A nuanced approach to the Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region related to traffic noise

Abstract The recently published guide “Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region” provides evidence of the non-auditory effects of environmental noise on population health. This guide reflects the current state of knowledge about how traffic noise affects cardiovascular diseases among others. Despite the valuable contributions of this document in terms of current knowledge, there are different points of improvement in terms of implementation of the guide for all Europe. The studies related to Southern Europe have little presence, probably due to the lack of research in this issue, it means, there are few studies that evaluate short-term effects of noise on morbid-mortality. In this sense, it would be advisable to include the most recently published papers on the subject. Due to the aforementioned, the noise exposure assessment should be considerate at the short and long term to evaluate completely the noise effects on health, specially taking into account the characteristics of countries in which leisure-related noise is especially problematic.