Key findings;

• 1 in 67 people in Austria is in danger of damaging their hearing due to traffic noise levels
• Latvia & Malta are tied as the best places to live for traffic noise pollution
• More people are living in Vienna dealing with traffic noise pollution than anywhere else in Europe
• Electric vehicles could improve the lives of nearly 720,000 Europeans due to being quieter on the road
• The UK ranks third in the world for people exposed (123,800), with one in 545 of the population subjected to 75dB of traffic noise. 

Did you know that traffic accounts for 80% of the environmental impact of noise? That’s a large percentage. It’s also worrying, as according to the World Health Organization (WHO), noise is the second largest environmental cause of health problems, just after the impact of air pollution.

86.4% of voters say they’ve been affected by traffic noise pollution

To get a quick insight into whether these results were accurate, we decided to conduct a Reddit poll to ask users if they had ever been impacted by traffic noise pollution. The results back up the data.

According to Reddit users, 86.4% of respondents said they had been impacted, to some degree (varying from “yes - but very rarely” to “yes - constantly”) by traffic noise pollution, with only 13.6% of respondents saying they’d never been impacted.

Noise pollution can cause disease and learning disabilities 

As stated above, traffic noise is the second largest environmental cause of health problems after air pollution. And while some of the health problems are temporary, such as temporarily increased stress and annoyance, those who have long-term exposure to traffic noise are at risk of these health problems becoming far more serious. Here are some of the reported health risks linked to prolonged exposure to traffic noise pollution.

Impact Of Long-Term Exposure To Noise Pollution On Health
Cardiovascular disease	Deafness
Dyslipidemia	High blood pressure
Increased blood viscosity	Ischemic heart disease
Stress	Effects on the immune system
Oxidative stress	Arterial diseases
Cognitive impairment in children	Hypertension
Chronic high annoyance	Strokes
Insomnia	Learning disabilities
Headaches	Loss of communication
Dizziness	Lack of attention

Sources

• eea.europe.eu
• Ur Rahman Farooqi Z, Sabir M, Zeeshan N, et al. (2020) Vehicular Noise Pollution: Its Environmental Implications and Strategic Control. Autonomous Vehicle and Smart Traffic. IntechOpen. DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.85707.

Doctor reveals how noise pollution is detrimental to your health

“There's no doubt that noise pollution has a detrimental effect on human health”, says Dr Deborah Lee of Dr Fox Online Pharmacy. “In modern life, we are subjected to noise in all aspects of society – traffic, industry, machinery, and technology – whether at school, work or home. We can’t escape it.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that one million healthy life years are lost in Western Europe every year due to the negative effects of noise, causing hypertension, myocardial infarction (heart attacks), heart failure and strokes. 

Noise causes stress, which raises blood pressure as well as adrenaline and cortisol levels. Stress also leads to raised blood glucose levels and increases blood coagulability increasing the risk of thrombosis (blood clots). Chronic stress also increases oxidative stress – the biochemical process that underpins the development of many of the chronic diseases we see today - including not just heart disease, but also type-2 diabetes, dementia and cancer.”

Six key ways traffic noise pollution can impact your health, according to science

We asked Dr Deborah Lee from Dr. Fox Pharmacy to expand on some of the main ways automotive noise pollution can impact your health.

1. Cognition

One fundamental aspect is the effect of noise pollution on cognition. Learning is inhibited by the distraction of noise, plus the effects of noise in keeping us awake and reducing sleep. When we are exposed to loud and repetitive noise, this induces a stress response with raised adrenaline and cortisol levels, raising the heart rate and blood pressure, and stressing the cardiovascular system. If we can't control the noise – which is often the case – we feel helpless – which impinges on our self-confidence and self-esteem.

A recent 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of noise pollution on cognition, had some interesting findings. Children who read in quiet classrooms had significantly higher reading scores than those in noisy classrooms. Several studies showed that people aged 45 and over exposed to higher levels of residential noise, were significantly more likely to have cognitive impairment. It was difficult to reach other robust conclusions due to the quality and heterogeneity of other studies. But the authors did state that the human species is being subjected to a higher prevalence and intensity of noise. This has implications for overall health and well-being, and policymakers should ensure noise mitigation techniques are in place for transport and industry, especially when near schools or residential housing.

