Burden of Disease Due to Traffic Noise in Germany.

Tobollik Tobollik,Plass Plass,Myck Myck,Wothge Wothge,Hintzsche Hintzsche

doi:10.3390/ijerph16132304

Abstract

Traffic noise is nearly ubiquitous and thus can affect the health of many people. Using the German noise mapping data according to the Directive 2002/49/EC of 2017 and exposure-response functions for ischemic heart disease, noise annoyance and sleep disturbance assessed by the World Health Organization’s Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region the burden of disease due to traffic noise is quantified. The burden of disease is expressed in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and its components. The highest burden was found for road traffic noise, with 75,896 DALYs when only considering moderate evidence. When including all available evidence, 176,888 DALYs can be attributable to road traffic noise. The burden due to aircraft and railway noise is lower because fewer people are exposed. Comparing the burden by health outcomes, the biggest share is due to ischemic heart disease (90%) in regard to aircraft noise, however, the lowest evidence was expressed for the association between traffic noise and ischemic heart disease. Therefore, the results should be interpreted with caution. Using alternative input parameters (e.g., exposure data) can lead to a much higher burden. Nevertheless, environmental noise is an important risk factor which leads to considerable loss of healthy life years.

Highlights

Large parts of the population in Germany are affected by harmful levels of traffic noise
Comparing the burden by health outcomes, the biggest share is due to ischemic heart disease (90%) in regard to aircraft noise, the lowest evidence was expressed for the association between traffic noise and ischemic heart disease
Considering all of the included health outcomes regardless of the evidence of their association, the results indicate that the total burden of disease is 176,888 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for road traffic noise, 98,810 DALYs for aircraft noise and 108,902 DALYs for railway noise

Summary

Introduction

Large parts of the population in Germany are affected by harmful levels of traffic noise It reduces the quality of life and poses a considerable risk to human health. The health effects resulting from traffic noise are diverse They include cardiovascular diseases, noise annoyance, sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment (especially in children), hearing impairment and tinnitus as well as psychological disorders, such as depressive episodes and diseases like diabetes or obesity [1,2,3,4,5]. The guidelines are based on a comprehensive systematic analysis of the pertinent literature on the associations between environmental noise from five different noise sources (road traffic, railway, aircraft, wind turbines and leisure activities) and various health effects. The WHO defined five of the analyzed health outcomes as critical for the assessment of environmental noise impacts: cardiovascular diseases, annoyance, effects on sleep, cognitive impairment, hearing impairment and tinnitus

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