DOSE-EFFECT RELATIONSHIPS
The study of dose-effect relationships was carried out by TNO Prevention and Health (8). The study also aimed to assess the extent to which factors other than noise from neighbours alone, influence dose-effect relationships, such as social, environmental and individual-related factors.
Verbal questionnaires were taken in 660 of the most common types of dwellings in the Netherlands, spread around twenty municipalities. Acoustic quality was established in 202 of these dwellings, partly by measurements in the home (in 108 homes) partly by assigning insulation values to dwellings identical to those measured. The units Ilu , Ilu;k (both indexes of airborne sound), Ico, (impact sound), Ga;k sound insulation to the exterior) and the GWK (a calculated sound insulation category) were used as parameters for the dose (the sound insulation quality). In the next figure the relation with this parameter and speciifc annoyance is given.
In this survey is was found that a large part of the population could distinctly hear the neighbours talk, and a very large part (25%) hear them when speaking at high voices:
