Abstract
In December 2021, the Federal Noise Abatement Commission, a counseling committee of the Swiss government, has proposed new noise limits for road, rail and air traffic that overall are considerably stronger than the values that are currently in force. For the day period, the recommended limits for road traffic noise remain the same, but are about 6 dB lower than before in the case of railway and aircraft noise. For the nighttime, the recommended values are about 1 to 3 dB stronger than the current limits. Despite this tightening, the desired new Swiss noise limits are still less stringent than the seminal WHO recommendations from 2018. Aside from juxtapositioning the Swiss versus WHO limits, we explain that such differences are not only due to different conceptions and legal demands regarding the protection of health, but also due to different legal implications that are triggered if limit values are exceeded. The WHO limits can be seen as general recommendations for rather long-term policy goals, whereas the Swiss limit values only protect against "significant" disturbances of health and well-being in a rather short-term context of current political feasibility. Comparing noise regulations using limit values given in decibels alone remains a difficult issue.
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