New Delhi Ranks Among The Worst Hit Cities For Noise Pollution, Degraded Hearing

New world rankings on urban noise pollution and hearing loss, both which are interdependent, show New Delhi as among the worst hit cities by high decibels.?

The survey that was released on Friday ranks 50 cities across both categories and lists Guangzhou, New Delhi, Cairo and Istanbul among the top with respect to degraded hearing. Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Barcelona also fared poorly.

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The cities that are least affected by high decibels include Zurich, Vienna, Oslo, Munich, Stockholm, Seoul, Amsterdam, and Stuttgart. These regions recorded the lowest levels of decline in hearing.?

The survey comes at a preliminary stage and hasn't yet been submitted for a review. The statistical finding doesn't necessarily name city cacophony as the main reason. Degraded hearing can also be a result of other factors such as infections, hereditary disorders, premature birth, side-effects of medicines, etc.?

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Scientists at Mimi and Charite University Hospital in Berlin created two different databases to find the correlation between noise pollution and hearing loss. The first database collated facts from WHO and Norwegian-based technology research group SINTEF to rank cities on noise pollution.?

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For hearing loss, a phone-based test was conducted where respondents told their age and sex. Based on their location, the cities were named.?

The two databases were then stacked side-by-side, revealing both noise pollution and hearing loss to be closely linked.?