Literture review: urban noise as an environmental pollutant.

Abstract

Purpose: Analyze studies on noise as environmental pollution in urban centers, focusing on their sources and sound levels in attempt at understand whether current urban model is suitable for individual and collective health. Material and Methods: The BVS, PubMed and Cochrane were used to search original research articles related to the environmental noise. Results: This review article analyses 19 studies related to noise as an environmental pollutant. Conclusion: many studies have been conducted to quantify the urban noise and potential disturbance caused in the population, using different methodologies. Our work demonstrates that the noise is present in the urban environment and commonly extrapolates current levels tolerated by the law, being a potential stressor. Therefore, their presence in various human activities, especially in traffic, reflects a model of the current city that needs to be rethought. The results of this study may be useful for the development of new research on the urban noise and public policy development.