Perceived annoyance and asthmatic symptoms in relation to vehicle exhaust levels outside home: a cross-sectional study

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background: Exhaust emissions from vehicles is a well known problem with both epidemiological and experimental studies showing increasing adverse health effects with elevating levels. Many of the studies concerning vehicle exhausts and health are focused on health outcomes where the proportion attributed to exhaust is low, while there is less information on early and more frequent subjective indicators of adverse effects. Methods: The primary aim of this study was to study perceived annoyance in relation to vehicle exhaust concentrations using modelled levels of nitrogen dioxide outside the home as an indicator with high spatial resolution. Almost 2800 persons in a random sample from three Swedish cities (Umea, Uppsala and Gothenburg) responded to our questionnaire. Questions were asked to determine the degree of annoyance related to vehicle exhausts and also the prevalence of irritating and asthmatic symptoms. Exposure was described for each participants home address by meteorological dispersion models with a 50 meter resolution. Results: We found a significant increase of peoples ' self-assessed annoyance with rising levels of NO2. The odds of being very annoyed by vehicle exhausts increased by 14 % per 1 µg/m3 increas

Mobile phone use and risk of acoustic neuroma: results of the Interphone case–control study in five North European countries

There is public concern that use of mobile phones could increase the risk of brain tumours. If such an effect exists, acoustic neuroma would be of particular concern because of the proximity of the acoustic nerve to the handset. We conducted, to a shared protocol, six population-based case–control studies in four Nordic countries and the UK to assess the risk of acoustic neuroma in relation to mobile phone use. Data were collected by personal interview from 678 cases of acoustic neuroma and 3553 controls. The risk of acoustic neuroma in relation to regular mobile phone use in the pooled data set was not raised (odds ratio (OR)=0.9, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.7–1.1). There was no association of risk with duration of use, lifetime cumulative hours of use or number of calls, for phone use overall or for analogue or digital phones separately. Risk of a tumour on the same side of the head as reported phone use was raised for use for 10 years or longer (OR=1.8, 95% CI: 1.1–3.1). The study suggests that there is no substantial risk of acoustic neuroma in the first decade after starting mobile phone use. However, an increase in risk after longer term use or after a longer lag period could not be ruled out

Developing a good practice guide on the evaluation of human response to vibration from railways in residential environments

The adverse effects that noise and vibration from railway systems in residential environments can have on people are key obstacles for the development of new rail systems and the operation of existing lines. Recent years have seen an increase in public sensitivity towards noise and vibration from rail systems and the success of legislation to control noise levels around railway lines has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints about railway-induced vibration. Costly mitigation measures coupled with unclear or non-existent assessment methods mean that there is a need in industry and consultancy for clear guidance on the assessment of groundborne vibration from rail systems with respect to human response. The current EU FP7 project CargoVibes is to publish a good practice guide on the assessment of the human response to railway induced vibration in residential environments. The aim of the guidance will be to provide end users with a set of practical tools to assess the human impact of "steady state" railway vibration primarily in terms of annoyance and sleep disturbance. Encompassing the current state of knowledge regarding the human response to vibration in residential environments alongside the practical outputs of the CargoVibes project, this document is intended to promote policy and standard development in this field. The current paper will present the preliminary contents of the guidance, which have been shaped by a workshop held at the University of Salford. This paper is intended to promote debate and enable contributions from the IWRN community to ensure that the guidance is relevant to the current needs of legislators, rail and infrastructure operators, consultants, and local authorities