Newcastle is 'noisiest urban area in the UK'

A new report has revealed that Newcastle-upon-Tyne is the noisiest urban area in the country with people facing severe hearing and health problems.

The north east city topped a traffic noise table with an ear-splitting 80.4 decibels, the equivalent to a loud alarm clock constantly ringing in your ear. Tranquil Torquay was bottom with a relatively peaceful 60 decibels, the same as listening to a normal conversation.

Experts say that as decibels are a logarithmic index it makes Newcastle 100 times noisier than Torquay and a serious threat to people's health.

They say the levels of traffic noise the report uncovered are a threat to our health and well-being and should be seen as detrimental as air pollution.

If loud enough, prolonged exposure to traffic noise could lead to irreversible hearing damage needing medical attention.

The report's author Professor Deepak Prasher, of the Ear Institute, University College London, worked with Widex of Denmark, a leading hearing aid manufacturer.

The Widex Noise Report was compiled by measuring traffic noise in 41 towns and cities around England during rush hour periods.

Measurement locations were chosen where people come into close proximity to traffic to give a 'snapshot' of the levels of noise pollution around the country.

Though it was to be expected that some of Britain's biggest cities appear in the top three - Birmingham was second and London third - the report surprisingly showed that some smaller towns such as Darlington and Gillingham ranked well above larger metropolitan areas such as Manchester and Liverpool.

Professor Prasher said today: "Noise pollution in our towns and cities is a growing problem and can have a serious long-term impact on our health and well-being.

"Noise not only annoys but also can raise our stress levels and associated hormone levels.

"It can disturb sleep and increase the risk of heart disease and if the noise is loud enough it can lead to permanent hearing impairment and tinnitus."

Angela King, a senior audiology specialist at charity RNID, said: "Studies such as Professor Deepak Prasher's help raise awareness of the risks associated with loud noise.

"However, the main issues in this report relate to noise annoyance and the stress it causes.

"Noise can certainly be a problem but these city street readings may not necessarily pose an immediate risk to a person's hearing.

"Risk to hearing depends not only on how loud the noise is but also how long you listen to it.

"Potential damage to one's hearing may result if an individual is subjected to loud noise over a period of time.

"For example, damage can be done by regular exposure to more than 85dB throughout the working day, or exposure to music at around 100dB in a club for one evening each week, or listening to your MP3 player in noisy environments with the volume turned up to drown out the background noise.

"The noise levels reported by Professor Prasher do not pose a threat in terms of actual damage to hearing unless you are listening to those levels all day, every day without a break."

The noisiest and quietest urban areas in England are revealed in the Widex Noise Report, carried out between October and November 2006.

The full list of towns and cities measured for traffic noise pollution is below with rankings in decibels:

1 Newcastle upon Tyne 80.4

2 Birmingham 79.1

3 London 78.5

=4 Darlington 78.3

=4 Doncaster 78.3

=6 Gillingham 77.8

=6 Leeds 77.8

=8 Leicester 77.5

=8 Liverpool 77.5

10 Stoke 77.4

11 Manchester 77.3

12 Sheffield 76.3

13 Nottingham 76.2

14 Bournemouth 76

15 Norwich 75.9

=16 Bristol 75.8

=16 Blackpool 75.8

18 Croydon 75.5

19 Swindon 75.2

20 Exeter 74.6

21 Coventry 74.5

22 Brighton 74.3

23 Carlisle 74.2

24 Sunderland 73.8

25 Plymouth 73.6

26 Southampton 72.5

=27 Cheltenham 72.4

=27 Lincoln 72.4

29 Bury St Edmunds 72.3

30 Ipswich 71.9

31 York 71.5

32 Eastbourne 70.8

33 Oxford 70.7

34 Chelmsford 70.3

=35 Reading 69.8

=35 Cambridge 69.8

37 Colchester 68.1

38 Folkestone 66.8

39 Scunthorpe 66.4

40 Paignton 65.7

41 Torquay 60.2

Copyright Press Association 2007

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