Transport,Environment and Health - WHO Report

The World Health Organisation Report on Transport, Environment and Health contains 2 sections of interest to those of us that will live in the proximity of the proposed new hospital and will have to live with the impact to our quality of life that it will bring.

The sections of interest are

1. "Transport noise: a pervasive and underestimated ambient stressor" and
2. "Serious health impact of air pollution generated from traffic"

We are not medics and cannot determine the consequences to health of a major increase in road traffic and helicopter journeys. However there is so much written following studies by authoritive organisations including the World Health Organisation and highly regarded medical professionals, about the link between traffic and the risks to health, both physical and mental.

 Our own commonsence must make us question what are the possible risks to our health and to those of the vulnerable including children and the elderly living nearby and to ask why, when Governments and Local Authoritys are required to cut the levels of air pollution and greenhouse gasses, our local representatives shrug and grin when we raise the issue of health risks and are keen to impose increase in airbourne pollutants on our environment.

Extracts from the report are revealing:

The health effects of noise.

"Good evidence shows the adverse effects of noise
on communication, school performance, sleep and
temper, as well as cardiovascular effects and hearing
impairment."


Serious health impact of air pollution generated from traffic

"Direct link between proximity to heavy traffic and ill health.
A number of studies have recently shown an association
between respiratory disease and proximity
to roads that are busy and those travelled by a high
number of heavy vehicles or trucks (46). Children
living near roads with heavy vehicle traffic are at
greater risk of respiratory disease. Most studies suggest
an increased risk of around 50%. These studies
may have captured the effects of actual mixtures of
pollutants and they strengthen the case for traffic generated
air pollutants’ affecting health."

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