Excessive Noise Responsible for Heart Deaths

A study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has found that long term exposure to excessive noise is responsible for thousands of premature deaths due to heart disease in the UK and across the world.

There were 101,000 deaths due to coronary heart disease just in the UK in 2006. The WHO study found that 3,030 of these deaths were caused by chronic exposure to noise, including daytime traffic.

WHO guidelines state that cardiovascular problems can come about on account of chronic night-time exposure to noise of 50 decibels (dB) or more – the noise arising from light traffic. The guidelines mark the noise threshold for sleep disturbance at 42dB and for general annoyance at 35dB, the sound of a whisper.

Study on the health effects of noise in Europe was started by the WHO’s working group on the Noise Environmental Burden on Disease in 2003. The working group experts compared households with abnormally high exposure to noise with comparatively quieter homes.

The group members also followed people with existing conditions such as coronary heart disease to try and analyse if their disease developed on account of exposure to high noise levels. All data collected in this manner was then collated to create comprehensive maps of the noisiest cities in Europe.

They found that not only did excessive noise result in increased risk of heart disease, it also accounted for 2% of Europeans suffering from severely disturbed sleep and nearly 15% suffering severe annoyance on account of noise pollution. They also found that 3% of all tinnitus cases were caused by chronic exposure to loud traffic noise. Tinnitus is a condition in which people constantly hear a noise in their ears.

Deepak Prasher, Professor of Audiology at University College London said, “The new data provide the link showing there are earlier deaths because of noise. Until now, noise has been the Cinderella form of pollution and people haven’t been aware that it has an impact on their health.”

Recent research has suggested that high noise levels can cause increase in the levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenalin in the body, even if a person is asleep. If these hormones stay in circulation in the bloodstream for a long time, they are highly likely to cause life-threatening physiological problems.

High levels of these stress hormones can also cause heart failure, strokes, high blood pressure and problems with the body’s immunity. “All this is happening imperceptibly,” said Prof. Prasher. “Even when you think you are used to the noise, these physiological changes are still happening.”

Ellen Mason, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation said, “Our world is undoubtedly getting busier and noisier. Some people find noise pollution more stressful to live with than others do. Noise cannot directly kill us, but it may add to our stress. Occasionally, stressful events can trigger a heart attack in someone with underlying heart disease. We know that stressed people are more likely to eat unhealthily, exercise less and smoke more, and these can increase the risk of developing heart disease in the first place.”

Talking about the study results, Mary Stevens, policy officer at the National Society for Clean Air said, “We welcome this because one of the problems with noise is that it’s one of the areas that local authorities get most complaints about and it’s a big draw on their resources. But, unlike air quality, it hasn’t been taken that seriously policy-wise because there wasn’t the link between noise and health.”

In her opinion it is possible to reduce traffic noise by using low-noise tyres on cars and installation of low-noise road surfaces. There is already an EU directive requiring European cities with populations more than 250,000 to create digital noise maps depicted areas of highest traffic noise and volume. “The research supports work going on at the moment to manage traffic noise, which is driven by the environmental noise directive,” said Ms. Stevens.

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