He noise have a detrimental effect on health of people: cause more premature births, urgent hospital admissions, mental illness and deaths from myocardial infarction. All this problem is caused, mainly, by “the noise in the urban environment due to the motor vehicles”. In Spain every year about a thousand people die and others 4,000 are hospitalized due to causes attributable to noise.
Coinciding with the International Noise Awareness Day, which is celebrated this April 26, the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (SEE) remember how noise affects the quality of life and well-being of people. This medical society is in favor of promoting public transport by taking the car out of the cities and also reminds the lower income neighborhoods they have one increased noise perception inside the house, which perpetuates the health inequalities.
“Noise is a factor to be considered. it’s not alone annoying, but also represents a serious and major threat for people’s health”, he explained to this newspaper Oscar Zurriaga, President of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (SEE). According to him, its effect is so damaging like other pollutants that society more easily recognizes as such, such as “chemicals in the atmosphere”. In fact, decrease a decibel of noise is equivalent to going down 10 milligrams per cubic meter of PM2.5, one of the most polluting particles in the air today.
chronic complaints
According to the European Environment Agency (Aema), long-term exposure to environmental noise causes 12,000 premature deaths and contributes to 48,000 new cases of ischemic heart disease every year in Europe. Furthermore, he estimates that 22 million people suffer great chronic discomfort and? 6.5 million suffer from severe impairments dream due to noise pollution. Also, calculate that one in five people is exposed to levels of harmful noise for health in Europe.
Thus, the problems represented by noise are “many and varied”, that start in a “premature mortality”, Zurriaga specifies. “Noise itself does not kill directly, but it is a contributing factor. “It causes mental illness, leads to hospital admissions that otherwise would not have occurred, leads to premature births, and often leads to low birth weight babies at birth that will carry major problems during their lives”, says the president of the SEE. In addition, it causes Hearing problems, metabolic disorders in adults and affects the cognitive development of minors.
At the same time, noise can aggravate health conditions which in other circumstances would not be so worrisome. “All this caused mainly by the noise in the urban area due to motor vehicles”, insists this epidemiologist. The noise acts on the hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Axis, the person in charge of controlling the release of adrenaline, norepinephrine, cortisol, glucose and serotonin, among others. The SEE is “a first-order stressor”, that produces oxidative stress and systemic cellular inflammation.
road traffic
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Epidemiologists remember that the 80% of the noise from a big city comes from Road Traffic, hence they insist that it is urgent take the road transport noise. An example: according to an article published this year in ‘Environmental Research’ cited by the SEE, traffic noise would be behind 6,000 urgent hospital admissions a year in the Madrid’s community. In this sense, the 5.5% of urgent income in the short term for illnesses related to mental health They are linked to noise.
Given the seriousness of this problem, the SEE calls for measures to help reduce the impact of noise pollution, such as limit traffic in cities, use quiet pavements or keep traffic away from hospitals, schools and nursing homes. In addition, it is in favor of promoting the use of public transport taking cars out of cities, since the number of vehicles is directly related to urgent hospital admissions.