Fighting Noise Pollution: A Public Health Strategy

In this issue of EHP, investigators from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor describe the most serious health effects of noise and propose a blueprint for an effective U.S. public health response. The team, led by Richard L. Neitzel, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences, estimated that nearly one-third of Americans are exposed to noise levels deemed injurious to hearing by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—a 24-hour average noise level exceeding 70 dBA. The authors based this figure on 1981 estimates from the EPA. But mounting evidence also connects noise exposures with cardiovascular disease, sleep disturbance, stress, general annoyance, impaired learning and concentration, and other health effects. The EPA’s limit for