A new study by an international group of experts on noise has found strong evidence that traffic noise increases the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
Increasing noise pollution affecting human health – (Photo: REUTERS).
The team consists of experts from the Copenhagen Cancer Center (Denmark), the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (USA), and the Department of Cardiology at the University Medical Center Mainz (Germany).
Their epidemiological studies have shown that traffic noise including noise from airplanes, trains, and vehicles increases the risk of diseases and mortality due to myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, and diabetes.
Specifically, nighttime traffic noise disrupts sleep frequently, reduces sleep duration, increases levels of stress hormones, and heightens oxidative stress in blood vessels and the brain. These factors can promote vascular disorders, inflammation, and hypertension, thereby increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
A recent analysis of traffic noise and cardiovascular diseases integrated into this research also demonstrated that for every 10 dBA (decibels – a unit of sound measurement) increase, the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack, stroke, and heart failure rises by 3.2%.
The research results were published in the peer-reviewed journal Circulation Research.
Based on these findings, the research team calls for recognizing traffic noise as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), people in Western Europe lose over 1.6 million healthy years of life each year due to traffic noise.
