Living near airports can have an big impact on your health
Would you ever think about the possibility of heart problems when living near an airport? I would not even go so far. But it seems that this might have a real negative effect on your health.
I have just read an article where Polish researchers found that people who were living close to airports for three and more years have an increased risk of high blood pressure. There is a study which links the development of hypertension and organ damage with aircraft noise.
How they came to this conclusion? The researchers randomly selected 201 adults between the ages of 40 and 66. All of the participants had to have lived in areas with low or high aircraft noise for at least three years. They were then divided into two groups based on the amount of aircraft noise they were exposed to:
- the first group consisted of 100 participants who were subjected to less than 55 decibels (dB) or aircraft noise on average.
- The second group of 101 participants were exposed to at least 60 dB.
Then they were paired up based on their age, sex, and the length of time spent living in the area. Each participant had their blood pressure measured. Through this, the researchers discovered that 40 percent of the participants from the second group had hypertension. Conversely, only 24 percent of those from the first group had this condition. Of those from the second group who had hypertension, they were found to have higher systolic (146 against 138 millimeter of mercury or mmHg) and diastolic (89 against 79 mmHg) blood pressure.
Marta Rojek, Jagiellonian University Medical College researcher and study co-author, said of the results: “Our results suggest that living near an airport for three years or more is associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure and hypertension. These changes may then lead to damage of the aorta and heart which could increase the risk of having a heart attack.”
But more research must be done until we will be able to enforce laws on exposure to aircraft noise as it is detrimental to our health.