Noise

(asked on 8th July 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people in the UK are exposed to noise levels in excess of World Health Organisation guideline levels; and what estimate he has made of the number of people who will be exposed to such levels if the expansion of Heathrow were to proceed.


Answered by
Robert Goodwill Portrait
Robert Goodwill
This question was answered on 16th July 2015

The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) guidelines for community noise relate to noise levels from any of various sources including road, rail and aviation from transport, and non-transport sources such as construction, industry and the neighbourhood.

The guidelines propose that in residential areas where the general daytime noise exposure is below 55dB LAeq (non-specific time period), few people will be ‘seriously annoyed’ by noise, and that few people will be ‘moderately annoyed’ below a value of 50dB LAeq.

The Government does not currently monitor how many people are exposed to noise levels in excess of WHO guidelines for community noise, though DEFRA does publish noise exposure figures for selected noise bands for each agglomeration in England in accordance with the Environmental Noise Directive (Directive 2002/49/EC).

In considering options for airport expansion, the Airports Commission did not assess the proposals against the WHO guidelines but did assess them in various economic scenarios against a noise scorecard with a range of metrics, including a day noise level down to 54dB LAeq and a night noise level down to 48dB LAeq. The Commission found that expansion at Heathrow was compatible with reducing the number of people exposed to noise at these levels in 2030 compared to the baseline situation in 2013.

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