In Europe, noise lies just behind air pollution as a major cause of illness, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). That’s something that should force us to reconsider the question of noise in the urban environment. But how? We can start by monitoring the impact of noise on health. Contrary to the accepted wisdom, not all noise is harmful. The challenge, however, is how to give priority to the noises that improve the well-being of the city-dweller. To meet this challenge in an effective and sustainable fashion, emotional engineering is the perfect complement to innovative acoustic design.
Noise is omnipresent in cities. And it isn’t just a nuisance but a health risk. Almost 40% of the inhabitants of cities with populations over 250,000 are exposed to harmful levels of noise (over 60 decibels) as a result of road traffic. And the harmful effects of noise aren’t limited to hearing damage: they also include extra-auditory phenomena such as stress, high blood pressure, impaired vision and even depression!
