Norwegian study says nearly 5,000 healthy life years lost to traffic noise

According to a survey conducted for the Climate and Pollution Agency (the former SFT), a directorate under the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, 4, 512 healthy years of life are lost each year in Norway due to traffic noise. The study, which claims to have quantified for the first time the relationship between traffic noise and health problems, also showed that 1.5 million people in the country are exposed to noise levels that exceed the recommended maximum level of 55Db. In such cases, residents can c
April 16, 2012 Read time: 1 min
RSSAccording to a survey conducted for the 4893 Climate and Pollution Agency (the former SFT), a directorate under the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, 4, 512 healthy years of life are lost each year in Norway due to traffic noise. The study, which claims to have quantified for the first time the relationship between traffic noise and health problems, also showed that 1.5 million people in the country are exposed to noise levels that exceed the recommended maximum level of 55Db. In such cases, residents can complain to the road operator. Although the agency acknowledges that the figures are alarming, it says that, having quantified how traffic noise degrades people’s lives and health, it will allow it to focus on specific measures to reduce traffic noise.

Related Content

  • Volvo and KPMG find buses are key to urban air quality
    September 13, 2016
    Buses can play a key role in the battle to improve air quality in towns and cities as David Crawford discovers. A city with a population of half a million would gain about US$12.3 million in annualised societal savings if all its buses ran on electricity instead of diesel. This is the conclusion of a wide-ranging analysis carried out by Swedish bus manufacturer Volvo Group and global business consultants KPMG.
    Read More
  • The effectiveness of roads policing
    March 6, 2015
    The Joint Roads Policing Unit of Thames Valley Police and Hampshire Constabulary in the UK commissioned the Transport Research laboratory (TRL) to evaluate the effectiveness of their roads policing strategy in terms of reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured in road collisions. The focus was on the fatal four causes of collisions: speeding, drink-driving, not wearing a seat belt and drivers using mobile phones. TRL carried out a detailed literature review, in-depth review and analysis of
    Read More
  • Impact of speed limits in Barcelona
    January 20, 2012
    When Barcelona imposed an 80km/h (50mph), the result was significant in environmental, accident, fatality and injury terms. The 80km/h speed limit had the same positive environmental effect as if 22,100 cars were eliminated from the roads in the metropolitan area. Moreover, a reduction in the consumption of fuel by more than 24,000 tonnes per year was also achieved, while accidents, fatalities and injuries also showed substantial improvement.
    Read More
  • Pollution has more than one solution
    April 7, 2014
    Professor Alexander Baklanov of the World Meteorological Organization talks to Colin Sowman about the difficulties of reducing urban pollution. The inhabitants of Beijing have recently been suffering pollution levels 20 times the World Health Organisation’s recommended limit while the European Union is revitalising its efforts to implement and enforce air quality standards. Almost inevitably much of the clean-up efforts are likely to focus on traffic planners and engineers.
    Read More

Highlighted Content