Effects of noise on people

Protecting the health of the population is the pnmary goal of all public efforts to control individual and community exposure to noise. Following the enactments in the United States of the Noise Control Act of 1972 [39], the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and the adoption of their directions by the various States, considerable efforts have been made to consolidate, for practical application, the large amount of diverse laboratory and field research on the effects of noise on people. The most authoritative interpretation of the congressional mandate to protect the public health and welfare, is documented in the Environmental Protection Agency's "Levels Document" of 1974, which adopted the World Health Organization's definition of health as not the mere absence of disease, but as the total physiological and psychological well-being. The term public health implies that the common interests of society as a whole must be emphasized, and that whenever possible, effects should be expressed in statistical terms. In this way the overall impact can be more clearly analyzed, as compared to the isolated, statistically insignificant occasional impacts on individuals.