Health impact assessment of road traffic noise exposure based on different densification scenarios in Malmö, Sweden.

Autor: Flanagan E; Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University, Sweden. Electronic address: erin.flanagan@med.lu.se., Malmqvist E; Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University, Sweden. Electronic address: ebba.malmqvist@med.lu.se., Oudin A; Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University, Sweden. Electronic address: anna.oudin@med.lu.se., Sunde Persson K; Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University, Sweden. Electronic address: karin.sunde@gmail.com., Alkan Ohlsson J; Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University, Sweden. Electronic address: johanna.alkan_olsson@cec.lu.se., Mattisson K; Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University, Sweden. Electronic address: kristoffer.mattisson@med.lu.se.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Environment international [Environ Int] 2023 Apr; Vol. 174, pp. 107867. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Mar 11.
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.107867
Abstrakt: While urbanization provides many opportunities to those arriving in thriving urban areas, a greater number of residents necessitates the expansion of housing and infrastructure. This is often achieved through densification, which can lead to increased noise, particularly through increased road traffic. A key challenge of promoting healthy urban planning is to understand potential health effects, especially on the local level. The aim of the present study is, therefore, to estimate and compare the health impacts of road traffic noise exposure for various urban densification scenarios within a neighborhood (Lorensborg) in Malmö, Sweden. The three scenarios include 1) Present-day, representing the study area as it is presently organized; 2) Planned municipal strategy (the city of Malmö's own densification plans) and 3) Health-centred, which involves major structural alterations and reflects an effort prioritize a health-centred approach. Noise was modelled using the Nordic prediction method for road traffic. Health outcomes included noise annoyance, adverse sleep disturbance, ischemic heart disease (IHD) incidence and mortality. Within all scenarios, a large proportion of the study population was exposed above the WHO's health-based guideline value (L den 53 dB): >80% for Present-day and Planned municipal strategy scenarios, and almost 50% in the Health-centred scenario. Still, densifying Lorensborg (population ≈9,600) according to the Health-centred scenario could prevent 549 cases of highly annoyed, 193 cases of adverse sleep disturbance, 4.7 new cases of IHD (8.9% of total cases), and 1.5 deaths due to IHD (17.8% of IHD mortality) annually. The results demonstrated that it is possible to considerably lower the health impact with a more health-centred densification strategy. Important co-benefits for public and environmental health include air pollution reduction and green space creation, although their health effects were not quantified in the present study. Urban planning initiatives must be more ambitious in order to create healthy, sustainable cities.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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