Environmental noise and light pollution contribute to a range of adverse health outcomes including heart disease and premature death. Yet light and noise remain neglected pollutants, poorly understood and poorly regulated.
Both noise and light pollution can impact negatively on human health through disrupting sleep and circadian rhythms, which leads to negative social and economic impacts.

Epidemiological evidence suggests that noise pollution can both cause annoyance and increase the risk of stroke and heart disease. Whilst the increased risk to an individual may be low, the exposure of millions of people results in a significant aggregate health burden. The World Health Organization estimates that noise pollution from traffic results in one million healthy life years lost in Western Europe every year; research from the UK Health Security Agency suggests that in 2018, 130,000 healthy life years were lost in the UK and that 40% of the British population are exposed to harmful noise levels from road traffic.

Despite the common experience that light pollution is getting worse, there is no central UK monitoring of the problem, but rather citizen science and satellite imagery. This makes understanding the sources and impacts of light pollution difficult. More research is needed into measures of exposure to light pollution, especially indoors, to quantify the effects on sleep and health. Research could also usefully be conducted into the positive effects of light on health, for example through light therapy to improve sleep.

Light and noise pollution are currently neglected pollutants, but research indicates that they are causing significant health impacts and they are of growing concern to the public. In some cases they are easy to avoid through good design, in other cases investment will be needed. A renewed focus on these pollutants, with strengthened co-ordination between departments and between central and local government, would lead to meaningful improvements in public health and quality of life in the UK.