Long Term Health Effects of Noise Exposure
Guideline values for community noise in specific environments. This table summarizes the outcome of a World Health Organization expert task force meeting in London in March 1999, includes guideline values for community noise (listing also critical health effects ranging from annoyance to hearing impairment).
| Specific environment |
Critical health effects |
LAeq [dB(A)] |
Time base
[hours] |
LAmax fast
[dB] |
| Outdoor living area |
Serious annoyance, daytime and evening |
55 |
16 |
- |
| Outdoor living area |
Moderate annoyance, daytime and evening |
50 |
16 |
- |
| Inside bedrooms |
Sleep disturbance, night-time |
30 |
8 |
45 |
| Dwelling, indoors |
Speech intelligibility & moderate annoyance, daytime & evening |
35 |
16 |
|
| Outside bedrooms |
Sleep disturbance, window open (outdoor values) |
45 |
8 |
60 |
| School class rooms & pre-schools, indoors |
Speech intelligibility, disturbance of information extraction, message communication |
35 |
during class |
- |
| Pre-school bedrooms, indoor |
Sleep disturbance |
30 |
sleeping-time |
45 |
| School, playground outdoor |
Annoyance (external source) |
55 |
during play |
- |
| Hospital, ward rooms, indoors |
Sleep disturbance, night-time |
30 |
8 |
40 |
| Hospital, ward rooms, indoors |
Sleep disturbance, daytime and evenings |
30 |
16 |
- |
| Hospitals, treatment rooms, indoors |
Interference with rest and recovery |
#1 |
|
|
| Industrial, commercial shopping and traffic areas, indoors and outdoors |
Hearing impairment |
70 |
24 |
110 |
| Ceremonies, festivals and entertainment events |
Hearing impairment (patrons: <5 times/year) |
100 |
4 |
110 |
| Public addresses, indoors and outdoors |
Hearing impairment |
85 |
1 |
110 |
| Music and other sounds through headphones / earphones |
Hearing impairment (free-field value) |
85 #4 |
1 |
110 |
| Impulse sounds from toys, fireworks and firearms |
Hearing impairment (adults) |
- |
- |
140 #2 |
| Impulse sounds from toys, fireworks and firearms |
Hearing impairment (children) |
- |
- |
120 #2 |
| Outdoors in parkland and conservations areas |
Disruption of tranquility |
#3 |
|
|
#1: As low as possible.
#2: Peak sound pressure (not LAF, max) measured 100 mm from the ear.
#3: Existing quiet outdoor areas should be preserved and the ratio of
intruding noise to natural background sound should be kept low.
#4: Under headphones, adapted to free-field values.
Long term health effects of noise exposure. Source: Noise and Health, Health Council of the Netherlands, September 1994
| |
Observation threshold (levels above which effect starts) |
| 1. Sufficient evidence |
| Effect |
situation |
noise metric |
level in dB(A) |
inside/outside |
| - hearing damage |
work |
LAeq,8hr |
75 |
inside |
| |
sport |
LAeq,24hr |
70 |
inside |
| - hypertension |
work |
LAeq,8hr |
<85 |
inside |
| |
home |
LAeq,6-22hr |
70 |
outside |
| - ischemic heart diseases |
home |
LAeq,6-22hr |
70 |
outside |
| - annoyance |
home |
Ldn |
42 |
outside |
| - awakening |
sleep |
SEL |
55 |
inside |
| - sleep stages |
sleep |
SEL |
35 |
inside |
| - self reported sleep quality |
sleep |
LAeq, night |
40 |
outside |
| -school performance |
school |
LAeq, day |
70 |
outside |
| 2. Limited evidence |
| - birth-weight |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| - immune system |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| - psychiatric admission |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| 3. Lack of evidence |
| - congenital effects |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| - immune system |
sleep |
- |
- |
- |
|
Note: this paper was first published in 2009.
Last Updated on 19 May 2009
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