The World Health Organisation (WHO) Environmental Noise Guidelines 2018 set out how long term exposure to excessive noise for transport sources such as roads (53 dB Lden, 45 dB Lnight), railways (54 dB Lden, 44 dB Lnight) and aircraft (45 dB Lden, 40 dB Lnight) has negative impacts on our health and wellbeing. It can cause annoyance, sleep disturbance, and may also affect cardiovascular and metabolic function particularly as the noise exposure levels increase.
Reducing noise is one of the targets of the EU’s Zero Pollution Action Plan and the Environmental Noise Directive (END).
The WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines can provide policy makers with robust evidence on the long-term health effects of exposure to environmental noise in order for it to serve as the basis for a policy making process in which policy options, including the harmful effects, can be considered.
The EPA is the national authority for overseeing the implementation of the Environmental Noise Regulations.
The EU Environmental Noise Directive (END), EC 2002/49/EC, is transposed into Irish law as Statutory Instruments: The European Communities (Environmental Noise) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 549/2018) and its amendment S.I. No. 663/2021 - European Communities (Environmental Noise) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (irishstatutebook.ie)
The Environmental Noise Directive (END) requires member states to prepare and publish strategic noise maps and noise management action plans, every five years.
Noise and health
In 2022, the EPA published the Noise–Health Ireland project which assessed the relationship between environmental noise and health in a national and international context. The project identified some key policy recommendations such as developing an ambient noise strategy for Ireland and centralising the strategic noise mapping process. It also proposed that the noise mapping bodies include the complete road networks of Cork, Dublin and Limerick when preparing strategic noise mapping data. Please see Research_Report_423.pdf (epa.ie) for more information
Common noise assessment methodology (CNOSSOS-EU)
A two-year research project, Transitioning to Strategic Noise Mapping under CNOSSOS-EU, (new common noise methodologies) for Round 4 noise mapping was completed in 2021. This report provided a transitional needs assessment and guidance for adapting common noise assessment methods in Europe (CNOSSOS-EU) to the Irish context for road and rail sources. It was used by the EPA in generating technical guidance and round 4 mapping guidance for the noise mapping bodies. Please see Research_Report_382.pdf (epa.ie) for more information.
Reducing the share of people chronically disturbed by transport noise by 30% is the EU-wide target for 2030 under the EU Zero Pollution Action Plan. New assessment methods for harmful effects including high annoyance are set out in the amended noise regulations, that have links back to work by WHO. The harmful effects assessment methods in Annex III of the Environmental Noise Directive describes the methods for calculating the burden of disease caused by exposure to specific noise levels. The methods include dose-effect relations for a set of health endpoints such as cardiovascular disease, annoyance and sleep disturbance.
Table 3.1: Number of people in dwellings in Cork, Dublin and Limerick exposed to road traffic noise – Lden
|
Noise Level dB Lden |
Cork |
Dublin |
Limerick |
|||
|
All roads (No. people) |
Major roads (No. people) |
All roads (No. people) |
Major roads (No. people) |
All roads (No. people) |
Major roads (No. people) |
|
|
53–54 |
23,300 |
13,400 |
160,000 |
88,900 |
11,400 |
8,300 |
|
55-59 |
50,200 |
22,900 |
287,400 |
151,000 |
24,500 |
13,600 |
|
60-64 |
32,800 |
10,900 |
160,500 |
78,800 |
13,100 |
5,000 |
|
65-69 |
10,400 |
5,800 |
78,700 |
53,600 |
4,700 |
2,800 |
|
70-74 |
1,700 |
1,600 |
23,100 |
20,700 |
600 |
600 |
|
>=75 |
300 |
300 |
2,500 |
2,400 |
0 |
0 |
|
Total number of people exposed to noise above 55* |
95,400 |
41,500 |
552,200 |
306,500 |
42,900 |
22,000 |
|
Total exposed to noise above 53** |
118,700 |
54,900 |
712,200 |
395,400 |
54,300 |
30,300 |
|
Total Population |
219,287 |
219,287 |
1,355,968 |
1,355,968 |
101,029 |
101,029 |
|
% (above 55)* |
44% |
19% |
41% |
23% |
42% |
22% |
|
% (above 53)** |
54% |
25% |
53% |
29% |
54% |
30% |
Note: Exposure statistics rounded to the nearest 100.
*EU reporting threshold (END).
