Exposure to traffic noise increases heart attack risk: Study

Exposure to traffic noise increased the risk of suffering from a heart attack, according to researchers.

The noise from main roads and railway lines could lead to cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction (MI), a German study had shown.

Researchers studied information from state health insurers of over a million Germans over 40 living in Rhine-Main region of Germany.

Their home address was matched to road, rail, and traffic noise exposure measurements for 2005.

The researchers found a statistically significant association between noise exposure and the risk of heart disease in patients who died of heart attack up to 2014 - 2015.

The researchers found that risk of heart attack increased with the amount of traffic noise one was exposed to. The increase in risk - though slight was greatest with and rail traffic noise, less with aircraft noise, researchers said.

The authors believe the lower risk from aircraft noise can be explained by the fact that, unlike road and rail traffic noise, aircraft noise never remains continuously above 65 dB (decibel).

They also saw indications from their analysis that exposure to traffic noise influenced the genesis and also the course of a heart attack.

The findings have been reported in the journal Deutsches Arzteblatt International. Although the results showed only an association between traffic noise and heart attack, the authors believe that the sheer numbers of people affected by noise pollution meant that it was now the right time to start intensive efforts towards effective prevention of traffic noise.