The sound of roaring engines and wailing sirens endured by people who live near busy roads can make their blood pressure rise, academics say.

Previous studies suggested it was unclear how noise or air pollution affected blood pressure.

However, academics said the new research was a “game-changer” that could affect future environment policy.

The lead author of the study was Jing Huang, assistant professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at Peking University in Beijing, China.

“We were a little surprised that the association between road traffic noise and hypertension was robust even after adjustment for air pollution,” he said.

Researchers analysed data from more than 240,000 people, aged 40 to 69 years who started out without hypertension.

Using follow-up data over a median 8.1 years, they looked at how many people developed hypertension.

They found people living near road traffic noise were more likely to develop hypertension, but also that risk increased in tandem with the noise “dose”.

These associations held true even when researchers adjusted for exposure to fine particles and nitrogen dioxide.

However, people who had high exposure to both traffic noise and air pollution had the highest hypertension risk, showing that air pollution plays a role as well.

Researchers said the findings could support public health measures such as setting stricter noise guidelines and improving technology on quieter vehicles and urban design.

Source: Oman News Agency