Photo credit: Zezen Zaenal Mutaqin
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
The European Vox news site reports that according to the European Court of Auditors, 450 million people are at risk from noise and air pollution in European cities. European Union standards for both noise and air pollution will be tightened in the coming years. About 75% of Europeans live in urban areas where both types of pollution are more of a problem than in rural areas.
As I have written, noise pollution is the auditory byproduct of the internal combustion engine. Internal combustion engines of all types make noise, just like they all emit gaseous and particulate matter air pollution. Some are worse than others, like two-stroke gasoline engines and diesel engines.
The European Green Deal set targets for noise and air pollution, but these are not binding. The report notes that EU member states aren’t meeting existing standards, which are to be tightened soon. At least in Europe, elected leaders and regulators accept that noise and air pollution are issues. That’s not true everywhere. In some countries, elected leaders think that climate change is a hoax, and that the solution to every problem is to “Drill, baby, drill.”
We hope that changes soon. A quieter world with cleaner air will be a better and healthier place for all.
