Geoffrey Branger 12:03 p.m., September 29, 2022

According to a study by the Ecological Transition Agenda, noise pollution costs France 147 billion euros each year.

Noise causes various health effects such as sleep disturbances, cardiovascular diseases, obesity... But what does this bill actually correspond to?

The National Conference on Noise ended on Wednesday, with the slogan "invest in the sound environment".

Because noise is expensive and the mayors, civil servants, researchers, industrialists, transport managers, who met for two days, know it well.

According to a study by the Ecological Transition Agency (formerly ADEME), the health and social effects of noise generate colossal expenditure: 147 billion euros per year.

How to explain this insane bill for France?

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Sleep disturbances, obesity, diabetes...

The repercussions of noise on our health can be explained by a series of adverse effects generated by our way of life.

"We have road traffic, but also other sources of transport, rail, air", according to Fanny Mietlicki, director of Bruitparif.

Overall, the noise generated by the transport sector represents "about two thirds of the bill of these 147 billion euros per year".

As for the remaining third, it includes noise at work and neighborhood noise.

Then, everything works in cascade: this noise pollution will lead to health problems, such as sleep disturbances, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes or even mental health problems.

Pathologies that will generate costs through consultations with a doctor, taking medication, or even hospitalization. 

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Added to this are non-health parameters such as the loss of productivity in companies or the depreciation of real estate.

Finally, what justifies 86% of this bill is that the French exposed to too much noise are in poor physical and mental condition.

And according to economists, losing a year of healthy life represents a cost of 130,000 euros.

It is therefore by adding up all these factors that the researchers arrived at this colossal cost of noise pollution. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), noise is also the second environmental cause causing the most health damage, behind air pollution.