Impact of road traffic noise on annoyance and preventable mortality in European cities: A health impact assessment

•Road traffic noise is one of the main environmental risks to health and wellbeing.•The study provides an in-depth assessment of available road traffic noise data and estimates population exposure and health impacts for >700 cities in Europe.•Almost 60 million adults were exposed to road traffic noise levels harmful to health across the analysed cities.•11 million adults were highly annoyed by road traffic noise and>3600 deaths from Ischaemic Heart Disease (IHD) could be prevented annually.•There was variability in the available data due to adistinct noise mapping methods, data formats and noise exposure assessment.•Further efforts to standardize the noise data, increase data availability and quality and provide more comprehensive estimates at the city level are needed.