{"id":413814,"date":"2024-12-13T09:01:30","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T08:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/12\/13\/aea-rumori-nocivi-strade-bambini-lettura\/"},"modified":"2024-12-16T20:04:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T19:04:43","slug":"pollution-harmful-noise-affects-european-children-reading-difficulties-for-550000-and-behavioral-difficulties-for-60000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/12\/13\/pollution-harmful-noise-affects-european-children-reading-difficulties-for-550000-and-behavioral-difficulties-for-60000\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollution: harmful noise affects European children: reading difficulties for 550,000 and behavioral difficulties for 60,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – In Europe, more than half a million children suffer from impaired reading skills, and nearly 60,000 have behavioral difficulties<\/strong>. The reason? Noise pollution. That’s the snapshot taken by the European Environment Agency <\/strong>(EEA<\/strong>)\u00a0in a report<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0showing that over one in five Europeans is\u00a0exposed to long-term harmful noise from road, rail, and air transport.<\/p>\n

“Environmental noise from transport sources such as vehicles, trains, and aircraft is among the most damaging environmental factors to health in Europe after air pollution. Living in an area affected by transport noise is associated with an increased risk of developing a wide range of health issues, including cardiovascular, metabolic, and mental health diseases,” the agency writes. “Chronic exposure to transport noise can also negatively affect children, especially because they are in an important learning and developmental phase. Growing evidence suggests that children exposed to transport noise at school or at home are more likely to suffer certain types of cognitive, learning, behavioral problems, and obesity,<\/strong>” the EEA said. “In addition, recent work on cognitive development in adolescents found that traffic noise was associated with anxiety and that early life exposure to transport noise could also lead to mental health issues in adulthood,” he pointed out.<\/p>\n

The report — entitled ‘The Effect of Environmental Noise on Children’s Reading Ability and Behavior in Europe — shows that over\u00a020 percent of the EU population, including children, live in areas where traffic noise levels are detrimental to their health<\/strong> and, in many urban areas, this proportion is as high as 50 percent. About 14 million children aged 6 to 17 years in Europe (including Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland) are exposed to average transport noise levels of 55 dB or higher. However,\u00a0recent evidence indicates that the risk of cognitive and behavioral problems in children begins to increase in schools where the\u00a0outdoor levels are below this threshold, while\u00a0other studies note adverse effects associated with\u00a0children’s exposure to traffic noise at home.<\/p>\n

An estimated approximately 550 thousand cases of reading impairment per year are due to transportation noise in Europe<\/strong> – 84 percent of cases are due to road traffic noise<\/strong>, 15 percent to rail noise, and 1 percent to air noise – and about 60 thousand cases of behavioral difficulties annually\u00a0are due to environmental transport noise in Europe, with the majority\u00a0<\/strong>(about 86 percent<\/strong>) due<\/strong>\u00a0to road traffic<\/strong>. The reality may be even worse because the agency points out that the results should be considered an underestimate<\/strong>\u00a0since the data “do not comprehensively cover all roads, rail networks, airports and agglomerations,” but “only roads transited by more than three million vehicles per year, railways with more than 30 thousand trains per year, airports with more than 50 thousand movements per year, and agglomerations with more than 100 thousand inhabitants.” In addition, “not all cities map road and rail noise across all, or even most, streets. Some cities map the majority of their streets while others map only the busiest streets. As a result, there is not only an underestimation of impacts,” the report points out.<\/p>\n

Regarding mitigation\u00a0measures, the agency explained that, “Currently, there is a limited number of policy measures that limit children\u2019s exposure to noise from transport<\/strong>” and that the World Health Organization has made the “most relevant” recommendations that call for noise levels in schoolyards not to exceed 55 dB and noise levels in indoor classrooms not to exceed 35 dB. In this context, “reducing children\u2019s exposure to environmental noise from road, railway and air transport at home and at school can help decrease cases of reading impairment and behavioral problems,” according to the report. Studies have found that reduced levels of transportation noise can help mitigate negative effects on children, which include deficits in cognitive function, elevated stress biomarkers and lower perceived quality of life, highlighting the potential benefits of noise abatement\u00a0strategies. “Importantly, some research also shows that cognitive deficits may diminish over time once the source of noise is eliminated.<\/strong> This emphasizes the necessity for timely actions <\/strong>and long-term planning in areas where children can be exposed to transportation noise. Additionally, studies evaluating interventions such as building modifications in schools have demonstrated improvements in terms of enhanced student concentration and decreased aggression,” the agency notes.<\/p>\n

The proposals of the EU Environment Agency<\/h3>\n

Therefore, the Agency proposes intervention actions that are part of\u00a0a comprehensive approach combining source-based measures, enhanced\u00a0urban and transportation planning, and substantial reductions in road traffic in urban areas<\/strong>.\u00a0“Localized interventions such as constructing\u00a0noise barriers\u00a0benefit those in a specific area,” leaving the broader context unaffected.<\/p>\n

Among the measures the agency proposes are the design<\/strong> of school buildings to minimize exposure to outdoor noise and policies to reduce road, rail, and air noise emissions in residential areas with lower speed limits<\/strong>, traffic calming measures, and operating restrictions at airports and\u00a0railways. It also recommends planting trees<\/strong>, shrubs, or installing earth berms around school buildings as a natural noise barrier<\/strong>; using noise reduction technologies in transportation infrastructure<\/strong> such as low-noise pavements, quiet\u00a0tires, and low-noise aircraft; and creating designated quiet zones<\/strong> around schools and residential areas as buffer areas. Other measures include making soundproof windows, noise barriers, insulated doors, and panels; placing schools and bedrooms away from areas affected by transportation noise wherever possible; and implementing noise awareness programs for students and staff.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Finally, the EEA\u00a0recalls that the EU’s zero pollution action plan aims to reduce the number of people chronically disturbed by noise from transport by 30% by 2030<\/strong> (compared with 2017). “However, based on current assessments, it is considered that this target will not be achieved.”<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A European Environment Agency (EEA) report shows that road traffic is responsible for more than 80 percent of cases. Solutions include introducing lower speed limits, planting trees as a sound-absorbing barrier, designing buildings to reduce exposure, and using technologies such as low-noise pavement, tires, and aircraft<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7874,"featured_media":240515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25708],"tags":[25746,27896,30004,26045,27669,26076,30003,30005,26099],"class_list":["post-413814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-aea-en","tag-problems-behavioral-en","tag-sons-en","tag-bambini-en","tag-environment-en","tag-pollution-sound-en","tag-rumore-en","tag-transport-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413814"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413865,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413814\/revisions\/413865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}