Guidelines for Environmental Noise Management in Developing Countries

This chapter describes the challenges of environmental noise policies and governance, noise emissions, noise transmission modeling, and those of health and economic risk assessment in developing countries. It bases on an analysis of current legislation regarding noise pollution in major developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Although legislators are engaged in promulgating laws and regulations explicit procedures for noise measurement, noise mapping, development of a healthy and comfortable soundscape, and the implementation and enforcement of legislation are rarely developed. A strategic framework approach is needed to overcome these challenges and enable countries to achieve sustainable environmental noise management. Guidelines are provided to resolve these tasks to better protect the population of urban areas against the health end economic impacts of environmental noise

Strengths and weaknesses of the WHO urban air pollutant database

The 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) global ambient air quality database is an impressive compilation that includes PM10 (particulate matter [PM] with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 µm) monitoring data for 3,570 cities in 97 countries and PM2.5 (PM with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 µm) data for 2,628 cities in 81 countries. The database collects measurements and estimates of these fractions, which contain pollutants such as sulphates, nitrates, and black carbon, from established public air quality monitoring systems. These pollutants can penetrate deep into the lungs and the cardiovascular system, posing the greatest risk to human health. Unsurprisingly, the WHO database reports relatively low levels of urban PM pollution in high-income (HI) countries in Western Europe, the Americas, the Western Pacific, and Oceania but high levels in low-and middle-income (LMI) countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America—where lack of funding and inadequate staffing are key barriers to effectively reducing the air pollution—and even in high-income countries in the third region. Unfortunately, politicians, organizations, and the media have used the database to draw inaccurate and misleading conclusions based on comparisons between cities, such as occurred with the 2016 version. In this paper, we investigate the strengths and weaknesses of the 2018 database with respect to several criteria (e.g., the selection of pollutants, completeness, spatial and temporal representativeness, and quality assurance and quality control) and offer recommendations for improvement

Proceedings of the International Workshop on 'Combined Environmental Exposure: Noise, Air Pollutants and Chemicals'

The issue of combined exposure to noise, air pollution and chemicals has raised recently the interest of several bodies of the European Commission such as DG Environment, DG SANCO and DG Research in the context of the EC 7th Framework Programme. There are open questions whether prevailing environmental concentrations of air pollutants and chemicals can lead to ototoxic health impacts. Therefore this issue needs to be thoroughly explored and investigated to help the EC to revise the existing standards and guidelines concerning combined exposure to noise, air pollutants and chemicals. The aim of the workshop was to review and discuss the existing scientific evidence whether prevailing environmental exposures to single and concomitant agents together with noise could lead to ototoxic or other health impacts. The final aim was to identify the research needs and to give recommendations for research and policy making in the EU level. It was agreed that research in the future should be focused on really established combinations (high correlations) and interactions (known effect) with main perspective on the traffic bundle of exposure. It was also discussed and agreed upon that the best knowledge exists on the health effects due to combined exposure to noise and solvents or heavy metals in occupational environments, especially on most of the auditory and non-auditory effects. Possible factors that may have confounding or aggravating effects on the results of noise studies were identified. Such factors are: age, gender, smoking, obesity, alcohol, socio-economic status, occupation, education, family status, active military, experience, hereditary disease, medication, medical status, race and ethnicity, physical activity, noisy leisure activities, stress reducing activities, diet & nutrition, housing condition (crowding), and residential status. Research priorities and recommendations for the future. The highest priority was given to issues related to research on noise and outdoor air pollutants. This is due to the fact that it may concern the largest population compared to the other stressors in this analysis and there is some evidence of serious health outcomes such as cardiovascular effects. The next priority was given to the research on the effects of noise and solvents in occupational settings and to research on noise and organophosphates. In the future research, priority should be given to: 1. evaluation of existing data collections whether re-analyses are possible with respect to combined exposure from traffic sources (road, rail and air), 2. analyses of existing data concerning noise and other stressors interactions in both occupational and environmental settings, 3. detailed assessment of combined exposures to noise, vibrations and PM, CO, NOx, and VOCs with specific studies in urban areas and, especially, cardiovascular health endpoints should be studied as priority health endpoints, 4. identification of causal mechanisms through careful review of toxicological experimental studies.JRC.I.5-Physical and chemical exposure

