WHO publication on noise highly commended by British Medical Association
WHO
On 13 September 2012, at the annual British Medical Association (BMA) Medical Book Awards ceremony in John Snow Hall (London, United Kingdom), the WHO/Europe publication “Burden of disease from environmental noise” was “highly commended” in the public health category.
The BMA review of the publication stated: “This is an authoritative and well-written evaluation with clear conclusions. Its strengths are the clarity of its conclusions and the well-edited easy to follow descriptions of methodologies used to evaluate evidence. As a reference document it is useful to policy-makers in providing evidence to inform strategies to reduce exposure to a widespread hazard.”
Dr Elisabet Paunovic, Programme Manager, Environmental Exposures and Risks, and Dr Rok Ho Kim, coordinator of the report at WHO/Europe, attended the ceremony.
The Awards aim to encourage and reward excellence in medical publishing. Prizes are awarded in 21 categories, with an overall BMA Medical Book of the Year selected from among the category winners.
Full review by the British Medical Association
“This is a potentially controversial area which is highly technical and in which the quality of research and debate can be dubious. This is an authoritative and well-written evaluation with clear conclusions. Its strengths are the clarity of its conclusions and the well-edited easy to follow descriptions of methodologies used to evaluate evidence.
As a reference document it is useful to policy-makers in providing evidence to inform strategies to reduce exposure to a widespread hazard. Its only weakness is perhaps that it is a niche area where the numbers of potential readers will be limited. I do think however it is an excellent summary of knowledge and very clear.
This is a subject I was familiar with but I did find the book authoritative and helpful – inclusion of the issue of annoyance and its impact on well-being is I think an important extension of the considerations and I have already used its clear summary of the data to inform colleagues working in industries where background continued environmental noise is common (oil, gas and energy sectors).
This is a comprehensive and well-presented summary of evidence on a complex and controversial issue. The highly technical data has been carefully assessed, filtered and analysed and the document presents clear conclusions in the form of simple evidence that can be quoted and used to inform policy. I found I read it carefully rather than skimmed it because it has been well-edited.”
