After the danger of diesel engines whose smoke would be carcinogenic, the danger of road traffic noise? This is in the crosshairs of researchers at the Institute of Epidemiology of the Danish society in Copenhagen. Car noise is believed to increase the risk of a heart attack, nothing less, according to their findings published in the scientific journal PLoS One.
Danish researchers found that people whose homes were close to a road with high noise levels were most likely to have a heart attack. Every 10 decibels of noise, there was an increase in the risk of attack by 12%, reports ABC news.
Scientists have established this relationship between noise pollution and heart health by observing 50,000 people aged 50 to 64 living in Denmark’s two largest cities, Copenhagen and Aarhus. From 1988 to 2006, they scrutinized many aspects of their health, including the different places where they lived. Based on their home location and traffic analysis, the science team calculated how many decibels each person was exposed to.
1,600 participants died of a heart attack within the first ten years of the experiment.
Heart attack and noise: a complex relationship
While cardiologists find the relationship between traffic noise and heart attack worthwhile, they are struggling to pinpoint the exact reasons for this problem. Danish researchers provide an initial answer by supposing that the noise nuisance would generate a stress, cardiac risk factor. They also hypothesize that the lack of sleep resulting from this noise nuisance can have an impact on heart health.
Another lead suggested by cardiologists suggests that air pollution caused by heavy traffic is responsible for increasing the risk of attack. The particles present in polluted air are indeed very harmful to the heart and blood vessels.
This Danish study is not the first to point out the dangers of road traffic noise. A Swedish study had already made the link between noise pollution and hypertension.
>> To read also: Asthma: children exposed to too many pollutants in class
-1739366311.jpg "Ellie Bloom: “Seeing the size of the hole in my heart, the cardiologist told me that I had a guardian angel”")
