Traffic noise is bad for your health: study

Honk if you want heart disease.

Traffic noise is linked to cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease, according to noise experts from the Danish Cancer Institute, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Switzerland, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Department of Cardiology at the Mainz University Medical Center in Germany.

Cardiovascular disease is a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels, according to the World Health Organization. Cerebrovascular disease is a group of conditions that impact blood flow to your brain such as stroke, brain bleed, brain aneurism and carotid artery disease, the Cleveland Clinic explained.  The researchers in the study said that traffic noise should be considered as a real risk for both of these conditions.

Their findings were published last week in the American Heart Association’s Circulation Research journal.

“With an increasing proportion of the population exposed to harmful traffic noise even after the COVID pandemic has ended, noise control efforts and noise reduction laws are of great importance for future public health,” lead author of the paper, Dr. Thomas Münzel, senior professor at the Mainz University Medical Center, said in a press release. 

“It is also important for us that traffic noise is now finally recognized as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease due to the strong evidence.”

Traffic noise, defined as noise from cars, trains or planes, increases the risk of both cardiovascular illness and death rates. Over 1.6 million years of life are lost every year in Western Europe due to traffic noise, the World Health Organization reported. 

The researchers said that night-time traffic noise is especially damaging, because it wakes people up, thereby giving them poor-quality sleep.

Interrupted sleep leads to an increase in stress hormones and oxidative stress on the brain and blood vessels in the body, which can lead to an increase in free radicals in the body. Free radicals are defined as “unstable atoms that can damage cells, causing illness and aging,” according to Medical News Today. 

Lost sleep due to traffic noise can lead to an increase in inflammation, high blood pressure and vascular disorders, all of which can lead to heart disease.

The study authors shared an overview from past clinical studies to show what impact traffic noise has on the general public. A recent study on traffic noise found that for every 10 decibels of sound, the risk of developing heart attack, stroke and heart failure increases by 3.2%.

The authors said that traffic noise could potentially impact changes in people’s genes and lead to disease.