Environmental noise and health: current knowledge and research needs

With the aim of providing a scientific basis and guidance for future work on noise abatement in Sweden, we conducted a literature review of the current knowledge on health effects related to traffic and industrial noise, including annoyance, sleep disturbance, performance and learning and cardiovascular disease. Certain aspects concerning the exposure assessment techniques used in health risk assessments have also been reviewed. Furthermore, we aimed to identify important gaps in the knowledge and to summarize the main imminent research needs. Environmental noise is an inevitable nuisance in the urban community. Despite efforts to restrict the exposure, noise constitutes an increasing problem, primarily as a consequence of continuous urbanization and transportation growth. The major contributor to the overall burden of environmental noise is traffic, primarily road-, railway- and aircraft traffic, but noise from neighbours, construction sites and industrial plants also contribute.