ABSTRACT
The Canadian Perspectives on Environmental Noise Survey was completed online by 6647 randomly selected Canadians 18 years of age and older between April 12 and May 25, 2021. The survey objective was to explore attitudes, perceptions, and expectations toward environmental noise in rural and non-rural Canada. The questionnaire assessed self-reported high sleep disturbance (HSD) in the previous year, at home. The prevalence of HSD was 7.8% overall. A list of potential sources of sleep disturbance was provided to the full sample, where 6.1%, 5.2%, and 3.0% reported HSD by noisy neighbors, road traffic noise and indoor noise, respectively. Stress/anxiety or worrying about something was selected most frequently at 12.9%. Finally, 7.6% and 5.5% reported pain/illness and partner's sleep disturbance, respectively, as sources of HSD. Reported HSD was significantly higher among respondents below 55 years of age, females, lower income groups, unemployed respondents, those on paid leave (sick, maternity, disability), and living in an urban area. Expectations of quiet, perceiving nighttime noise to have increased over time, high noise sensitivity, hearing and being highly annoyed by road traffic noise was also associated with an increased prevalence of reporting HSD. In contrast to hearing impairment and heart disease (including high blood pressure);rated physical health, mental health, anxiety/depression, and reporting a sleep disorder, were associated with increased HSD. The perceived affects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health and annoyance toward environmental and indoor noise also influenced HSD. In the fully adjusted multivariate logistic regression model, the effect of age, gender, changes in nighttime noise, road traffic noise annoyance, noise sensitivity and sleep disorder remained statistically significant. The univariate and multivariate models showed a similar prevalence of HSD between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians. Results are discussed in relation to the provision of advice on sleep and health under Canada's Impact Assessment Act. © 2023
ABSTRACT
The rapid development in traffic density and the economic transformation since 1989 has brought new problems concerning road traffic noise in Slovakia. The aim is to follow the time trends of noise annoyance in monitored localities in Bratislava at time intervals of 10, 20, and 30 years. We used the validated methodology for subjective assessment of noise annoyance in young and healthy individuals, as well as a method of objectification by direct measurement of sound levels. Respondents (n=3,675) were university students, living in the exposed and control dormitories representing a homogenous sample. The sharp increase in traffic noise burden in the exposed area was found at the first 10-year interval (1989-1999) (LAeq=67.5 dB). A slight decrease occurred in 2019 up to LAeq=63.9 dB and during lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic it dropped to LAeq =62.5 dB. A sharp increase in road traffic noise annoyance was observed in the first 10-year interval (ORMH=2.56 (95 % CI=1.93-3.42) vs 6.01 (95% CI=4.97-7.95) with a slightly decreasing trend in 2020-2021. An increase in noise annoyance from entertainment facilities was observed as well. Despite a slightly declining trend, road traffic noise annoyance is still an important issue and there is a need for preventive measures to reduce such exposure in residential areas. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Completely reliable annual values of environmental noise indicators can be obtained only through continuous annual noise measurements. This paper examines the justification of using a series of short-term measurements to determine the annual values of environmental noise indicators. The examination involves the application of a proposed measurement program to the results of continuous annual noise monitoring at two locations in the city of Niš, Serbia, in which road traffic is the dominant noise source. Monitoring results include the period when the state of emergency was in effect because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The obtained results indicate that using the proposed program is fully justified if the goal is to define annual environmental noise indicator values for specific cases only. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic the government of Spain decreed the State of Alarm to confine the entire population at their homes, except for essential services. Therefore, the central objective of this study is to evaluate the implication of this situation for the environmental noise existing in the city of Huelva (Spain). This study demonstrates that during the state of alarm an average daily reduction of 3.4 dBA was noted, and in the central moments of the day these reductions reached up to 4.4 dBA, while from 10:00 to 12:00 pm the reduction was around 6.5 dBA. Nevertheless, there were two moments of day: 3:00 am (garbage collection, street cleaning and container disinfection), and 8:00 pm (daily applause for health professionals), when the noise during the pandemic was higher than before it. It is further shown that globally, the loudest events only decreased by about 3 dBA, while the global background noise decreased by 10 dBA during the alarm state. Regarding road traffic noise, it is verified that in addition to being reduced by about 4 dBA, traffic represents 6.7% of noisy events during the alarm state, while before it represented 13%.
ABSTRACT
Most of the Indian cities and towns have been facing serious traffic noise pollution due to urbanization, substantial growth of new vehicles, inadequate road network, etc. Automotive traffic, railroads, and air traffic are the most common sources of noise pollution in cities, with vehicular traffic accounting for around 55% of overall metropolitan noise. Prolonged exposure to such loud noise causes anger, stress, mental diseases, discomfort, hypertension, concentration problems, and sleeplessness. This study aims to investigate the effects of COVID-19 societal lockdown on changes in the noise pollution levels before, during, and after the lockdown period in various industrial, commercial, residential, and silence zones in Bengaluru, India, in light of the recent imposition of COVID-19 societal lockdown. According to data acquired from the KSPCB (Karnataka State Pollution Control Board) online portal, the average noise levels before and during lockdown were determined to be in the range of 59.4 dB to 70.9 dB and 58.2 dB to 62.7 dB for different zones. During the lockdown, all commercial, industrial and educational activities were closed to limit the spread of infection, resulting in usage of private and commercial transportation declining dramatically. Reduction in the noise level was observed during the lockdown in all monitoring stations of Bengaluru, except for Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, where the noise level didn???t decline because of a COVID emergency. Maximum reduction was observed in the commercial area (11.56%) followed by industrial areas (8.34%). The result further indicated that only the industrial area experienced an increase of 8.41% in noise level, while other areas experienced a reduction in a noise level during the early post-lockdown. During the mid and late post-lockdown periods, most locations experienced a rapid spike in the noise intensity.