Environmental Noise and Health Effects in Bremen City, Germany
Overview
Background & policy context:
Numerous epidemiologic studies have investigated the health impact of road traffic noise, and there are several that have provided similar results due to aircraft noise. Health effects could be demonstrated mostly for arterial hypertension and for cardio-vascular diseases, in addition to depression and psychoses. Several studies, which incorporated both road traffic noise and aircraft noise have shown a greater impact of aircraft noise on health.
Objectives:
Major aims of the study are to analyze the impact of all major types of environmental noise, i.e. road traffic noise, aircraft noise, and railway noise, on human health, especially on cardiovascular diseases and on psychiatric disorders, especially on depression and on psychoses. This impact should be investigated separately for each type of environmental noise as well as for combination of environmental noise types.
Methodology:
Case-control studies on mortality and on cancer incidence. Confounder: age, specific social status indicators.
For the input data, the following data bases were used: Bremen based residency registry, Bremen Death Index, Bremen Cancer Registry, linked to residency-specific environmental noise levels for the day (6 a.m.-10 p.m.) and for the night (10 p.m.-6 a.m.).
Bremen is the only city in Germany where these data bases are available.
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