2. Mental health

In a 2018 study, the authors surveyed 720 Bulgarian university students. They found that the higher levels of residential noise, the higher they scored on their General Mental Health questionnaire. Higher levels of noise were linked to greater levels of annoyance, worse sleep,  and increased mental health symptoms. In other studies, higher levels of noise have been linked to depression and anxiety. Living with noise leads to people feeling on edge, stressed, irritable and angry.

3. Headaches

Headache sufferers will often say noise can bring on a headache. Migraine sufferers often have a low noise tolerance. Some research studies have suggested lower noise thresholds could trigger a migraine. 

4. High blood pressure

A recent 2023 study followed up over 240,000 people aged 40-69 years, who did not have high blood pressure at the start, for 8 years. Over the period of the study, 21,140 were diagnosed with hypertension. Those who lived nearer busy roads with the greatest traffic noise had the highest risk of hypertension. The authors suggested that the stress from the traffic noise triggered the sympathetic nervous system resulting in raised blood pressure. Air pollution was also thought to play a significant role.

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attacks, heart failure and strokes. All UK adults should have their blood pressure measured at least once every 5 years, or more often if they have risk factors. Excess noise exposure could be considered one of these risk factors.

5. Metabolic syndrome (MS)

MS is a condition in which the sufferer has a combination of symptoms that include insulin resistance, visceral obesity, raised cholesterol and high blood pressure. It is an important diagnosis because those with MS have 2-4 times increased risk of a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or a stroke.

In a 2020 Mexican study, both air and noise pollution were found to increase the risk of MS. For example, for each 11.6 dB increment, the risk of MS went up by 17%. Air pollution increased the risk of MS similarly, by 15%. Therefore, noise was an even greater risk factor for MS than air pollution. The authors suggested this might be because excess noise reduces the quality and quantity of sleep, and raises stress levels, via stimulation of the hypothalamo-pituitary pathway.

6. Sleep

Getting the recommended 7 hours of sleep per night is vital for good health. While we sleep, the brain and body are far from inactive, with repair and regeneration processes underway, along with enhanced metabolic activity and consolidation of thought processes and memory.  Sleeping 5 or fewer hours per night increases your mortality risk by as much as 15%.

Noise is a major disruptor of sleep. Moreover, trying to sleep during noise has been shown to increase levels of adrenaline and cortisol and raise blood pressure and heart rate. Nocturnal exposure to noise also results in fragmented sleep with more frequent night-time awakenings – all of which reduce the quality of sleep. Noise at night results in less slow wave (deep sleep) and less REM sleep.

In addition, after a noise-disturbed night’s sleep, the sufferer then has to cope with daytime sleepiness, difficulty concentrating, slower reaction times and poorer work productivity.

Overall, nocturnal noise pollution is more dangerous than noise in the daytime.

1 in 67 Austrians impacted by noise pollution

So which European countries are currently suffering at the hands of traffic noise pollution the most? 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “noise above 70 dB over a prolonged period of time may start to damage your hearing.” With this knowledge, we decided to look to see how many people in Europe’s major cities were having to deal with this amount of traffic noise and thus are susceptible to potentially damaging their hearing along with the other symptoms highlighted earlier. 

• Lden= day-evening-night level

“It is a descriptor of noise level based on energy equivalent noise level (Leq) over a whole day with a penalty of 10 dB(A) for night time noise (23.00-7.00) and an additional penalty of 5 dB(A) for evening noise (i.e. 19.00-23.00).”

Source

Country	Country Population	People Exposed To Lden >75	1 In Every
Austria	8,939,617	133,300	67
Hungary	9,967,308	63,200	158
Luxembourg	647,599	2,600	249
Belgium	11,655,930	33,500	348
Spain	47,558,630	129,200	368
Lithuania	2,750,055	5,700	482
United Kingdom	67,508,936	123,800	545
Slovakia	5,643,453	9,100	620
Cyprus	1,251,488	1,500	834
Italy	59,037,474	70,400	839
Ireland	5,023,109	4,500	1,116
France	64,626,628	57,000	1,134
Czechia	10,493,986	9,000	1,166
Denmark	5,882,261	4,600	1,279
Bulgaria	6,781,953	5,000	1,356
Estonia	1,326,062	900	1,473
Poland	39,857,145	23,200	1,718
Romania	19,659,267	11,400	1,724
Croatia	4,030,358	1,300	3,100
Germany	83,369,843	24,000	3,474
Sweden	10,549,347	2,900	3,638
Portugal	10,270,865	2,300	4,466
Slovenia	2,119,844	100	21,198
Finland	5,540,745	200	27,704
Netherlands	17,564,014	600	29,273

