Burden of disease due to transportation noise in the Nordic countries

Abstract

Environmental noise is of considerable public health concern, and quantification of the health impacts is important for preventive strategies. In this project we estimated the burden of disease due to road traffic and railway noise in four Nordic countries and their capital cities in terms of DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Years). Available data on noise exposure were used, including data from strategic noise mapping according to the Environmental Noise Directive, END (Directive 2002/49/EC). High degree of noise annoyance (HA), high degree of sleep disturbance (HSD) and ischemic heart disease (IHD) were included in the analyses based on exposure-response associations recommended by WHO. Country-specific estimates of IHD from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study were used. Since several aspects of the noise exposure modelling vary considerably between the Nordic countries, no comparable estimates could be made for the entire countries. For the capital cities comparable estimates ranged from 330 to 485 DALYs/100,000 for road traffic noise, and from 40 to 140 DALYs/100 000 for railway noise. High annoyance and high degree of sleep disturbance accounted for the largest part of DALYs for road traffic and railway noise, respectively. Further harmonization of noise exposure modelling is important for comparative disease burden assessment.