Noise exposure from road, rail and air transport adversely affects over half a million children’s (aged 6-17) reading ability annually in Europe, the European Environment Agency (EEA) stated on December 12, 2024.
Most of these cases (84 per cent) are due to noise from road traffic, especially inside urban areas, followed by rail traffic (15 per cent) and air transport (about 1 per cent).
In addition, almost 60,000 cases of behavioural difficulties per year are due to environmental transport noise in Europe. Here again, a majority of about 86 per cent of cases are due to road traffic noise, mostly inside urban areas.
Children living or attending school in areas affected by transport noise tend to score lower on reading comprehension and face more behavioural challenges.
The numbers are based on data submitted by EEA member countries under the EU’s Environmental Noise Directive (END).
The briefing warned that the calculated impact of 550,0000 cases of impaired reading and 60,000 cases of behavioural difficulties from environmental noise should be considered an underestimate.
This is mainly because the data reported under the END do not comprehensively cover all roads, rail networks, airports and agglomerations. “They only cover roads transited by more than three million vehicles a year, railways with more than 30,000 trains a year, airports with more than 50,000 movements a year and agglomerations of more than 100,000 inhabitants”.
In addition to this restricted coverage, not all European cities map road and rail noise across all, or even most, streets. Some of the cities map the majority of their streets while others map only the busiest streets.
Thus, there is not only an underestimation of impacts due to the coverage limitations of the END, but also a significant underestimation in certain urban areas resulting from incomplete noise mapping.
Countries that conduct a comprehensive mapping of urban roads and streets are in a better position to capture the true extent of the impacts of environmental transport noise. The street coverage of each city can be seen in the EEA’s noise viewer — NOISE Observation & Information Service for Europe.
At least one in five people in the EU are exposed to long-term noise levels considered harmful to their health. Chronic exposure to environmental noise significantly affects physical and mental health.
There are a limited number of policy measures to protect / limit children’s exposure to noise from transport.
The briefing called for implementation of effective noise reduction policies. Lower speed limits, low-noise pavements and tyres, or operational restrictions for planes and trains would reduce noise at source, the EEA briefing suggested.
To further reduce children’s noise exposure, school classrooms and children’s rooms at home could be placed away from busy roads where possible. Noise-reducing landscaping, and other acoustic solutions would also help.
World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines for Community Noise (February 1999) recommended that noise levels in school playgrounds should not exceed 55 A-weighted decibels (55dB(A), while indoor classroom noise levels should not exceed 35dB(A).
The EU’s Zero Pollution Action Plan aims to reduce the number of people chronically disturbed by noise from transport by 30 per cent by 2030.
The 2018 publication of the WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region provided a greater insight into the negative effects of noise pollution on health as well as a growing awareness of the need to reduce it.