Noise health effects are the physical and psychological health consequences of regular exposure, to consistent elevated sound levels. Elevated workplace or environmental noise can cause hearing impairment, tinnitus hypertension, ischemic heart disease, annoyance, and sleep disturbance. Changes in the immune system and birth defects have been also attributed to noise exposure.

Main article: Noise-induced hearing loss

Noise-induced hearing loss is a permanent or temporary shift in pure-tone thresholds, resulting in sensorineural hearing loss. This shift can be caused by prolonged exposure to noise or by a high-intensity impulse sound such as an explosion. The severity of a threshold shift is dependent on duration and severity of noise exposure. Noise-induced threshold shifts are seen as a notch on an audiogram from 3000–6000 Hz, but most often at 4000 Hz. As a person is exposed to more noise (over the years) there may be an increase in threshold and also more frequencies can be affected.

Tinnitus is an auditory disorder characterized by the perception of a sound (ringing, chirping, buzzing, etc.) in the ear. There are two types of tinnitus: subjective and objective. Subjective is the most common and can only be heard "in the head" by the person affected. Objective tinnitus can be heard from those around the affected person.

Though the pathophysiology of tinnitus isn't known, noise exposure can be a contributing factor. Noise-induced tinnitus can be temporary or permanent depending on the type and amount of noise a person was exposed to.

Noise has been associated with important cardiovascular health problems, particularly hypertension (Source 1).

Source 1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3277836/

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