Noise pollution contributes to 66 thousand premature deaths per year in Europe. More than 1 in 5 person is exposed to the risk of getting sick

We always live worse. With a level of pollution that increasingly affects our psychophysical well -being and a lifestyle that drastically moves away from the model similar to the concept of longevity and healthy aging.
A new report of theEaethe European Environmental Agencyemphasizes the risks linked to noise pollution, tracing a European scenario far from comforting.

The latest report of the environmental noise directive (End) has highlighted that Over 20% of Europeans, or more than one in five, are exposed to harmful noise levels caused by transport. A percentage that rises up to 30% if compared with the most severe recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO)coming to involve almost one in three citizens. The most widespread source of noise is the road trafficexposing about 92 million people to levels higher than the END threshold of 55 decibels for the day-evening period, compared to the 18 million people exposed to railway traffic and 2.6 million to the sound of the planes.

The consequences of health noise

Compared to others Environmental health threatsThe transport noise It is placed among the first three, immediately after theair pollution he is Temperature related factors.

Chronic exposure to transport noise contributes to 66,000 premature deaths per year in Europe, also causing about 50,000 new cases of Cardiovascular diseases and 22,000 cases of type 2 diabetes. Almost 16.9 million Europeans suffer from long -term annoyance due to the noise of transport and about 4.6 million suffer from serious sleep disorders.

According to new research, the noise could also contribute to thousands of cases of depression and dementia. It is estimated that over half a million children in Europe suffer from Reading difficulties and about 63,000 of behavioral problems Due to the noise of transport. High noise levels are also connected to about 272,000 cases of infantile overweight.

Noise pollution deriving from transport It involves the loss of 1.3 million years of life in good year per year in Europeequal to an annual economic cost of at least 95.6 billion euros, equal to about 0.6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Region every year.

2030, an impossible goal without new laws

Based on current projections, it is unlikely that the EU achieves the goal established in the EU 2021 action plan “Towards zero pollution of air, water and soil” To reduce by 30% by 2030 (compared to 2017 levels) the number of people chronically disturbed by the noise of transport by 2030 (compared to 2017 levels) without additional measures, including regulatory or legislative changes.
The number of people strongly disturbed by the sound of transport in the EU decreased only by about 3% between 2017 and 2022, a drop not sufficient to achieve the objective of reducing noise to zero pollution.