Background: In Europe about 65 million people are exposed to noise levels exceeding EU guideline for noise outdoors at the façade. In contrast to many environmental factors, exposure to traffic noise is increasing, both as a result of rising traffic volumes and continued urbanization. In 2013 the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization (WHO) initiated a revision of the Guidelines for Environmental Noise. Previous Guidelines were issued by WHO in 1999 and based primarily on studies published until 1995. Since then substantial new evidence has appeared on serious adverse health effects related to long-term exposure to traffic noise, in particular with regard to cardiovascular disease. Purpose: As part of the development of new WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines a systematic review was performed on cardiovascular and metabolic effects of environmental noise. The evidence regarding traffic noise exposure and ischemic heart disease (IHD) is summarized here. Methods: A total of more than 600 relevant publications since the year 2000 were identified, but only 61 met pre-set criteria enabling quantitative risk assessment. More than a third of these concerned IHD related to noise from road traffic, railways and/or aircraft. Meta-analyses were performed expressing risks in relation to a 10 dB increment in noise exposure and using reported confidence intervals to estimate variance. Random-effect models were fitted and heterogeneity between studies was evaluated as well as publication bias. Quality of the evidence was assessed using a modification of the GRADE criteria.
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Pershagen et al. (2017) studied this question.