New publication: Nighttime road traffic noise stresses the heart and blood vessels
A new randomised, double-blind crossover study of 74 healthy participants shows that a single night of road traffic noise can have measurable impacts on health. Participants exposed to nighttime traffic noise, typical of those living in a city, experienced impaired blood vessel function, raised heart rate, and blood protein changes linked to inflammation and stress responses. The findings, published in the journal Cardiovascular Research, could help explain why people exposed to long-term traffic noise have higher rates of high blood pressure and heart disease. The findings support calls for stricter noise regulation to improve cardiovascular health.
Full text: Omar Hahad, Patrick Foos, Jonas Hübner, Christina Große-Dresselhaus, Frank P Schmidt, Mir Abolfazl Ostad, Marin Kuntic, Lukas Hobohm, Karsten Keller, Volker H Schmitt, Thomas Köck, Philipp Wild, Irene Schmidtmann, Mette Sørensen, Martin Röösli, Paul Stamm, Alexander von Kriegsheim, Johannes Herzog, Philipp Lurz, Andreas Daiber, Thomas Münzel, A randomized, double-blind, crossover study of acute low-level night-time road traffic noise: effects on vascular function, sleep, and proteomic signatures in healthy adults, Cardiovascular Research, 2026.
