Study heart patients sicker by aircraft noise

Health hazard: Aircraft noise harms heart patients

25/08/2014

Aircraft noise hurts the health and makes heart patients even sicker, as a study by scientists at the University of Mainz has shown. Thus, the ability of the arteries to expand is reduced by noise. The result can be high blood pressure, heart attack and strokes.

Bad consequences for heart patients
According to a study published on Friday, nocturnal noise from aircraft can have dire consequences for heart patients. In a first study in 2013, scientists from the University Medical Center Mainz had already proven that aircraft noise damages the vessels and thus leads to a higher risk of hypertension, heart attack and stroke. As the head of the current study, Frank Schmidt, according to a message from the news agency dpa explained, this effect is even more pronounced in patients who have a coronary heart disease or a risk.

Unique results
In total, 60 patients were examined who volunteered as volunteers. But they got home appliances, which they used in some nights with aircraft noise and not in others. During a test night, a total of 60 night flights with a mean noise level of 46 decibels were simulated. This corresponds to the noise level at low room volume. The physicians had actually provided 100 patients for the study, but after the sonication of 60 subjects, the results were so clear that a continuation according to Schmidt would have been questionable.

Noise damages vessels despite taking medication
It is noteworthy that the noise is damaging the vessels, although the patients took their cardiovascular medications, the doctor said. The results were also not affected by the anger patients felt due to the noise and their attitude to aircraft noise. „The impressive results are particularly important against the background of the issuing of the building permit for Terminal 3“, explained the CEO of the Mainz University Medical Center, Babette Simon, in relation to Frankfurt Airport.

Debate on aircraft noise protection
Simon demanded a clear relief of the area of ​​the university medicine and the surrounding hospitals from the aircraft noise as well as the establishment of a round table. All options of active sound insulation would have to be used. Ralph Beisel, the chief executive of the ADV airport association, argued in the light of the study results for a substantive debate on aircraft noise control: „We note with concern that today, with a new aircraft noise study, further fears are being fueled by the population.“ For the Ministry of the Environment of Rhineland-Palatinate, the study brings tailwind in the fight against noise. „For us, this means that the efforts we have made through a Federal Council initiative to come to an improvement are just right“, State Secretary Thomas Griese (Green). It is more influential on the definition of routes and greater emphasis on noise control in permits.

Harmful effects of noise
The health-damaging consequences of noise and aircraft noise have already been researched. For example, scientists from the United Kingdom and the United States have found evidence that people living near London's Heathrow Airport are up to 25 percent more likely to get heart disease or stroke during their lifetime. Other experts emphasized that the human body responds to noise with stress, which can lead to difficulty concentrating, inner restlessness, sleep disorders or a general weakening of the immune system. Sleep deprivation, in turn, has been shown to increase the risk of obesity or obesity or type 2 diabetes. (Ad)