Assessment of the public health risk from noise pollution of the Saint Petersburg center

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess the risk to public health from exposure to road noise in the historical city center of St. Petersburg., the source of which is automobile (freight, passenger, public) transport. The presented article is devoted to an urgent problem – the assessment of the noise environment and the levels of the emerging risk to the health of the population exposed to traffic noise in dense urban areas. The risk assessment was carried out based on the results of field measurements of noise levels in the zone of influence of traffic flows. The quantitative risk assessment was carried out in accordance with the methodological recommendations of MP 2.1.10.0059-12 «Assessment of public health risk from exposure to traffic noise» and Instructions 2.1.8.10-12-3-2005 «Assessment of the risk to public health from exposure to noise in populated areas». The relevance of the work is confirmed by the fact that motor transport is becoming an increasingly priority source of noise pollution of streets, house territories, residential areas. The analysis of the results of the performed acoustic measurements indicates that the values of the equivalent and maximum sound levels at all four control points exceeded the normative noise exposure levels from 6 to 29.9 dBA. At the same time, the actual values varied from 61.2 dBA to 74.9 dBA for L(A)eq. and from 70.4 to 85.7 L(A)max. The obtained result indicates a significant noise impact of motor transport on the nearest residential area, which can lead to adverse health consequences.