New research suggests that living next to an airport can be bad for your health. The noise pollution created by the constant air traffic exposes vulnerable people such as the elderly to excess stress and worry.

The report by the Harvard School of Public Health has found that those elderly people affected are at a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.

The report was published in the British Medical Journal and is the first to expose a link between noise pollution and hospitalisation. Another report by the Imperial College of London found than 3.6 million residents in close proximity to Heathrow Airport were at a higher risk of stoke, and developing coronary heart disease.

Residents had a 3.5% higher chance of hospital admission due to heart problems, when aircraft noise rose to 10 decibels higher than the average.

Co-author of the study Jonathan Levy states;

Our study was not meant to evaluate interventions, but I think there are clearly things that can be done to reduce exposures to aircraft noise, such as soundproofing of homes that are close to airports, measure that can be taken by (the) FAA or others to reduce noise of their aircrafts,” Levy said. “This certainly could be a beneficial health measure.