Sonic Patterns I: The Noise - Soundscape Ecology: Principles, Patterns, Methods and Applications - page 178

Cardiovascular disturbances. The endocrine and autonomous nervous systems are
particularly exposed to noise effects. This effect can act on the cardiovascular
system and may create a risk for cardiovascular diseases. A long-term noise dose
above 65 dB or acute exposure to 80-85 dB can initiate cardiovascular disorders.
In children, increase of blood pressure and an elevated level of stress-induced
hormones are particularly common.
Disturbances in mental health. Noise exposure accelerates and intensifies the
development of mental disorders: stress, anxiety, nervousness, nausea, head-
ache, emotional instability, argumentativeness, sexual impotence, changes in
mood, increase in social conflicts, neurosis, hysteria, and psychosis. In a noisy
context some interpersonal disputes end in injury or death. The dehumanization
complaint in a modern urban context may the result of such a noise-polluted
context.
Impaired task performance. Noise reduces the capacity of concentration and more
in general in performance at school and at work, with an increase in errors and a
decrease of motivation.
Problem-solving capability, reading attention, and memory are strongly
reduced by noise. All these facts suggest the necessity to better control the
quality of the sonic context to reduce the risk to have handicapped future
generations. The longer the exposure to noise, the greater are the effects in
children, and this suggests that schools and recreational areas should be located
in quiet areas rich in pleasant sonic information.
Negative social behavior and annoyance reactions. Annoyance is defined as a
feeling of displeasure created by an agent or condition that is believed to be
affecting the subject adversely. Vibration and low frequencies increase annoy-
ance, but other effects are companions of annoyance, such as anger, disappoint-
ment, dissatisfaction, withdrawal, helplessness, depression, distraction, anxiety,
exhaustion, and agitation.
People exposed to noise change behaviors such as closing all windows and
doors to impede the outdoor noise from entering the home, avoiding balconies,
yards, and patios, turning up the volume of radio and televisions, change social
behavior (e.g., aggressiveness, unfriendliness, nonparticipation, or disengage-
ment), and change in mood.
The degree of annoyance depends by several factors such as the time of day,
the unpleasant characteristics of the noise, duration and intensity of the noise,
and the meaning associated with the noise. Annoyance increases as the noise
increases: such progression is strongly perceived.
The human population is not homogeneous in terms of effect of noise. Patients
with various diseases, patients in hospitals, or those subjected to rehabilitation
after injury, blind people, those hearing impaired, fetuses, infants and your
children, and the elderly are more sensible to noise impact.
Children, which are more vulnerable to noise, require special attention and
noise protection. A recent investigation carried out by van Kempen et al. ( 2010 )
on 2,844 schoolchildren (aged 9-11 years) attending 89 primary schools around
three European airports did not confirm a relationship between transportation