Noise pollution threatens health

When one speaks of polluted air, one's thoughts run to smog. But the sustainability of the urban environment also has a less visible and often underestimated component: noise. Between traffic, rail and air routes, noise pollution, especially from transport, is one of the main environmental health risks in Europe today, as the latest Environmental Noise in Europe 2025 report by the European Environment Agency (EEA), updated last September, explains. The estimate speaks for itself: more than 112 million people - more than one in five citizens - are exposed to harmful levels in the long term. If the more restrictive thresholds recommended by the World Health Organisation are applied, the figure rises to around 150 million, over 30% of the population. The dominant source remains road: about 92 million people are exposed, compared to 18 million for rail and 2.6 million for air traffic. On airport noise specifically, in the 98 main European airports, according to the European Union Agency for Aviation Safety (Easa), 3.4 million people live with noise levels of 55 db Lden or more (the 24-hour average indicator) and 1.6 million are exposed to more than 50 events per day above 70 db. The WHO guidelines point out that already between 30 and 40 db awakenings and sleep disturbances increase, while above 55 db the problem becomes relevant for public health.

Noise in fact does not only produce annoyance, but can have significant health repercussions. In fact, the Eea estimates that in 2021 prolonged exposure to transport noise was associated with 66 thousand premature deaths, 50 thousand new cases of cardiovascular disease and 22 thousand new cases of type 2 diabetes, with an overall loss of more than 1.3 million years of healthy life (between premature deaths and years lived with illness). In economic terms, then, the bill exceeds EUR 95 billion a year, about 0.6 per cent of European GDP.

"The population is still far from being fully aware that noise pollution is one of the main environmental risks to their health," observes Ilaria Oberti, lecturer at the Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and the Built Environment (Dabc) of the Politecnico di Milano and head of the Indoor Quality & Ergonomics Lab. "We tend to get used to noise, to normalise it, to the point of considering it inevitable," explains the expert. For this reason, she warns, the numbers should be read as conservative. "They only return the part that is most easily measurable: if all sources were included, WHO thresholds were adopted and emerging pathologies were also counted, the real figure would be higher."

In the Eea estimates, Italia unfortunately has a non-marginal position: over 10,000 premature deaths per year attributable to transport noise. "The problem is inhomogeneity, with a regulatory framework in line and fragmented enforcement," Oberti notes. Solutions, in reality, are possible, even with important co-benefits such as improved air quality: reduced car traffic, lower real speeds, flow management, road and track maintenance. "Acting on the source that generates the noise is the best strategy," Oberti emphasises: electrification of the car fleet and sound-absorbing asphalts can shift the exposure curve. Downstream, however, architectural design and the quality of the building envelope also help protect interior spaces,' she explains.

Meanwhile, as long as noise remains an issue of decorum and not health, the city is in danger of losing a piece of sustainability, as serious as smog. And the bill is collective.