Adverse Effects of Long Term Exposure to Road Traffic Noise

Road traffic is a prominent source of environmental noise exposure in urbanized areas. Because of its common presence, traffic is a source of exposure that is not easy to avoid. As a consequence, it is affecting a substantial proportion of residents in their homes, and in their living environment more in general. In view of reducing the number of people affected by environmental noise exposure, the European Environmental Noise Directive (END) was adopted in 2002, geared towards the assessment and management of environmental noise. Over the last decades it has become increasingly recognised that environmental noise exposure in the living environment may lead to adverse health effects. Annoyance and sleep disturbance, mainly related to road traffic noise, are considered to be the most prominent noise effects (WHO, 2011). For these effects exposure response relationships have been established (Miedema and Oudshoorn, 2001; Miedema and Vos, 2007). During the last decades, in laboratory studies, field studies and epidemiological studies, it has been studied if and how noise exposure may lead to further adverse health effects. Evidence for a relationship between long term exposure to noise and stress related health effects, including cardiovascular disease, is increasing (Babisch et al., 2008; WHO, 2011; Van Kempen and Babisch, 2012; Basner et al., 2013; Babisch, 2014