distraction, depression, anxiety, exhaustion and stress-related symptoms [1,2]. Noise annoyance has further been shown to be associated with reduced quality of life [3,4] and well-being [2]. Traffic noise is one of the main sources of annoyance. Several studies have shown positive exposure-response relationships between annoyance and increasing environmental noise levels induced by road traffic, trains and airplane movements [4,5,6,7]. Public Health 2016, 13, 90; doi:10.3390/ijerph13010090 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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