More than one in five Europeans are exposed to harmful transport noise, according to the latest European Environment Agency (EEA) report, making it the third most deadly environmental threat behind air pollution and extreme temperatures.
Road traffic is the most widespread source of transport noise, exposing an estimated 92 million people to levels above the EU’s Environmental Noise Directive (END) threshold of 55 decibels (dB) for the day-evening-night period. This is a weighted average sound level over a 24-hour period that accounts for how people are more sensitive to noise during the night.
