[Burdens due to noise and air pollution in residents of areas near streets with heavy traffic].

The residents of different streets with varying traffic density and building density were questioned about annoyance due to traffic noise and air pollution. Frequency and extent of annoyance felt, effects of immissions on such living aspects as recreation, or communication, and also the reactions to the disturbance felt (such as closing windows and taking sleeping pills) were investigated. Noise levels as well as particulate matter and gaseous air pollutant concentrations were measured along the streets under investigation. The evaluation of 1300 questionaires showed that reactions to noise were different in different quarters although noise levels were the same. In general, about 40% of residents were heavily disturbed during daytime when the noise level Leq was around 65 dB(A); while for the same noise level at night about 55% reported to be heavily disturbed. Strong correlations were also obtained between annoyance due to noise and that due to air pollution. The results show that annoyance felt is dependent not only on the measured noise levels and/or air pollution concentrations, but that there do exist interactions between the residential quarters and annoyance. These interactions should be considered while fixing the limits and standards.