Press Release
Commission’s Noise pollution report proves it’s time for action
PRESS RELEASE
6th June 2011
The EEB has welcomed the Commission’s long overdue adoption of a report [1] on the 2002 Environmental Noise Directive but says they must start showing more commitment to reflect the growing concerns of noise pollution, which is the second biggest environmental health problem in Europe.
The report comes shortly after the World Health Organisation (WHO) published new evidence on the damaging health impacts of noise [2], saying Europeans lose at least one million healthy life-years [3] each year due to disability or disease caused by traffic noise.
Exposure to traffic noise is a cause for cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment in children, and sleep disturbance.
“Just because we cannot see noise pollution doesn’t mean we can turn a blind eye to it. This new report, building on the WHO’s own work, makes it clear that the Environmental Noise Directive needs updating right away,” says Louise Duprez of EEB.
“This report shows that the Commission has identified the problems, yet they seem reluctant to say what they will do and by when.”
The report, which has been sent to the European Parliament and Council, admits there is room for improvement. In addition to the health impacts, noise pollution has great economic impacts with the social costs of traffic, rail and road noise estimated to be around €40 billion per year [4].
The acknowledgment of important flaws in the Directive such as the absence of trigger or target values, outdated noise indicators and enforcement issues have been welcomed by the EEB, but it is not clear when the Commission will take action on these problems.
The EEB says a revised Directive is urgently needed to address these concerns and to encourage member states to take effective measures to reduce noise.
Contact:
Louise Duprez, EEB noise policy officer, +32 (0) 2 289 13 07 louise.durprez@eeb.org,
Simon Nazer, EEB press officer, +32 (0) 496438469, press@eeb.org
Notes to editors:
1. Report to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of the Directive 2002/49/EC of 25 June 2002 relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise
2. World Health Organisation press release is available at http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-publish/information-for-the-media/sections/latest-press-releases/new-evidence-from-who-on-health-effects-of-traffic-related-noise-in-europe and the report at http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-publish/abstracts/burden-of-disease-from-environmental-noise.-quantification-of-healthy-life-years-lost-in-europe
[3] Healthy life years measure the number of remaining years that a person of a certain age is expected to live without disability. It is actually a disability-free life expectancy.
[4] CE Delft, 2007
http://www.transportenvironment.org/docs/Publications/2008/2008-02_traffic_noise_ce_delft_report.pdf
EEB recently co-organised a conference with NGOs T&E and HEAL to highlight the issue of noise pollution.
‘Quiet Please: The Future of EU Noise Policy’ involved European noise pollution experts from the European Commission, WHO, European Environment Agency as well as health and NGO experts.
Health experts and NGOs highlighted the need for noise targets to be introduced in EU law, based on health recommendations made by the WHO, as it is the case with air quality.
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