Abstract
This study provides additional evidence for the positive effect of the presence of a quiet façade at a dwelling and aims at unraveling potential mechanisms. Locations with dominant road traffic noise and high Lden-levels at the most exposed façade were selected. Dwellings both with and without a quiet façade were deliberately sought out. Face-to-face questionnaires (N = 100) were taken to study the influence of the presence of a quiet side in relation to noise annoyance and sleep disturbance. As a direct effect, the absence of a quiet façade in the dwelling (approached as a front-back façade noise level difference smaller than 10 dBA) leads to an important increase of at least moderately annoyed people (odds-ratio adjusted for noise sensitivity equals 3.3). In an indirect way, a bedroom located at the quiet side leads to an even stronger reduction of the self-reported noise annoyance (odds-ratio equal to 10.6 when adjusted for noise sensitivity and front façade Lden). The quiet side effect seems to be especially applicable for noise sensitive persons. A bedroom located at the quiet side also reduces noise-induced sleep disturbances. On a loud side, bedroom windows are more often closed, however, conflicting with the preference of dwellers.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) “Burden of disease by environmental noise” report [1]quantifies the negative effects of long-term exposure to road traffic noise levels
This study aims at providing additional evidence on the effect of a quiet dwelling façade in an urban and suburban environment and tries to unravel potential mechanisms explaining this effect
The distribution over gender, age, years living at the location, education, employment and noise sensitivity is shown in Figure 3. 52% of the respondents are more than 50 years old. 53% of the respondents were female. 52% of the respondents received a higher education
Summary
Quantifies the negative effects of long-term exposure to road traffic noise levels. Estimates in terms of “disability-adjusted life-years” (DALYs) list sleep disturbance, annoyance, ischemic heart diseases, cognitive impairment of children and tinnitus as major health effects, leading to a loss of about one million healthy life years every year in western Europe. The first round of strategic noise mapping in the European Union showed that within the big urban agglomerations (with more than 250,000 inhabitants) about 56 million people are exposed to Lden levels above 55 dBA, and 40 million to Lnight levels above 50 dBA, resulting from road traffic [2]. Repeated extensive measurement campaigns in the period 1996–2009 in Flanders (Belgium) hardly showed any improvement in the noise exposure measured as equivalent levels in front of the façade [3]. It can be concluded that road traffic noise is a persistent and major environmental problem
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