2013-01-03 09:36:52
Noise is defined by the French Academy as a “ sound or set of sounds that occurs outside of any regular harmony “. Noise is a physical phenomenon (a sound), associated with a negative perception by the individual which is not directly measurable. Since one person’s music is often the noise of one’s neighbor, each person has their own perception of noise which depends on multiple components: contextual, personal and cultural.
Beyond the harmful effects on the hearing system associated with high sound levels, more often observed for occupational exposures or risky behaviors (listening to amplified music without protection, for example), other health effects of noise ( so-called “extra-auditory”) can appear at lower levels of sound exposure. Environmental noise exposures linked to transport as well as industrial or leisure activities are mainly affected by these extra-auditory effects.
Noise pollution also depends on the characteristics of the sounds emitted as well as those of the person receiving them: the frequency of the noise, purity, intensity, emergence (suddenness), duration, individual vulnerability and association with other risky exposures (chemical or medicinal agents), etc. This is particularly why, for the same level of exposure to noise, extra-auditory effects, such as discomfort or sleep disturbances, vary from one individual to another. It is this characteristic that makes them particularly difficult to predict.
The Agency’s work on noise pollution
In 2003, the Agency was requested by the Ministries responsible for health and the environment to produce an inventory of the assessment methods and quantification of the health impact of noise pollution, with a particular attention paid to the exposure of sensitive populations (children and adolescents, elderly people, shift workers, residents of motorways and airports). This inventory, carried out within the framework of European Directive 2002/49/EC which sets objectives in terms of protection once morest noise, is accompanied by an evaluation of scientific knowledge on the relevance of the indicators used in French regulations.
Furthermore, in June 2006, the Agency was contacted by the Ministries in charge of health and the environment, in order to analyze the recommendations of the National Academy of Medicine, whose report aimed to evaluate the impact of the operation of wind turbines on human health.
In November 2009, the Agency was contacted by the Ministries responsible for health and the environment in order to develop operational indicators accompanied by reference and management values to account for the health effects associated with occasional noise events. as part of assessments of health impacts linked to noise from land transport and activities. Considering that in the current state of knowledge, the definition of indices or indicators responding satisfactorily to the problem was not possible, the working group developed a method for evaluating extra-auditory health impacts linked to noise by integrating non-acoustic psychological, social and territorial determinants.
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