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Lars Jarup,¹ Marie-Louise Dudley,¹ Wolfgang Babisch,² Danny Houthuijs,³ Wim Swart,³ Göran Pershagen,⁴ Gösta Bluhm,⁴ Klea Katsouyanni,⁵ Manolis Velonakis,⁶ Ennio Cadum,⁷ and Federica Vigna-Taglianti,⁷ for the HYENA Consortium

¹Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; ²Department of Environmental Hygiene, Federal Environmental Agency, Berlin, Germany; ³National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands; ⁴Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; ⁵Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Medical School, and ⁶Laboratory of Prevention, Nurses School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece; ⁷Environmental Epidemiologic Unit, Regional Agency for Environmental Protection, Piedmont Region, Grugliasco, Italy

Abstract
An increasing number of people live near airports with considerable noise and air pollution. The Hypertension and Exposure to Noise near Airports (HYENA) project aims to assess the impact of airport-related noise exposure on blood pressure (BP) and cardiovascular disease using a cross-sectional study design. We selected 6,000 persons (45-70 years of age) who had lived at least 5 years near one of six major European airports. We used modeled aircraft noise contours, aiming to maximize exposure contrast. Automated BP instruments are used to reduce observer error. We designed a standardized questionnaire to collect data on annoyance, noise disturbance, and major confounders. Cortisol in saliva was collected in a subsample of the study population (n = 500) stratified by noise exposure level. To investigate short-term noise effects on BP and possible effects on nighttime BP dipping, we measured 24-hr BP and assessed continuous night noise in another subsample (n = 200) . To ensure comparability between countries, we used common noise models to assess individual noise exposure, with a resolution of 1 dB(A) . Modifiers of individual exposure, such as the orientation of living and bedroom toward roads, window-opening habits, and sound insulation, were assessed by the questionnaire. For four airports, we estimated exposure to air pollution to explore modifying effects of air pollution on cardiovascular disease. The project assesses exposure to traffic-related air pollutants, primarily using data from another project funded by the European Union (APMoSPHERE, Air Pollution Modelling for Support to Policy on Health and Environmental Risks in Europe) . Key words: air pollution, aircraft, blood pressure, hypertension, noise, road traffic. Environ Health Perspect 113: 1473-1478 (2005) . doi:10.1289/ehp.8037 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 13 July 2005]

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

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 co-sponsor the activities in the Netherlands.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 23 February 2005 ; accepted 13 July 2005.