Noise and hearing

Best Spatial Planning Practices to Prevent the Effects of Environmental Noise on Health and Quality of Life

  • There are many sources of noise, which increase the difficulty of mitigating the effects. Some examples are noise from road and air traffic, as well as rail noise, noise from port (harbor) facilities or from construction sites.
  • Land-use planning and management are some effective and key noise control and mitigation measures. These measures are planned and implemented by regional county municipalities (RCM), municipalities and proponents.
  • There are various best environmental noise mitigation practices, from active transportation to street design, by way of the orientation of buildings and inner rooms, not to mention noise barriers and the addition of plants arranged in an optimal manner. Although the effectiveness of several of these measures has been quantified, they are poorly known.
  • Since environmental noise has harmful effects on people’s physical and psycho-social health and quality of life, applying these solutions will help properly protect…

Advisory on a Québec Policy to Fight Environmental Noise: Towards Healthy Sound Environments

  • Environmental noise, defined as noise emitted from all sources excluding those in the workplace, is pervasive and constitutes a risk to health and quality of life.

  • The review of the scientific literature shows that noise is a public health issue that can have multiple consequences, both physical and psychosocial. Environmental noise can be a source of sleep disturbance, interference with the ability to learn at school, cardiovascular disease, annoyance (discomfort, disturbance), hearing loss and tinnitus.

  • Environmental noise is a source of complaints and lawsuits, which are indicative of social acceptance issues. Public reactions attest to diverging interests in society, particularly with regard to the model and overall vision of land development and the need for tranquillity.

  • According to a conservative estimate, the societal costs associated with the effects of environmental noise amount to some $680 m…

Urban Traffic Calming and Environmental Noise: Effects and Implications for Practice

This summary is the third in a series of five short documents based on a literature review published in 2011. In what follows, we first present the mechanisms of action underlying traffic-calming strategies, as these mechanisms help explain and predict the effects of such strategies on traffic noise. Next, we summarize the results of studies having evaluated two approaches to traffic calming. Lastly, we consider the implications of such results for public health.

Built Environment: Public Policy, Actors, Barriers, and Levers - Knowledge Exchange Colloquium

The Coalitions Linking Action and Science for Prevention (CLASP) project is an initiative of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC). Through this project, seven coalitions have been funded to integrate and build upon their practices to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases with similar determinants. The National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP) is a partner in one of these funded coalitions, Healthy Canada by Design. The principal goal of this coalition is to inspire change in the ways in which the built environment is currently developed, by influencing the policies that inform it. Gathering numerous partners from six health authorities, all members of the Urban Public Health Network (UPHN), the focus of this coalition is specifically the built environment of Canada’s large urban centres.

Funding for the Healthy Canada by Design coalition has made numerous knowledge exchange opportunities possible. One of these was the day-long colloquium…

Effects of workplace noise exposure during pregnancy: Systematic review with meta-analysis and meta-regression - Abstract

Objectives
To summarize the available scientific information on the effects of workplace noise exposure during pregnancy. The studied effects on pregnancy are: spontaneous abortion (SA), stillbirth (SB), congenital anomalies (CA), preterm delivery (PTD), low birth weight (LBW), small-forgestational- age (SGA) infant, pre-eclampsia (PE) and gestational hypertension (GHT). The effect of workplace noise during pregnancy on the child's hearing is also addressed.

Method
First, two bibliographic searches, one in Medline and the other in Embase, were performed to identify the original epidemiological studies that evaluated the effects of workplace noise on pregnancy. Studies published in French or in English between 1970 and August 2008 were selected. The bibliographies of the articles and the personal files of the author completed the list of the articles for consultation. There was no systematic search for unpublished material. The presen…

Nunavik Inuit Health Survey 2004 : Hearing Loss and Dental Health

Hearing loss

Hearing problems are widespread in Nunavik with one quarter of adults having hearing loss in both ears. Men have three times more hearing loss than women (36% vs. 12%) and these problems are found to increase with age; more than half the adults over age 45 suffer from a hearing loss in both ears. Prevalence of hearing disability (as defined by World Health Organization) was 7.6% in Nunavik in 2004, which is one of the highest of the regions of the world surveyed to date.

Comparing men and women, hearing ability is similar in the youngest age group, but at age 30-44, men already show a greater deficiency compared to women. In the oldest age group (45 and over), three out of four men suffered bilateral hearing impairment compared to one out of four women. If we assume that hearing loss in women is primarily due to age and factors other than noise exposure, we can observe the deleterious effect of noise in the male population. Frequent hun…

North American Conference on deafness screening and intervention in early childhood - Abstracts and PowerPoints

Here are the abstracts and PowerPoints of the North American Conference on deafness screening and intervention in early childhood (January 23-25, 2003).