Report from a project coordinated by the National Institute of Public Health Denmark Health effects of noise on children and perception of the risk of noise Edited by Marie Louise Bistrup Copenhagen 2001 Health effects of noise on children and perception of the risk of noise Marie Louise Bistrup, editor Authors: Marie Louise Bistrup Staffan Hygge Lis Keiding Willy Passchier-Vermeer © 2001 National Institute of Public Health, Denmark Reproduction of any part of this publication is permitted provided that acknowledgement is given to the source. The National Institute of Public Health would appreciate receiving any publication, ab- stract or citation referring to any part of this publication. The project has been supported by the European Commission under Grant Agreement No. S12.143779 (99CVF2-601) National Institute of Public Health Svanemøllevej 25 DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø Denmark Telephone: +45 39 20 77 77 Telefax: +45 39 20 80 10 E-mail: [email protected] www.niph.dk Text editing: David Breuer Printing: Nørrebros Bogtryk og Grafisk Center Cover layout: Nørrebros Bogtryk og Grafisk Center Cover photograph: Kay Chernush, the Image Bank (boy in kindergarten covering his ears) ISBN: 87-7899-042-4 Preface The National Institute of Public Health has hosted the leadership and project coordination of the project Health Effects of Noise on Children and Percep- tion of the Risk of Noise. The report is a result of the cooperation between a group of European partners that was formed to carry out the project. On be- half of the partners, the Institute hereby publishes the report Health effects of noise on children and perception of the risk of noise. The partners are Willy Passchier-Vermeer and Henk M.E. Miedema, the Netherlands; Staffan Hygge, Sweden; the International Network on Chil- dren’s Health, Environment and Safety (INCHES) represented by Peter van den Hazel, the Netherlands; Lis Keiding, Project Leader, and Marie Louise Bistrup, Project Coordinator, Denmark; and Mário Cordeiro and Elsa Fi- gueiredo, Portugal. We thank the partners for their interest and cooperation. A planning meeting among the partners took place on 24–25 February 2000 in Leiden, the Netherlands, and a seminar took place on 19–20 June 2000 in Copenhagen, Denmark. We thank TNO Prevention and Health in Leiden for hosting the planning meeting and we thank the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen for hosting the seminar in June. We thank the par- ticipants in the seminar for their cooperation and contributions before, dur- ing and after the seminar. This report also serves to present the results of the seminar. Marie Louise Bistrup is the editor of the final report. The chapters have been written by one, two or three partners who are responsible for the scien- tific content and references for a chapter. The authors are Marie Louise Bis- trup, Staffan Hygge, Lis Keiding and Willy Passchier-Vermeer. The part- ners have had an opportunity to comment on all chapters. For practical rea- sons, no occasion was established to collectively discuss all chapters. We thank the authors for their good work and commitment. Carrying out the project has been interesting and rewarding. We are con- vinced that preventing noise will become an important public health chal- lenge, in part because noise may adversely affect children’s health and well- being. We have met goodwill and understanding for the objectives of the project. We hope the report will give the reader an impression of the range of research available and of priorities for future research. We thank the European Commission for supporting the project under Grant Agreement No. S12.143779 (99CVF2-601) from the programme on Pollu- tion Related Diseases administered by the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General. The European Commission has provided 80% of the funding for the project. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinion or po- sition of the European Commission, Health and Consumer Protection Direc- torate-General. We thank Jens Steensberg, Ph.D., Medical Officer Emeritus, Denmark, for encouragement in carrying out this project and for reviewing the first draft of the report. We thank Torben Astrup, Senior Consultant, Ingemansson Acoustics (Denmark) for reviewing Chapter 2 on definitions of noise; we thank Dr Mary Haines, Lecturer in Psychology (United Kingdom) for re- viewing the draft of Chapter 5 on perceptions of noise; and we thank Sharon Airey, Research Associate, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (United Kingdom) for reviewing the final draft of the report. Marie Louise Bistrup has been an enthusiastic and persevering project coor- dinator, author and editor, and we appreciate the commitment and energy she has devoted to this project. Lis Keiding Mette Madsen Project Leader Deputy Director Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................................................................7 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................9 1.1. NOISE AS A PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE ............................................................................9 1.2. AIMS OF THE PROJECT.............................................................................................10 1.3. AGE GROUPS...........................................................................................................10 1.4. THE ROLE OF ADULTS TOWARDS CHILDREN IN NOISE..............................................10 1.5. PROCESS .................................................................................................................11 1.6. ADDITIONS TO THE PLAN OF WORK .........................................................................11 1.7. THIS REPORT...........................................................................................................12 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................12 2. DEFINITIONS OF NOISE.........................................................................................13 2.1. DEFINITION OF NOISE..............................................................................................13 2.2. INTEREST-BASED DEFINITIONS................................................................................15 2.3. NOISE AS ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION..................................................................17 2.4. FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN DEFINING NOISE IN RELATION TO CHILDREN ..................18 2.5. CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................................20 2.6. SUMMARY ..............................................................................................................21 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................21 3. SETTINGS OF NOISE...............................................................................................23 3.1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................23 3.2. THE HOME ..............................................................................................................25 3.3. NOISE FROM TRAFFIC..............................................................................................27 3.4. NOISE FROM TOYS ..................................................................................................28 3.5. HEALTH CARE SETTINGS.........................................................................................31 3.6. DAY CARE INSTITUTIONS ........................................................................................33 3.7. SCHOOLS ................................................................................................................35 3.8. AFTER-SCHOOL AND LEISURE NOISE .......................................................................37 3.9. NOISE DURING TRANSPORT.....................................................................................38 3.10. REGIONAL DIFFERENCES.........................................................................................39 3.11. CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................40 3.12. SUMMARY ..............................................................................................................41 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................42 4. EFFECTS OF NOISE.................................................................................................47 4.1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................47 4.2. THE FOETUS............................................................................................................48 4.3. PRE-TERM AND FULL-TERM BABIES ........................................................................48 4.4. PRESCHOOL CHILDREN AND SCHOOLCHILDREN ......................................................50 4.5. VOCAL NODULES ....................................................................................................60 4.6. TEENAGERS ............................................................................................................61 4.7. COMBINED AND OTOTOXIC EFFECTS .......................................................................62 REFERENCES