Children's annoyance reactions to aircraft and road traffic noise

Since annoyance reactions of children to environmental noise have rarely been investigated, no source specific exposure-response relations are available. The aim of this paper is to investigate children's reactions to aircraft and road traffic noise and to derive exposure-response relations. To this end, children's annoyance reactions to aircraft and road traffic noise in both the home and the school setting were investigated using the data gathered in a cross-sectional multicenter study, carried out among 2844 children (age 9-11 years) attending 89 primary schools around three European airports. An exposure-response relation was demonstrated between exposure to aircraft noise at school (L-Aeq,L-7-23 h) and severe annoyance in children: after adjustment for confounders, the percentage severely annoyed children was predicted to increase from about 5.1% at 50 dB to about 12.1% at 60 dB. The findings were consistent across the three samples. Aircraft noise at home (L-Aeq,L-7-23 (h)) demonstrated a similar relation with severe annoyance. Children attending schools with higher road traffic noise (L-Aeq,L-7-23 (h)) were more annoyed. Although children were less annoyed at levels above 55 dB, the shapes of the exposure-response relations found among children were comparable to those found in their parents. (C) 2009 Acoustical Society of America. [DOI: 10.1121/1.3058635]