[Noise induced annoyance and morbidity. Results from the pan European LARES-survey]

Traffic noise (road, train and flight noise, and the noise of parking cars), is the dominant source of annoyance in the living environment of many European countries. This is followed by neighbourhood noise (neighbouring apartments, staircases and noise within the apartment). The subjective experience of noise stress can, through central nervous processes, lead to an inadequate neuro-endocrine reaction and finally to regulation diseases. Within the context of the LARES-survey, noise annoyance within the everyday living environment was collected and evaluated in connection with medically diagnosed illnesses. Adults who indicated chronically strong annoyance due to neighbourhood noise were found to have an increased health risk in the cardiovascular system, the movement apparatus as well as depression and migraine. For adults with chronically strong annoyance caused by traffic noise, the risks to the respiratory system also increased. In older people, both neighbourhood and traffic noise indicated, in general, a lower risk of noise annoyance induced illness than in adults. It can be assumed that the effects of noise induced annoyance in older people is concealed by the physical consequences of age (with a strong increase in illnesses). With children, the effects of noise induced annoyance from traffic as well as neighbourhood noise is evident in the respiratory system. The increased illness risks in the respiratory system in children do not seem to be caused primarily by air pollutants but rather, as with case of neighbourhood noise, though emotional stress.