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Lars Jarup,¹ Wolfgang Babisch,² Danny Houthuijs,³ Göran Pershagen,⁴ Klea Katsouyanni,⁵ Ennio Cadum,⁶ Marie-Louise Dudley,¹ Pauline Savigny,¹ Ingeburg Seiffert,² Wim Swart,³ Oscar Breugelmans,³ Gösta Bluhm,⁴ Jenny Selander,⁴ Alexandros Haralabidis,⁵ Konstantina Dimakopoulou,⁵ Panayota Sourtzi,⁷ Manolis Velonakis,⁷ and Federica Vigna-Taglianti,⁶ on behalf of the HYENA study team

¹Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College London, St Mary's Campus, Norfolk Place, London, United Kingdom; ²Department of Environment and Health at the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), Berlin, Germany; ³National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands; ⁴Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; ⁵Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece; ⁶Environmental Epidemiologic Unit, Regional Agency for Environmental Protection (ARPA), Piedmont Region, Grugliasco, Italy; ⁷Laboratory of Prevention, Nurses School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Abstract
Background: An increasing number of people are exposed to aircraft and road traffic noise. Hypertension is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and even a small contribution in risk from environmental factors may have a major impact on public health.

Objectives: The HYENA (Hypertension and Exposure to Noise near Airports) study aimed to assess the relations between noise from aircraft or road traffic near airports and the risk of hypertension.

Methods: We measured blood pressure and collected data on health, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors, including diet and physical activity, via questionnaire at home visits for 4,861 persons 45–70 years of age, who had lived at least 5 years near any of six major European airports. We assessed noise exposure using detailed models with a resolution of 1 dB (5 dB for United Kingdom road traffic noise) , and a spatial resolution of 250 250 m for aircraft and 10 10 m for road traffic noise.

Results: We found significant exposure–response relationships between night-time aircraft as well as average daily road traffic noise exposure and risk of hypertension after adjustment for major confounders. For night-time aircraft noise, a 10-dB increase in exposure was associated with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.14 [95% confidence interval (CI) , 1.01–1.29]. The exposure–response relationships were similar for road traffic noise and stronger for men with an OR of 1.54 (95% CI, 0.99–2.40) in the highest exposure category (> 65 dB ; p_trend = 0.008) .

Conclusions: Our results indicate excess risks of hypertension related to long-term noise exposure, primarily for night-time aircraft noise and daily average road traffic noise.

Key words: aircraft, blood pressure, hypertension, noise, road traffic. Environ Health Perspect 116:329–333 (2008) . doi:10.1289/ehp.10775 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 11 December 2007]

Address correspondence to L. Jarup, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College London, St Mary's Campus, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK. Telephone: 44 20 7594 3337. Fax: 44 20 7594 3196. E-mail: l.jarup@imperial.ac.uk

We thank all the participants for their willingness to contribute.

The project is funded by a grant from the European Commission (Directorate General Research) Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources, Key Action 4 Environment and Health (grant QLRT-2001-02501) . The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment ; the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management ; and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports cosponsored the activities in the Netherlands.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 17 August 2007 ; accepted 10 December 2007.