Live Near a Busy Freeway? It May be Raising Your Blood Pressure

By Rachel Stockton rachels at foodconsumer dot org

A new study published in Environmental Health shows that busy roads and freeways can raise one’s blood pressure.  That probably doesn’t surprise most people; but perhaps, this might:

The study didn’t focus on the stress we all experience when we try to navigate traffic to get where we need to go every single day of our lives, or our frustration at those rude folks who choose to wait until the last possible minute to merge in order to plop themselves at the front of the traffic line.  Rather, it focused on the effects of all of the engines revving, horns blowing, and tires screeching throughout any given day; in other words, researchers gauged the effects of noise pollution that is part and parcel of a busy thoroughfare.

Researchers from Lund University in Sweden gathered 28,000 questionnaires handed out to citizens of a particular province in Sweden that asked them about living conditions.  They found that young adults and middle aged baby boomers tended to have higher blood pressure if the road noise in their homes reached at least 60 decibels.  And, with each decibel that rises above the requisite 60, blood pressure simultaneously increased.

Those carrying out the research were not surprised; they maintain that road traffic is “the most important source of community noise.”

The Noise Pollution Clearinghouse would concur.  According to their website, unless citizens and legislators start to realize the physical and mental health problems that can arise from noise pollution, the problem will continue to remain the “stepchild” of environmental issues.

They make the assertion that traffic noise is akin to second hand smoke; those who affect the commons by indiscriminately creating noise pollution affect the emotional stasis of the community just as much as smoking in public places damages the lungs of those who come in contact with it.

Interestingly, older adults (aged 60-80) who took part in the study were not as affected by the noise pollution as their younger counterparts.  Some of the researchers believe this is because younger people don’t normally have elevated blood pressure, so the differences in their levels of hypertension c could be more directly attributed to the noise.

However, I have another theory.  When asking my 80-year-old   father whether or not the traffic noise coming into his house bothered him, he said, “Not particularly.”  I asked him  how he kept the din from driving him absolutely crazy.  He then smiled at me wryly as he removed both of his hearing aids.