1. Health effects of noise: health community’s policy recommendations
Roberta Savli
Health & Environment Alliance (HEAL)

2. About HEAL

3. Our members Over 75 members in > 28 countries
Environmental groups
Patient groups
Doctors
Women’s groups
Scientists
Nurses
Youth groups
Public health research institutes
Public health insurers
Promoting environmental policies
that contribute to good health 3

4. Our global partners World Health Organisation
Global Climate and Health Alliance
IPEN a toxic free future
Chemical Assessment Health Advisory Committee
World Medical Association
United Nations Environment Programme
Collaborative on Health and the Environment Science
Global Alliance on Health and Pollution 4

5. HEAL strategic objectives to 2020
PREVENT: Target priorities
Integrate health prevention into environment policy and sustainable development by bringing health science to people and policy makers
UNITE: Bridge global and local action
Develop a global collaborative network of partners with fully engaged members & build strong grassroots capacity
COMMUNICATE: Mobilise for healthy people and a healthy planet
Raise awareness & consolidate as international hub for health and environmental information, science and policy development

6. Noise pollution in Europe

7. The 5 Ws to lead actions on noise
WHAT? Environmental noise, a critical public health concern
WHY? Noise is the second largest environmental cause of health problems, just after the impact of air quality
WHERE? 44% of Europeans (over 210 million people) regularly exposed to noise levels considered potentially dangerous to health + growing problem due to proliferation of urban settings
WHO? European Union and Member States
WHEN? By 2020, significantly decrease noise pollution, moving closer to levels recommended by WHO
One of the goals of the 7th Environment Action Programme, Living well, within the limits of our planet

8. Health effects of noise
WHO: at least one million healthy life years lost every year from traffic-related noise in Western Europe
Mortality
Disease (insomnia, cardiovascular)
Risk factors (blood pressure, cholesterol, blood clotting, glucose)
Stress indicators (autonomous response, stress hormones)
Feeling of discomfort (disturbance, annoyance, sleep disturbance)
10,000 yearly premature deaths
910,000 cases of hypertension and 43 thousand hospital admissions per year
Severity
8 million suffer from sleep disturbance: 1/5 Europeans regularly exposed to sound levels at night harmful for their health
Number of people affected

9. Noise pollution from a public health perspective
Rise of chronic diseases in the EU, caused or exacerbated by noise pollution
Ensuring children’s health and well-being
Ensuring same level of health protection from environmental noise for all EU citizens: reducing inequalities
Significant health costs: billion Euros per year
Citizens’ concern about health impacts of noise

10. Conclusions & policy recommendations

11. Future of noise – I
Need to have more EU action and not less (policy with clear EU added value)
Need to implement 7 EAP: protect citizens health and quality of life by moving closer to WHO guidelines by 2020
Better implementation of Environmental Noise Directive
City design (urban mobility and land-using plans, win-win for reducing noise and air pollution exposure)
Parking and loading controls, delivery time windows
Promotion of low emission vehicles, based on performance
Modal shift to an increased share of walking and cycling (pedestrianisation and bike lanes)
Better and accessible public transport network
Inclusion of different traditional transport modes, such as bike, car and ride sharing
Information to public (e.g.: awareness raising campaigns, innovative tools)

12. Future of noise – II
Setting limit or target values in the review of the END + adoption of comprehensive noise action plan integrating noise into other EU policies
Tackling noise pollution at source
More stringent legislation on vehicle noise
Acoustic protection and classification of dwellings: e.g., DG ENV smart buildings considering noise within the indicators (currently, only additional aspect/box to check)
Follow-up to Parma Declaration, actions on noise to be foreseen in the Declaration of the Sixth Ministerial Conference on Health and Environment

13. Thank you for your attention!
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