Reduce noise: Improve the nation's health.

Although noise as a cause of hearing loss and tinnitus among civilian (Hearing health care for adults: Priorities for improving access and affordability, 2016) and military populations (Noise and military service: Implications for hearing loss and tinnitus, 2006) is well known, studies conducted in the past 15 years document that noise exposures negatively affect health by contributing to many diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, obesity, developmental delays, mental illness, and reduced job and academic performance (Basner et al., 2015; Lusk, Gillespie, Hagerty, & Ziemba, 2004; Münzel, Gori, Babisch, & Basner, 2014; Pyko et al., 2015; Ristovska, Laszlo, & Hansell, 2014; Tzivian et al., 2015; Yoon, Hong, Roh, Kim, & Won, 2015). Reducing noise will decrease the incidence of diseases and also decrease health care costs. The American Academy of Nursing supports efforts to determine sources of harmful noise, establish programs (e.g., educational, surveillance, testing) to reduce noise, and promote policies and legislation to control noise exposures (Lusk, McCullagh, Dickson, & Xu, 2016).