Noise pollution can lead to heart disease

A German study - using data from the German Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study - has shown that noise pollution from prolonged exposure to heavy traffic can cause heart disease. The study was aimed at assessing whether noise pollution or particle pollution from traffic attributes to atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a narrowing and hardening of the arteries due to a build-up of plaque around the artery walls. This can cause heart attacks and other cardiovascular complications as it disrupts the blood flow around the body.

The study included 4,814 participants living in close proximity to busy roads. It is the first time that a cardiological study has taken road traffic noise pollution into account in terms of its effect on heart disease. 4,238 of the subjects experienced an increase in aortic calcification related to both noise pollution and air pollution. Calcification increased by 20.7 per cent for every 2.4 micrometer increase in particle volume, alongside an extra ten per cent increase in calcification for every 100 metres of proximity to heavy traffic.

Dr Hagan Kalsch, from the West-German Heart Centre in Essen, said: "These two major types of traffic emissions help explain the observed associations between living close to high traffic and subclinical atherosclerosis. The considerable size of the associations underscores the importance of long-term exposure to air pollution and road traffic noise as risk factors for atherosclerosis." 

Both aspects of prolonged exposure to high levels of traffic independently explain how living near roads is often linked to heart disease. Noise pollution and air pollution - it is believed - both work through the same biological pathways, which is why they, individually, increase the chances of the same type of heart disease. An imbalance is caused in the autonomic nervous system, which affects the mechanisms that regulate glucose level, blood pressure and blood lipids.