Children's annoyance reactions to aircraft and road traffic noise.
Since annoyance reactions of children to environmental noise have rarely been investigated, no source specific exposure-response relations are available. The aim of this paper is to investigate children's reactions to aircraft and road traffic noise and to derive exposure-response relations. To this end, children's annoyance reactions to aircraft and road traffic noise in both the home and the school setting were investigated using the data gathered in a cross-sectional multicenter study, carried out among 2844 children (age 9-11 years) attending 89 primary schools around three European airports. An exposure-response relation was demonstrated between exposure to aircraft noise at school (L(Aeq,7-23 h)) and severe annoyance in children: after adjustment for confounders, the percentage severely annoyed children was predicted to increase from about 5.1% at 50 dB to about 12.1% at 60 dB. The findings were consistent across the three samples. Aircraft noise at home (L(Aeq,7-23 h)) demonstrated a similar relation with severe annoyance. Children attending schools with higher road traffic noise (L(Aeq,7-23 h)) were more annoyed. Although children were less annoyed at levels above 55 dB, the shapes of the exposure-response relations found among children were comparable to those found in their parents.
van Kempen
Elise E M M
EE
National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Centre for Environmental Health Research, Bilthoven, The Netherlands. elise.van.kempen@rivm.nl
van Kamp
Irene
I
Stellato
Rebecca K
RK
Lopez-Barrio
Isabel
I
Haines
Mary M
MM
Nilsson
Mats E
ME
Clark
Charlotte
C
Houthuijs
Danny
D
Brunekreef
Bert
B
Berglund
Birgitta
B
Stansfeld
Stephen A
SA
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000401:Aircraft; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008144:Loudness Perception; D008297:Male; D018986:Motor Vehicles; D009624:Noise, Transportation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014504:Urban Health