Estimating on-road vehicle fuel economy in Africa : A case study based on an urban transport survey in Nairobi, Kenya

In African cities like Nairobi, policies to improve vehicle fuel economy help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, but lack of data is amajor challenge. We present a methodology for estimating fuel economy in such cities. Vehicle characteristics and activity data, for both the formal fleet (private cars, motorcycles, light and heavy trucks) and informal fleet-minibuses (matatus), three-wheelers (tuktuks), goods vehicles (AskforTransport) and two-wheelers (bodabodas)-were collected and used to estimate fuel economy. Using two empirical models, general linear modelling (GLM) and artificial neural network (ANN), the relationships between vehicle characteristics for this fleet and fuel economy were analyzed for the first time. Fuel economy for bodabodas (4.6 ± 0.4 L/100 km), tuktuks (8.7 ± 4.6 L/100 km), passenger cars (22.8 ± 3.0 L/100 km), and matatus (33.1 ± 2.5 L/100 km) was found to be 2-3 times worse than in the countries these vehicles are imported from. The GLM provided the better estimate of predicted fuel economy based on vehicle characteristics. The analysis of survey data covering a large informal urban fleet helps meet the challenge of a lack of availability of vehicle data for emissions inventories. This may be useful to policy makers as emissions inventories underpin policy development to reduce emissions

Program and knowledge transfer in teaching indoor air science

The focus of this paper is the universality of teaching and training in the area of science of indoor air quality and the practice of indoor air quality management. The key questions, which the paper addresses, are: (i) how universal are approaches to teaching and training in the area of science and practice of indoor air quality, and (ii) is it possible, practical or desirable to transfer training or university degree programs from one geographical, cultural or economical reality to another? The paper is an attempt to answer the two questions from the broad perspective of linking parallels between teaching in indoor air sciences and teaching in an interdisciplinary area in general, and also from the perspective of personal experience from university and training course teaching in various places in the world. The conclusion drawn is that transfer of knowledge and technology in teaching in the area of indoor air sciences is possible and desirable. The success of program transfer depends on the understanding of the philosophy of teaching in this area as well as on understanding local needs requirements and limitations

Progress on noise policies from 2008 to 2011

ICBEN Team 9, Noise Policy and Economics, provides an update on international progress on noise mitigation policies and strategies, best practices, and guidelines for environmental noise management for each ICBEN Congress. As described in this brief paper and in more detail in the associated paper prepared for the ICBEN 2011 Congress in London, there were a considerable amount of new relevant documents in many countries on these topics since the last ICBEN Congress in 2008. As before, much of this progress was made in the European Union, although other areas of the world demonstrated a continuing commitment to improvement on these issues, especially in Asia and North America. The Team 9 topics are particularly important because they embody the implementation of the results of the work of the other ICBEN International Noise Teams on the effects of noise exposure and, in addition, address the evolving and vital area of economics. The latter focus area includes topics such as cost-benefit analysis, which is crucial for governments to implement adequate and affordable noise mitigation policies. The ICBEN Team 9 review was prepared through inputs for the authors and through inputs by various Team 9 members. Interested readers are encouraged to read the more extensive Team 9 review paper available in the Proceedings of the ICBEN 2011 Congress

Confounding or Aggravating Factors in Noise-Induced Health Effects: Air Pollutants and Other Stressors

see attached.JRC.I.5-Physical and chemical exposure

Guidelines for concentration and exposure-response measurements of fine and ultra fine particulate matter for use in epidemiological studies.

An outcome of the WHO and JRC Expert Task Force Meeting held in Ispra, Italy, November 2000. Published on behalf of the European Commission Joint Research Centre; jointly published with the European Communities