Swedish neighborhoods with more rentals have higher noise pollution

by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition

Photo credit: Nadine Wuchenauer

The Phys.org website reported on a recently-published study from Sweden showing that neighborhoods with higher rates of home renting rather than home ownership were exposed to more noise and air pollution. The researchers looked at noise and air pollution variables for 23,000 households in six Swedish cities and published their research in the European journal Sustainable Cities and Society. The article on which this report is based is open access.

The correlations varied between cities, as each had its own unique circumstance. Not all poor neighborhoods had more pollution than wealthier neighborhoods with higher home ownership rates. The fact that in general poor people are exposed to more noise pollution and air pollution is not new. Those with higher socioeconomic status are usually able to choose where they live more easily than people with lower socioeconomic status, with the former typically living further away from busy highways and industrial zones. These people often have enough political clout to keep new transportation or industrial developments from being built where they live.

The New Testament states, “The poor you will always have with you,” but this is not really true. I don’t know too much about biblical times, but wealth was probably linked to land ownership. In the United States, though, income inequality can be linked to specific government policies dating back to slavery, the exclusion of domestic and agricultural workers from Social Security in New Deal programs and redlining in federal housing programs. Recent increases in income inequality began during the Reagan administration and have continued to the present administration.

A discussion of the politics of wealth distribution in Sweden or in the United States is well beyond the scope of a blog about noise, but one thing is certain: A quieter world with cleaner air will be a better and healthier world for all.