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  What are the impacts of noise?

Indicators of the effect of excessive noise in Prague

	Inhabitants affected by transportation noise [%]
46,1	- day
53,1	- night
	Flats affected by transportation noise [%]
53,5	- day
55,8	- night
	Area affected by transportation noise [%]
32,0	- day
43,1	- night
34,0	Area affected by aircraft noise  [%]

Expert estimation for  regions of the Czech republic (1994)
Zdroj / Source: SZÚ, CEÚ

Noise exposure of population in Prague according to NLDM

No. of NLDM	Year	Territory (districts)	Number of population (1992)	Percentages of exposed population in various noise bands (dB(A))
				< 55	55 - 60	60 - 65	65 - 70	70 - 75	> 75
1	1996	Prague 1	42 534	6.5	15.3	36.9	24.5	13.9	2.8
2	1997	Prague 2	61 874	2.0	17.9	33.1	19.5	21.5	5.9
3	1994	Prague 3	81 759	12.0	23.8	31.2	13.2	14.2	5.6
4	1995	Prague 4	131 197	36.9	27.0	15.8	11.5	7.2	1.7
5	1993	Prague 5, Prague 13, Repy	80 068	32.4	16.8	15.0	12.7	16.2	7.0
6	1994	Prague 6	106 860	37.3	22.8	20.4	10.2	8.1	1.1
7	1992	Prague 7, Troja	46 899	1.1	15.4	39.7	17.1	23.5	3.2
8	1996	Prague 8, Brezineves, Dáblice, Dolní Chabry	117 390	55.8	15.1	14.2	7.0	6.4	1.6
9	1997	Prague 9, Prague 14	64 696	55.3	14.2	15.6	7.6	4.7	2.6
10	1995	Prague 10, Prague 15	137 674	31.9	23.1	21.4	13.9	7.3	2.5
Total			870 951	31.4	20.2	21.9	12.6	10.7	3.1

An unequivocal relation between noise levels and the incidence of “civilization diseases” has been determined. In comparison with the other monitored towns and cities, noise levels in Prague are high and display a low degree of variations.

Effects of noise on the population are monitored by means of a questionnaire monitoring the incidence of selected civilization diseases. It has been found out that the relation between noise levels and the incidence frequency of selected civilization diseases in various sites remains the same (a positive correlation at the 10 % significance level). Comparisons of different monitoring periods also indicate an overall increase of the selected civilization diseases (approximately 10 % since 1985); this applies to both “silent” and “noisy” sites.

Based on the above results a model estimate of a relative measure of risk of a health damage due to environmental noise has been undertaken. It indicates that 6.3 % of Prague’s inhabitants and 3.9 % of the population of district capitals suffer from such a health damage. 


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