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Noise associated with high blood pressure, stroke

Date Posted: January 20 2006

"If losing your hearing isn't enough of a reason to use hearing protection, a new study provides additional motivation. The study shows that on-the-job noise contributes to high blood pressure which, in turn, can cause heart disease or stroke."

So said Laborers Health and Safety Fund of North America Co-Chairman Armand E. Sabitoni. The study, performed in a Midwest auto plant, found a link between heightened noise levels and higher heart rate and blood pressure measurements. The study was promoted as a safety message for construction workers by the Laborers after being published in the Archives of Environmental Health.

Researchers, led by the study's author, Sally Lusk of the University of Michigan School of Nursing, found that blood pressure is affected by overall noise exposure while heart rate is affected by spikes in instantaneous loud noises. Systolic blood pressure rose two millimeters when average noise exposure rose ten decibels or when the difference between average and maximum noise exposure increased by more than five decibels

A 13-decibel increase in average noise exposure produced a two-millimeter increase in diastolic blood pressure.

Researchers said exposure to higher noise levels is "worrisome" because it moves heart rates in the wrong direction. Research has shown that a long-term reduction of six millimeters in diastolic blood pressure is associated with a 35-40 percent drop in strokes and a 20-25 percent reduction in coronary disease.

Lusk stressed that hearing protection needs to be worn all the time because even a 30-minute gap in protection can reduce by half the overall effect of wearing protection.

She urged companies to mandate and enforce use of protection, provide appropriate training in its use and post reminders in lunchrooms and elsewhere that explain why hearing protection matters.

"We all know retirees who suffer with hearing loss because, back in the old days, a lot of Laborers didn't wear hearing protection," Sabitoni recalls. "We've worked hard to change that habit, but some of us are inconsistent. Here we have new evidence of another way that noise exposure is harmful. It's more proof that we always need to protect ourselves."
(From the Laborers Health and Safety Fund of North America).