The risk of raised blood pressure is significantly increased by living near busy roads, researchers have found.
Traffic fumes and noise both increase chances of what doctors call hypertension – which in turn raises the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
The largest ever study into the impact of air and noise pollution found those in the most polluted areas were more than a fifth more likely to get high blood pressure.
Researchers in five countries tracked 41,000 people for nine years, finding that the extra risk of daily exposure to pollution for a healthy slim person was equivalent to being overweight.
The study, conducted in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Spain, involved people who did not have high blood pressure when they joined the programme.
After nine years those exposed to the highest air pollution were 22 per cent more likely to have developed high blood pressure than those who lived in the areas of lowest air pollution.
And those in the noisiest streets – with an average night-time noise of 50 decibels – were 6 per cent more likely to develop the condition than those in the quietest, which were 40 decibels at night.
Lead author Professor Barbara Hoffmann, of Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany, said: ‘These results have important public health consequences and call for more stringent air-quality regulations.’
Daily Mail