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	L_Aeq [dB(A)]	Time base [hours]	L_Amax 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

1. Sufficient evidence	Observation threshold (levels above which effect starts)
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	-	-	-