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Attribution to road traffic of the impact of noise on health

Publikation Lärm und Gesundheit
Image caption:
Year of publication2002
Author(s)Ruedi Müller-Wenk
Publisher(s)Bundesamt für Umwelt, BAFU
Website: http://www.admin.ch/buwal
Place of publicationBern
Number of pages70
Languagede, en, fr
Price10 CHF
Purchasehttp://www.umwelt-schweiz.ch/buwal/shop/shop
JournalUmwelt-Materialien
Page(s)70
Magazine No.Nr. 339
In: Environmental Series
The study presents a new computational procedure for the determination of the principal forms of health impairment resulting from noise emissions in Switzerland. It shows that noise, a stress factor, raises the risk of cardiovascular disease and heart attack.
The overall health impairment is due mainly not to the rare cases of serious illnesses such as heart attack but to the much more frequent, less severe instances of disturbed sleep and disrupted communication. The level of noise caused by 200 vehicles an hour is already sufficient to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. As noise abatement walls on sloping sites have hardly any effect, Switzerland is relying increasingly on subsidising soundproofing windows.