Long-term exposure to urban air pollution incrementally increases the risk of high blood pressure, according to a study released yesterday of more than 41,000 European city dwellers. Constant noise pollution — especially traffic — also boosts the likelihood of hypertension, researchers reported in the European Heart Journal.
High blood pressure is the most important risk factor for premature illness and death.
The study found that one extra adult per 100 people of roughly the same age developed high blood pressure in the most polluted parts of towns compared with more breathable neighborhoods.
The risk is similar to being clinically overweight with a body mass index of 25-30, the researchers said.
To carry out the study, 33 experts led by Barbara Hoffmann, a professor at Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf, Germany, monitored 41,071 people in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Spain for five to nine years.
The researchers also examined air quality annually in each locale during three two-week periods between 2008 and 2011, measuring different sizes of particle matter.
Every increment of 5 micrograms — or millionths of a gram — of the smallest of these particles increased the risk of hypertension by one-fifth for people living in the most polluted areas, compared with those in the least polluted.
None of the participants had hypertension when they joined the study, but during the follow-up period 6,207 people, or 15 percent, reported that they developed hypertension or started to take medication to lower blood pressure.
For noise pollution, the researchers found that people living on busy streets with loud nighttime traffic had, on average, a 6 percent increased risk of developing hypertension compared with areas where noise levels were at least 20 percent lower.
“Our findings show that long-term exposure to particulate air pollution is associated with a higher incidence of self-reported hypertension,” Hoffmann said in a statement.
Even when noise was excluded, the impact of air pollution on blood pressure remained, she added.
“Current legislation does not protect the European population adequately from adverse effects of air pollution,” the researchers said.
Pollution levels were higher in Spain and Germany than in the Nordic countries, Hoffmann added.
Air pollution is thought to affect the heart and blood vessels by causing inflammation; a buildup of damaging molecules, known as oxidative stress; and an imbalance in the nervous system.
Noise is thought to affect the functioning of both the nervous and hormonal systems.
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