Latest ETC Reports (included in homepage)

The European Air quality index has been updated and now its bands take into consideration the World Health Organization global air quality guidelines, published in 2021. A subindex per pollutant is calculated based on hourly data (including for PM, for which running 24-hours averages were considered before) and on the risk of short-term mortality. The worst pollutant subindex categorizes the index. The health messages linked to the different index categories remain unchanged.

The aim of this report is to critically evaluate methods to assess the health risk of environmental noise for Europe and propose adaptations to the previously used methodology where necessary. Part I presents a refined methods for noise exposure assessment in Europe. Part 2 presents up-to-date exposure-response associations from an Umbrella+ review. High certainty evidence was found for effects of transportation noise on all-cause mortality, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Additional, evidence is emerging for effects on depression, dementia, overweight, cognitive impairments in adults and children and behavioural problems in children. The new body of evidence shows negative effects due to transport noise at lower levels (Lden=45 dB) than those captured in the European Environmental Noise Directive. In Part 3, proposals for disability weights and quantifying economic costs of health risks are made. The proposed changes of the health risk assessment methods reflect recent progress in noise research.

The reporting guidelines are intended to support reporters that will be conducting the submission of data required under the Environmental Noise Directive. The document provides an overview to the reporting process in Reportnet 3 and it describes the reporting data schemas and the quality checks that are undertaken during the submission process. In addition to this, reporting examples are also provided. A key goal of this document is to ensure a common understanding among data providers working on the implementation of the Environmental Noise Directive. This document should further be of assistance to both thematic and IT experts.