Too much noise would be bad for our hearts

Human beings are not meant to be crushed by noise. Several reports already mention the harmfulness of noise to the human bodyand the years of healthy living we lose due to noise pollution.

An accelerated heart rate

For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) has set thresholds for recommendations beyond which the noise is no longer bearable. Therefore, road traffic should not exceed 53 decibels during the day and 45 dB, with the risk of causing damage to health. Likewise, the noise generated by rail traffic should be a maximum of 54 dB during the day and 44 dB at night. For air traffic, ideally it should be 45 dB during the day and 40 dB at night.

Inserm researchers are currently conducting a study on the damage noise causes to our hearts. In the first results they showed for the special envoy, they noticed that the noise accelerated the heart rate beyond a certain threshold. Therefore, our hearts would beat faster in a noisy city environment than in a nearly silent park.

All of this would play a role in our stress, our sleep quality, and our physical and mental health. Ultimately, repeated exposure to noise above 70 dB could promote the onset of cardiovascular disease and hypertension. In France, nearly nine million French people are directly affected by noise pollution on a daily basis.