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What Causes What
SMOKE+ INCREASES

Nighttime transportation noise → Major cardiovascular events

Higher Nighttime transportation noise increases Major cardiovascular events.

In a 2023 dose-response meta-analysis of 23 cohort papers and 18.5 million adults, mostly in Europe, each extra 10 dB of modelled road-traffic noise (as Lden) sat with a 2 percent higher risk of incident cardiovascular disease (RR 1.020, 1.006 to 1.035). Nobody randomized the street.

Meta-analysis · Low · N=18503167

The association disappears when you account for other factors, like socioeconomic status or healthy-user bias.

Mechanism

Night-time and day-evening-night traffic sound can act as a stressor. The authors think it turns on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and sympathetic axes, raises adrenaline and cortisol, and, over years, leaves inflammation, oxidative stress, and endothelial dysfunction. Broken sleep is the other named path. The number on this page is outdoor transportation sound, usually converted to Lden. Fine particles at the same address are a different question. Fu, Wang, Yuan and colleagues (2023) pooled 23 cohort papers, 57 analyses, and 18,503,167 adults. Twenty-one papers were European; two were Canadian. They converted LAeq24h, LAeq16h, and Lnight to Lden. Each extra 10 dB of road noise sat with a 2 percent higher risk of incident cardiovascular disease (RR 1.020, 1.006 to 1.035; I-squared 90.6 percent). Aircraft sat at 1.016 (1.000 to 1.032). Railway per 10 dB did not (0.986, 0.968 to 1.004). Highest versus lowest road noise sat at 1.068 (1.023 to 1.115). Stroke with road noise sat at 1.034 (1.026 to 1.043) and heart failure at 1.050 (1.006 to 1.096). The road-and-stroke curve rose to about 62 dB and then flattened. Mean Newcastle-Ottawa score was 8.04. Hao, Zuo, Weng and colleagues (2022) followed 342,566 UK Biobank adults free of cardiovascular disease at baseline and added a cohort meta through April 2021. After adjustment, each extra 10 dB of road noise sat with stroke 1.07 (1.01 to 1.13), cardiovascular disease 1.13 (1.04 to 1.22), and all-cause death 1.08 (1.04 to 1.12). The associations showed in men and not in women. The pooled meta sat at stroke 1.06 (1.02 to 1.11), cardiovascular death 1.03 (1.00 to 1.05), and all-cause death 1.05 (1.02 to 1.07). Babisch (2008) pooled two cross-sectional and five case-control or cohort studies of road noise and myocardial infarction. Risk did not rise below 60 dB(A) average daytime sound. It rose above that mark. The polynomial fit is the older burden curve.

Caveats

The stamp is smoke because nobody randomized the street. Observation alone cannot close the backdoor, so the stamp stays smoke. A meta-analysis of those cohorts does not raise it. More papers of the same design do not settle the claim. Fu's road-to-disease increment sits on I-squared 90.6 percent. Railway per 10 dB is consistent with a null. The aircraft interval starts at 1.000. Twenty-one of 23 papers are European. Exposure is almost always a model at the façade, not a microphone in the bedroom. The same street makes particles. Fu's subgroup that adjusted for air pollution still saw road noise with cardiovascular disease, and a stronger increment when income was in the model. Road noise with myocardial infarction and with atrial fibrillation often lost the association once air pollution was in. Age and income remain open doors: hearing fades, and who can buy a quiet room is not random. Hao's all-cause death is a different question. Fu notes that Hao mixed incidence and death in the stroke pool. The UK Biobank file sits inside Fu's 23 papers. Babisch is daytime LAeq and infarcts, with a 60 dB floor, in men. It is the older curve, not a trial. This page is outdoor transportation sound and incident cardiovascular events. It is not PM2.5 and not a blood-pressure reading. This is not medical advice and not a recommendation to move, to close a window, or to treat a number.

Effect

odds_ratio = 1.02. Fu 2023: road traffic per 10 dB Lden, incident CVD RR 1.020 (1.006-1.035), 23 cohort papers, 18.5M adults. Observational. Design does not identify.

Nodes

Lifestyle & environmentNighttime transportation noiseBiology & endocrinologyMajor cardiovascular events

Named confounders

Cite this page

What Causes What. “Nighttime transportation noise → Major cardiovascular events.” https://whatcauseswhat.org/edges/e-noise-cv (atlas updated 2026-09-02).

https://whatcauseswhat.org/edges/e-noise-cv

Papers