PEOPLE who work in noisy offices or live near busy roads, railways or airports may run a higher risk of heart attacks.

A study of more than 4,000 men and women has found associations between long-term exposure to higher decibel sounds and susceptibility to a heart attack. Furthermore, the risk appears to be linked more to the physiological effect of environmental and work noise, rather than the annoyance and stress that it causes.

Both sexes were vulnerable but were affected in very different ways, according to the study, which was published yesterday in the online edition of the European Heart Journal.

General environmental noise, such as caused by traffic, made women three times more likely to have a heart attack, but increased the risk for men by less than 50 per cent. In contrast, workplace noise increased the risk for men by nearly a third, but did not seem to have an impact on women.

The heart attack risk rose with increasing noise levels until a threshold point, above which it remained constant. This appeared to be about 60 decibels, which is the level of noise typically experienced in a large, busy office.

Stefan Willich, the study leader and director of the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics at the Charite University Medical Centre, Berlin, said the findings showed that the European safety level for workplace noise — the requirement for ear protection is 85 decibels — was set too high. He said that the limit should be brought down to between 65 and 75 decibels.

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