**WHO guideline level (as road traffic noise above 53 dB Lden can be associated with adverse health effects).
In Ireland, an estimated 1,326,000 people are exposed to road traffic noise above the WHO guidance levels of 53 Lden. This includes 885,000 people exposed to noise from major roads in Cork, Dublin and Limerick (Lden) and an additional 441,000 people exposed to noise from major roads outside these cities.
Annex III of the END describes the methods for assessing the harmful effects caused by long-term exposure to specific noise sources. The methods include dose–effect relationships for a set of health end points such as cardiovascular disease, annoyance and sleep disturbance. Data from the Annex III assessment, available for Round 4 noise action plans, provides statistical information on the effects of exposure to the harmful effects of environmental noise on representative populations. The health impacts that were assessed and reported on are the:
When combined with the statistical analysis of harmful effects, the round 4 mapping results categorised around 8% of the urban populations in Dublin, Cork and Limerick as highly annoyed due to their exposure to road traffic noise and approximately 2% as highly sleep disturbed (Table 3.3). Within the areas mapped alongside major roads outside the agglomerations, approximately 4.6% of the population were highly annoyed and an estimated 1.4% were highly sleep disturbed. State of the Environment Report – Chapter 3: Environmental Noise.
Table 3.3; Number and proportion of the population estimated to be at risk of harmful effects from exposure to road traffic noise in Cork, Dublin and Limerick
|
Harmful effects |
Cork |
Dublin |
Limerick |
||||||||||
|
All roads |
Major roads |
All roads |
Major roads |
All roads |
Major roads |
||||||||
|
No. people |
% |
No. people |
% |
No. people |
% |
No. people |
% |
No. people |
% |
No. people |
% |
||
|
Highly Annoyed* |
17,724 |
8.08 |
8,200 |
3.74 |
108,380 |
7.99 |
62,765 |
4.63 |
7,916 |
7.84 |
4,331 |
4.29 |
|
|
Highly Sleep Disturbed* |
3,382 |
1.54 |
2,075 |
0.95 |
28,996 |
2.14 |
19,636 |
1.45 |
1,387 |
1.37 |
1,022 |
1.01 |
|
|
Ischaemic Heart Disease** |
17 |
0.01 |
8 |
0.00 |
101 |
0.01 |
61 |
0.00 |
7 |
0.01 |
4 |
0.00 |
|
|
Total Population |
219,287 |
219,287 |
1,355,968 |
1,355,968 |
101,029 |
101,029 |
|||||||
* Based on WHO guidelines including statistical analysis of noise level bands, in which the noise levels above which health effects begin to occur are > 53 dB Lden for highly annoyed and > 45 dB Lnight for highly sleep disturbed.
** For No. people, the numbers are rounded to whole numbers
Noise complaints
Noise nuisance and complaints can come from a wide variety of sources such as entertainment venues, domestic/neighbourhood noise, industrial/commercial activities and from transport-related noise sources.
FAQs
For further information on road traffic and airport noise as well as information on noise complaints see; FAQs on noise | Environmental Protection Agency and Environmental noise complaints | Environmental Protection Agency
To avoid the harmful effects of environmental noise in the future it is useful to consider measures that could provide some protection from the potential impacts of increasing noise sources and exposure and that would look to preserve and maintain areas where environmental noise levels are deemed to be good. Under the Regulations an Action Planning Authority (APA), may (but are not obliged to) delimit quiet areas within agglomerations (or in Open Country), following consultation with the Agency and subject to the approval of the Minister.
As outlined above, the Round 4 Noise Action Plans developed by local authorities is where they provide information on what they would actions they would like to take, and these plans should be available on the relevant local authority website. Noise Action Plan for the Agglomeration of Dublin | Dublin City Council.
Meanwhile, further information on Quiet Areas is outlined in section 7 of the Round 4 Noise action planning handbook.
Some live noise monitoring data can be found at the following links;
The EPA developed a series of Round 4 draft noise mapping guidance documents that have been used in Round 4 mapping work.
| Year | EPA Noise Mapping & Action Planning Guidance Notes |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Round 4 Noise Action Planning Handbook - Final Working Draft |
| 2025 |
Round 4 Strategic Noise Mapping Guidance (Parts 1-4) |
|
|
| 2021 | Round 4 Strategic Noise Mapping of Major Roads for the Fourth Round of the Environmental Noise Regulations 2018 |