Austrians are exposed most to damaging noise pollution

According to our research, surprisingly it’s Austria that comes out on top as the country where the most people are affected by noise pollution from traffic, with a total of 133,300 people, which that are exposed to 75 or more “Lden”, which the European Environment Agency (EEA) describes as “day-evening-night level”.

Latvia & Malta are tied as the best places to live for traffic noise pollution

At the other end of the scale, Latvia and Malta were found to have zero places in the country impacted by >75 Lden noise levels.

Vienna ranked as the worst place for traffic noise pollution in Europe

The amount of people impacted by traffic noise pollution is the main reason why Austria is at the top of the country's list, as a staggering 129,000 inhabitants deal with >75 Lden noise all day, every day. That number is so vast it means that every 1 in 67 people in Austria is in danger of damaging their hearing due to the noise levels in Vienna.

EVs could prevent 719,300 Europeans from being subjected to harmful traffic noise

Turning our attention to cars themselves, we wondered what the loudest cars in the world were and how they compare to today’s electric cars, to get an understanding of how much noise pollution could reduce in the future.

While it varies depending on the make and model, according to OSVehilces, ICE vehicles produce around 70 decibels. In comparison, most electric cars produce around 50 decibels of noise, a significantly lower sound than the average ICE car.

What does this mean for the future?

If we add up the total amount of people in Europe that we’ve calculated are impacted by 75dB of traffic noise pollution all day, every day, by switching all ICE cars (around 70dB) for electric cars (around 50dB) it would mean 719,300 Europeans that live in major cities, wouldn’t be subjected to harmful traffic noise levels.

Lamborghini Huracan Performante is the loudest car in the world

While we were looking into internal combustion engine cars, we took note of the loudest cars in the world. Here’s a list of the top 20 loudest in the world.

Top 20 loudest cars in the world

Car	dB
Lamborghini Huracan Performante	109
Porsche 911 GT3 RS	108
Dodger Challenger Hellcat	105
McLaren Senna	102
Chevrolet Corvette ZR1	99
McLaren 720S Spider	99
Audi TT RS 3	98
Chevrolet Corvette Z06	95
Porsche 911 Carrera S	94
Porsche 718 Cayman GT4	93
Mini Cooper JCW GP	93
Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R	92
Porsche Cayman GTS	92
Lotus Evora GT	91
Land Rover Range Rover Velar SV Autobiography Dynamic Edition	89
Lexus LC 500	88
Ford F-150 Raptor	88
Mercedes-AMG CLA45 4Matic	88
Mercedes-AMG CLA35	88
Mercedes-AMG C43	88

Just how loud are the loudest cars in the world?

According to iac acoustics, the loudest car in the world, the Lamborghini Huracan Performante (109dB), and the second loudest, Porsche 911 GT3 RS (108dB), are nearly as loud as a Live Rock Band or a fully functioning Steel Mill (110dB). 

Other cars, such as the Dodger Challenger Hellcat (105dB) and McLaren Senna (102dB) are louder than a Bell J-2A helicopter or being in a nightclub according to rnid.

 

Methodology

To calculate the number of people in Europe impacted by noise pollution by traffic, we utilised the EEA’s NOISE Observation & Information Service for Europe interactive map and analysed the top 10 most populous cities in every county in the European Union. We then sourced the people exposed to traffic noise levels over >75 Lden. This enabled us to discover which countries and cities had the highest and lowest amount of exposure levels.

We also researched noise levels of ICE cars and EVs from OSVehilces, which allowed us to calculate the number of people that would benefit from the noise reduction of electric cars compared to internal combustion vehicles.

The loudest cars were sourced from multiple articles covering the topic in depth, such as Car and Driver and Hot Cars and then we matched up the noise levels to other things for a real-life comparison from rnid and iac.

The poll was conducted through Reddit, gathering 105 votes in total.