For years, noise has been dismissed as the lesser evil, not as the biggest health problem in cities. 70% of the noise in a city comes from cars, and people aren’t used to it, even if we think otherwise. As toxic as pollution itself is damage we suffer: it worsens cardiovascular disease, depression or diabetes, and causes children to learn worse. Not only that, it also affects sleep quality and hearing.

Noise. A Reddit user posted an image showing an acoustic map of the city of Barcelona, ​​in which you can see that the highest sound levels are near the streets where the most cars pass. The image was accompanied by the text: “Cities are not noisy, cars are noisy.”

You are not wrong. On average, cars moving at around 45 km/h produce sound levels ranging from 33 to 69 decibels. This is the interval between a quiet bookshelf and a noisy dishwasher. For those traveling at 90 km/h, the sound level reaches 89 decibels. Equivalent to two people yelling at each other.

Causes 30 deaths a year in Barcelona. In the Catalan capital, more than 210,000 Barcelonans experience “intense discomfort” emotionally, psychologically or socially from the noise; and due to more than 60,000 serious sleep disorders constant exposure to traffic, according to the Barcelona Public Health Agency. specify it after contamination, noise is the “second environmental factor” with the greatest impact on health. So much so that they attribute 300 cases of ischemic heart disease per year and therefore 3% of deaths to noise pollution. It is, in Barcelona the noise kills 30 people every year.

It’s a global problem. In cities such as Madrid, Valencia or Malaga, the noise from cars is constant. In the first year, approximately 8,000 short-term hospitalizations each year can be attributed to NO2 and approximately 5,000 noise. María Foraster, an epidemiologist specializing in noise at the Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), assumes “daily, sustained stress, even if it seems to us of low intensity.”

The problem is global: According to an ISGlobal study, as many as 60 million adults in Europe are exposed to harmful levels of traffic noise. It exceeds 43% of the people living in Madrid. In Barcelona, ​​55%. A study by the National Noise Council and the Ecological Transition Agency in France determined that the annual cost of noise in health expenditures is 156,000 million euros.

New noise radars. France knows that noise pollution is a problem and that’s why a few months ago installed the first noise radars to detect the loudest vehicles and penalize them with 135 euros. They have just arrived in Spain, although they are still in the testing phase. These devices have a high-sensitivity microphone and a 180-degree camera that takes pictures of cars crossing borders. However, unlike the French project, there will be no sanctions in Spain at the moment.

Switching to electricity. The truth is, cities wouldn’t be the same if all drivers got a free electric vehicle. That’s the conclusion from this interesting article in The Conversation, which analyzes how electric and hybrid cars sound lower because they don’t have internal combustion engines that produce noise and vibration. But to enable pedestrians to hear approaching cars, they must emit sounds ranging from 43 to 64 decibels.

However, in many cases electric cars are out of reach for low-income families as they are significantly more expensive than petrol cars. This also reflects an environmental inequality: Not everyone is equally protected against environmental and health hazards.