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In this report, vulnerability is framed as the interplay between biological susceptibility and situational factors predicting the likelihood of noise exposure. The corresponding evidence was evaluated across a wide range of outcomes by means of a literature review, complemented by crowd-sourced expertise from the noise–health research community. We found that about half of the studies that conducted separate analyses for potentially vulnerable groups found a statistically significant difference but without a consistent pattern. In general, the higher the baseline risk, the higher the additional health impact from noise exposure. Further, there was a trend that groups with lower socioeconomic position based on material deprivation and deprivation indices showed higher transportation noise exposure, although the situation may be complex depending on the urban structure and residential preferences. The review concludes that some groups need additional protection—but no one is risk-free. This reinforces a key public health message: the most effective and equitable response is population-wide action on noise, ensuring that protection measures leave no one behind.

Unlike for emissions to air, there is no standardised method for quantifying emissions to water from intensive livestock production and aquaculture. In Europe, approaches vary depending on the country, activity and pollutant, and include mass balance, measurement etc. Surveys were conducted to identify current practices and if possible, propose a common methodology for livestock farming and aquaculture. For pig and poultry farms, no proposal is possible due to limited data and because the few methods mentioned are based exclusively on measurements. Conversely, for aquaculture, several countries apply similar mass balance methods, based on conversion ratios that characterise the fate of nutrients during fish rearing. Therefore, it is proposed that the three HELCOM / OSPAR formulas, which are applicable to all fish species, both land-based and sea-based facilities, and with flexibility for different data input levels, are retained.