Dr. Stefan Willich, a cardiologist and director of the Institute for Social Medicine at the center explains to Reuters the studies findings.
"Chronic noise exposure carries an increased risk of heart attack... It is not as high as the risk from smoking or high blood pressure but it is significant."
Willich and his team found that environmental noise from traffic and airplanes raised the chances of having a heart attack by nearly 50 percent for men and even more for women.
Based on the findings which are reported in the European Heart Journal and noted by Reuters, the scientists believe workplace ear protection levels should be reduced from the current 85 decibels widely used in western European countries to between 65-75 decibels.
