According to a report prepared by a fact-finding expert mission on noise problems, two out of three persons in France are affected by noise caused by vehicles, or at the workplace or at home.

Five million French are affected with hearing impairment, of whom 2 million are less than 55 years old

15% of the population wears hearing aids. More than 5 million people suffer from Tinnitus: an abnormal auditory sensation (buzzing, ringing in the ears) that is not caused by an external sound.

A recent report from the World Health Organization estimates that each year, 1.6 million healthy life years are lost in Western Europe because of physiological and mental harm caused by excessive exposure to loud noise for long durations.

These (healthy) life years lost each year are divided as follows:

• 61,000 years for cardiovascular diseases
• 45,000 years for cognitive impairments in children
• 903,000 years for sleep disturbances
• 22,000 years for acute acoustic trauma
• 587,000 years for impairment