Photo credit: Majophotography licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 ES
By Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
In the U.S., noise is widely considered “just a nuisance,” but in Europe noise pollution is recognized as a major health hazard. In the current political climate, and with the current administration and Environmental Protection Agency administrator, we don’t expect anything to be done about noise here–just as climate change is viewed in Washington as a Chinese hoax–but other countries and regions accept the science.
The World Health Organization’s Global Burden of Disease report quantified the numbers of productive years of life lost due to noise. The European Noise Directive tells governments what to do about environmental noise. And now London is proposing a comprehensive environmental strategy, which includes very strong actions to deal with environmental noise.
We think London’s comprehensive environmental strategy is a wonderful model for cities and states in the U.S. to follow.
Please share this link with your state and local representatives or your governor.
.JPG){kind=link}