Noises off

How to solve London's hidden health crisis

Written by Chris Fellingham for the Greater London Project. You can read Chris’ own Substack here.

Anyone living in London will have been disturbed by sudden loud noises, be it a leaf-blower or the music from the neighbour’s garden. Ordinarily, noise is just one of the nuisances to be tolerated for the benefits of living in a city,  and all the perks of people living side-by-side. However the science of how our environment affects our health now shows that more extreme cases of noise pollution are a serious risk to our health. In fact the WHO considers it the second worst environmental harm after air pollution. And while air pollution has been a big focus of public policy, noise pollution is barely considered by London’s government.

Why is noise pollution so harmful? When you hear a loud and particularly intermittent sound – such as a loud engine suddenly accelerating – your body experiences a stress response. Cortisol and adrenaline are released as your body prepares a fight or flight response.  Our heart rates and blood pressure go up, our sympathetic nervous systems are activated, and for the duration of this response your body deprioritises non-essential systems such as immunological functions and cellular repair. 

If this response is only occasional, it doesn’t pose a problem for our health, but repeated exposure to noise pollution (and by extension the constant stress response) creates significant long-term health consequences: heightened risk of heart attack, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, strokes, and of course hearing loss. It also affects our mental health with noise pollution linked to anxiety and depression. So much so that  the WHO estimates that in Western Europe nearly one million life years are lost to noise pollution every year.

Noise isn’t just bad for our health, it's also bad for learning. A study in the US of 94,000 schools showed those closest to arterial roads or aviation had higher levels of stress hormones, lower reading scores and heightened hyperactivity, and similar studies have found the same in the UK. Workers aren’t spared either, a 2019 DEFRA study Government estimates the annual social cost of urban road noise is up to £10bn due to health problems related to noise, productivity loss among workers, and the cost of noise mitigation measures.

So how much is too much? We measure noise using the decibel system, a logarithmic scale where 70 decibels (db) is a 100x louder than 60. A quiet room is about 27db, a quiet street about 40db, a busy road is 69db and a hair dryer is 87db. Studies show that harmful effects begin at 53db dropping to 40db at night to avoid sleep disturbances. Though some research does show the risks start at an even lower threshold, and that  the risk of a heart attack increases 4.3% for every 10db above 35d, and cardiovascular disease risk increases 2.9% every 10 decibels above 35.

Given the risks, dangerous noise levels are far too common. London is particularly affected as one of the noisiest cities in Europe, with residents regularly exposed to 86db – far above the 53db threshold. With traffic noise, specifically noisy engines are particularly to blame, an RAC survey showed that 37% of Britons were regularly exposed to loud noises such as revving engines, rising to 47% in London. 

Thankfully, this evidence means the risks are already being reduced. Traffic is overwhelming the primary cause of urban noise pollution, and cars have been getting quieter thanks to regulation which has lowered maximum engine noise from 82 decibels in 1978 to 72 decibels in 2016 (100x quieter on the logarithmic scale) with a further tightening of standards to 68 decibels for new cars in 2026. With the rise of electric vehicles, traffic noise should be on its way to being a problem of the past.

But for a minority of motorists, excessive noise is the goal, either from modified ‘supercars’ or motorbikes. Residents measuring noise pollution on Streatham High Street found the legal noise limit was exceeded every 3 minutes, and vehicle noise complaints are the most common issue raised with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC). Modified vehicles are a growing menace on London’s roads. If it deafens you but you are 100 meters away or inside your home then it is very likely an illegal vehicle. So why are they tolerated?

Illegally loud vehicle noise is like speeding vehicles before the introduction of speed cameras. If you can’t prove on the spot that the law has been broken then how can the law be enforced? Fortunately, much like with speed cameras, technology has come to the rescue with new noise cameras. Noise cameras combine video footage with acoustic detection from several microphones to determine the decibel level of a passing vehicle, enabling enforcement action against illegally loud vehicles.

Led by Paris, city-planners are quickly acknowledging the power of noise cameras, with Paris beginning to roll them out in 2022, with fines starting in 2023. Others are quickly following, including Berlin, New York and Washington DC. The UK’s Department for Transport trialled them in 2022 with a recommendation that councils be allowed to deploy them to enforce noise pollution breaches.

But at present only a handful of noise cameras exist in the UK. RBKC has set up eight and there are a handful in other areas. The issue was raised in the London Assembly in 2023, but it is unclear whether there are any plans to deploy them more widely across the capital. Part of the problem is noise pollution has not been seen as a priority by politicians, but the more pressing issue is the economics of the cameras. While both speed and noise cameras issue fines of around £100, regulation around noise cameras still requires someone to manually check each penalty before it is issued. This labour cost means most councils will struggle to recover the initial outlay of £74k per noise camera for several years. One local politician I spoke to suggested a fine of closer to £400 would be both a more effective deterrent and allow quicker cost recovery.

One might think noise cameras are the next ULEZ or LTN – a policy that creates fierce divides among voters. In fact the opposite is true, - a survey by Which? showed 77% of the public were in favour of noise camera deployment in their area. Even among motorists, 57% polled by the RAC were in favour of noise cameras with only 22% opposed.

London’s boroughs and the Greater London Authority need to acknowledge the harm to our health and wellbeing posed by noise pollution. We have the technology, but it needs to be deployed across the city to protect schools, residents and workers. Central government in Westminster can also do their part by raising the cap on fines, and changing the rules to allow fines to be issued automatically without a human reviewing the footage (like speeding fines).

Cities should not be silent, as it’s the buzz and bustle of people living close together which makes them special. But we should discriminate between the background hum of people going about their lives, and the indulgence of a small minority of motorists harming the health and wellbeing of their neighbours.

---

Editor’s note:

We’ve been a bit quiet for the last month, but the writers are hard at work, and we have plenty more articles due out in the next few weeks. We are always keen to publish more pieces, and if you would like to write for us please email founders@greaterlondon.co. We are also excited to announce two events we have booked in central London for November and January, details out soon!