1 Comment

The WHO reported a loss of more than 1.6 million years of healthy life per year due to exposure to environmental noise in Western European countries. It is important to highlight that annoyance and sleep disorders are proposed as key factors in the appearance and progression of non-communicable diseases associated with noise (Fig, 1).

The effects of noise on different organic systems and on mental health are detailed in Fig. 2. The stress response produced by noise produces the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and an increase in neuroinflammation in response to fear and anxiety. Prolonged exposure to a high stress response leads to maladaptive coping strategies, such as smoking or alcohol consumption shown in Fig. 3. Exposure to residential traffic noise was associated with increases in total/abnormal difficulties scores, problems emotional and behavioral concerns in children. Studies have shown that road and railway traffic noise was associated with total suicides.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-024-00642-5 (2024).--

Noise triggers stress responses that can affect at a systemic level. In this review, the following were observed: numerous studies established the adverse effects of noise on auditory and non-auditory organs such as the CVS and CNS, adverse effects of noise on other non-hearing organs such as the liver, kidneys, pancreas and intestine ; and molecular mechanisms such as ROS, inflammation, and DNA damage could be considered common underlying factors in noise-induced organ damage. Together, these findings demonstrated the broad impact of noise on the body (Figure 10), suggesting that noise exposure should be considered as a risk factor for various chronic diseases, including endocrine dysfunction, hypertension, cognitive impairment , fatty liver and kidney disease.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10937404.2023.2280837 (2023).---

The incidence of colon cancer is increasing worldwide and it has been proposed that factors related to urbanization are involved in this development. Traffic noise may increase the risk of colon cancer by causing sleep disturbances and stress, thereby inducing known risk factors for colon cancer, for example obesity, diabetes, physical inactivity and alcohol consumption. In interaction analyses, the association between traffic noise and colon cancer was stronger among obese people and those with high NO 2 exposure.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935123002463 (2023).--

In this review, all types of noise exposure were considered, including ambient noise, occupational noise, and leisure or recreational noise. Additionally, all types of cancers were studied, regardless of the organs affected. Five of nine case-control studies showed a significant relationship between exposure to occupational or leisure noise and acoustic neuroma (benign tumor that develops in the nerve connecting the ear to the brain that, as it grows, presses against In addition, four of five case-control and cohort studies indicated statistically significant relationships between environmental noise exposure and breast cancer. Two case-control studies highlighted the risk of Hodgkin lymphoma and breast cancer. Non-Hodgkin and two cohort studies identified an increased risk of colon cancer associated with exposure to environmental noise. In total, the results showed that noise exposure, especially prolonged and continuous exposure to loud noise, can lead to the incidence of some types of cancer.

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/reveh-2022-0021/html (2022).--

Expand full comment