61 Noise & Health, April-June 2010, 12:47,61-3 Introduction In October 2009, [1] the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Offce for Europe published night noise guidelines for Europe (NNGL) to provide evidence-based policy advice to the Member States in the development of future legislation and policy action in the area of control and surveillance of night noise exposure. NNGL complements the previous WHO guidelines for community noise (1999), refecting the advancement of research. This paper summarizes the key recommendations of NNGL. The need for the WHO Regional Offce for Europe/Europe to develop “health- based” guidelines originated in part from the European Union (EU) Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise (commonly known as the Environmental Noise Directive, END), which compels EU Member States to produce noise maps and action plans to protect the public from harmful level of environmental noise. The WHO’s work in the development of NNGL was partially supported by a grant from the European Commission and contributions from the Swiss and German governments. Process of Developing Guidelines In 2003, the WHO Regional Offce for Europe European Centre for Environment and Health, Bonn, Germany, set up a working group of experts. The review of available scientifc evidence on the health effects of night noise was carried out by an interdisciplinary team to formulate health-based guidelines. The contributions from the experts were integrated into draft reports following discussion at four technical meetings of the Summary of night noise guidelines for Europe Rokho Kim, Martin van den Berg 1 World Health Organization (WHO), European Centre for Environment and Health, Regional Offce for Europe, Bonn, Germany, and 1 Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (Ministry VROM), The Hague, The Netherlands Abstract Considering the scientifc evidence on the threshold of night noise exposure indicated by L night as defned in the Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC), L night value of 40 dB should be the target of the night noise guideline (NNG) to protect the public, including the most vulnerable groups such as children, the chronically ill and the elderly. L night value of 55 dB is recommended as an interim target for countries which cannot follow NNG in the short term for various reasons and where policy-makers choose to adopt a stepwise approach. These guidelines may be considered an extension to the previous World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for community noise (1999). Keywords: Night noise guidelines, WHO, noise directive, noise policy PubMed ID: **** DOI: 10.4103/1463-1741.63204 working group. In 2006, all the draft reports were compiled into a draft document on guidelines for exposure to noise at night, which was reviewed and commented on by a number of stakeholders and experts. At the fnal conference in Bonn on 14 December 2006, representatives from the working group and stakeholders from industry, government and nongovernmental organizations reviewed the contents of the draft document and reached a general agreement on the guideline values of NNGL. Noise Indicators Long-term effects such as cardiovascular disorders have to be described by indicators summarizing the acoustic situation over a long time period such as annual average of night noise level outside at the façade (e.g., L night defned by END), while instantaneous effects such as EEG- or awakening reactions are better correlated with the (maximum) level per event (L Amax or SEL), such as the passage of a lorry, airplane or train. NNGL adopted a long-term exposure indicator, L night , in formulating the health-based guideline values because chronic health effects over a longer period of time are a more serious burden than acute effects, from the public health point of view. Also, it was clear that in the coming years in Europe, L night data would become widely available and could be used by the local and central governments preparing action plans following the mandates of END. The experts of the working group, however, acknowledged that among the currently used indicators for regulatory purposes, L Aeq (A-weighted equivalent sound pressure level) over a single night and L Amax are useful to predict short-term or instantaneous effects. www.noiseandhealth.org