The stress of using Heathrow airport causes heart rates to rise higher than experienced when doing intense exercise, according to leading neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis.

The expert on stress carried out an experiment at the airport last weekend, on behalf of all-business class airline Silverjet, using passengers fitted with chest and blood pressure monitors and fingertip sensors to measure changes in physiological stress.

The study revealed that the heart rate of some of the passengers rose to 200 beats per minutes, nearly four times the resting heart rate of a healthy human. Dr Lewis also found that the physiological stress levels recorded exceeded those of Formula 1 racing drivers or free-fall parachutists. Blood pressure rose from an average of 123/81 to peaks of around 170/99.

Dr Lewis said: “We have measured people in all kinds of situations from riot policemen confronting a stone throwing mob to racing drivers and sky-divers and these are among the highest peaks in heart rate and blood pressure that we have ever seen. The conditions at Heathrow Airport and the stress levels that passengers are routinely subject to poses a very grave danger to the health of travellers at the airport.”

He added: “This condition is known medically as tachycardia, which can at times prove fatal. Even under intense exercise you wouldn’t normally see these levels, which given that our travellers were not exerting themselves physically, reflects the high level of psychological stress they were under.”

The study claims that the main causes of the stress were queues, unfriendly and impatient staff, lack of information, burly security and inadequate facilities. “Shortly after arriving, heart rates soared dangerously high as the passengers were forced to join hundreds of others in a densely packed temporary marquee, some of whom had been waiting for over 24 hours. The stress of this situation was compounded by a lack of information which caused passengers to worry about missing flights which in turn increased heart rates and stress levels,” said the study.