Proceedings of the International Workshop on "Combined environmental exposure : noise, air pollutants and chemicals"

The issue of combined exposure to noise, air pollution and chemicals has raised recently the interest of several bodies of the European Commission such as DG Environment, DG SANCO and DG Research in the context of the EC 7th Framework Programme. There are open questions whether prevailing environmental concentrations of air pollutants and chemicals can lead to ototoxic health impacts. Therefore this issue needs to be thoroughly explored and investigated to help the EC to revise the existing standards and guidelines concerning combined exposure to noise, air pollutants and chemicals. The aim of the workshop was to review and discuss the existing scientific evidence whether prevailing environmental exposures to single and concomitant agents together with noise could lead to ototoxic or other health impacts. The final aim was to identify the research needs and to give recommendations for research and policy making in the EU level.