Source-specific transportation noise mortality from heart failure and myocardial infarction in Switzerland

Introduction: The evidence of an association between cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and transportation noise is growing. Our study focuses on the association of aircraft, railway, road traffic noise, and a novel noise metric intermittency ratio (IR: reflecting degree of intermittency in noise) with CVD mortality. Methods: We modeled a Swiss-wide noise exposure database which we geographically linked to each participant of the Swiss National Cohort. We selected the IR and maximum Lden values for each source at the floor of residence. The association between noise exposure and heart failure (HF), and myocardial infarction (MI) was investigated in multipollutant Cox regression models adjusted for potential confounders.Results: HR (95%-CI) per 10dB(A) increase of exposure for HF were 1.02 (1.01-1.04), 1.06 (1.04-1.08) and 1.06 (1.03-1.08) for Lden_Rail, Lden_Road, and Lden_Air, while for MI they were 1.01 (0.99-1.02), 1.04 (1.02-1.06), 1.02 (1.00-1.04), and 1.01 (1.00-1.02) for Lden_Rail, Lden_Road, Lden_Air and IR.Conclusion: Our study demonstrates the impact of all major transportation noise sources on CVD mortality. For MI degree of intermittency was found to be relevant in addition to Lden, suggesting IR is relevant for protection policy of various noise sources with different characteristics.