A study by the noise observatory in Île-de-France concludes that noise pollution within the “dense Ile-de-France zone” is very seriously detrimental to the health of its inhabitants.
107,766 years of healthy life are lost each year in Ile-de-France due to noise pollution, according to the worrying conclusions of a report of Bruitparif, the noise observatory in Île-de-France, revealed by The world. In this “dense Ile-de-France zone” where 10 million inhabitants live, 90% of the population is exposed to noise levels above the thresholds recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
In the areas most exposed to transport noise pollution (located near an airport, a highway or near a railway for example), inhabitants can even lose more than three years of healthy life. . An alarming finding.
The health impact of environmental noise
“The health impacts of exposure to noise are twofold: impact on hearing and so-called extra-auditory impacts“, writes the observatory. More precisely, “lHearing impacts can affect the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The extra-auditory impacts are not yet all known, but they primarily concern the following areas: cardiovascular and metabolic effects (endocrine and immune disorders, in particular), discomfort, effects on sleep, learning disabilities, adverse effects during pregnancy , quality of life, mental health and well-being, among others”.
Prolonged exposure to environmental noise, particularly in dense areas, is therefore a public health issue, yet still underestimated by public authorities. On average, the noise pollution generated by the Transport in the Paris conurbation is responsible, each year, for the loss of 75,000 years of life in good health, ie a loss of 7.3 months per inhabitant on average over the course of an entire life. It should be noted that this loss can reach “18 months for the people most heavily exposed to noise”.
The main negative effect observed on health remains sleep disorders, which represent the loss of 44,000 years of healthy life each year. “Hearing impairment is the second health effect with 30,000 years of healthy life lost per year”. The noise of road traffic is “the main source of morbidity, concentrating alone 85% of the estimates of loss of years of life in good health in the Paris agglomeration”, alarms the observatory. . As such, Bruitparif classifies noise as “the second cause of morbidity behind air pollution” among the environmental risk factors in the city.
Noise pollution generates stress
Last November, a study presented to the The 2018 American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions, held in Dallas, Texas, claimed that prolonged exposure to noise increases the risk of strokes and heart attacks because it fuels brain activity. amygdala, a region of the brain involved in the stress response.
According to the researchers, chronic and high noise pollution increases stress, which in turn leads to increased inflammation of blood vessels, which is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The researchers also noted that participants with the most stress-related brain activity were more than three times likely to experience a major cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke.
In January 2018, researchers also looked into the impact of wind turbine noise on human health and concluded that it generated significant stress in the people most exposed geographically. The scientific literature is full of alarming conclusions attesting to the negative effects of noise on health. LWHO has even reassessed its thresholds upwards: 53 decibels (dB) for road traffic over 24 hours and 45 dB during the night (between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.), and 40 dB for planes.
