61 per cent of urban Europeans experience noise pollution at home 31-08-2007 Most Europeans living in metropolitan areas (61 per cent) report substantial
noise annoyance at home in their residential area. 32 per cent feel very or
extremely annoyed. This is one of the first results of a European wide online
survey on noise annoyance and noise sensitivity. The study is carried out in the
context of the European research network SILENCE. The aim of this network,
co-funded by the European Commission, is to develop recommendations and rules
for noise abatement. For this, the scientists focus their interest particularly
on annoying traffic noise and how it is perceived by residents in urban areas.
So far, more than 2100 persons from 14 European countries – mainly living in
Germany, Italy and Poland – participated in the SILENCE online survey on noise
annoyance and noise sensitivity. On average, respondents from Germany and Poland
reported a higher degree of noise annoyance than participants from Italy and
other European countries. This corresponds to the result that 53 per cent of the
German and 49 per cent of the Polish participants live in (rather or very) noisy
areas, while this is true only for 40 per cent of Italian respondents and 44 per
cent of other countries.
The most annoying noise source is road traffic. 52 per cent reported to be at
least moderately annoyed by road traffic noise, while 16 per cent complained
about railway noise.
Noise annoyance is significantly influenced by the individual noise
sensitivity, meaning that sensitive persons felt more annoyed than robust
persons. Concerning the various aspects of sensitivity, 'habitation' and 'sleep'
proved to be the most significant predictors for annoyance.
Participation in the survey is still open. Anyone, who is interested can take
part in the study and express his or her noise experience. The questionnaire is
available in 10 languages: Catalan, German, English, French, Italian, Hungarian,
Spanish, Swedish, Dutch and Polish.
Source: AlphaGalileo LinksParticipate in the survey back |
