Honking may lead to hypertension, heart diseases: Doctors

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 30

Think twice before you put your hand on the horn of your vehicle. Your constant honking can deteriorate other person’s health and can lead to anxiety and hypertension and in the worst case can also lead to hearing-related issues. Keeping this in mind, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has proposed the government to observe International Noise Awareness Day on April 26 as No Honking Day.

Doctors have been warning the perils of noise pollution, which has proved to be a major trigger for several ailments, including hearing impairment, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, annoyance, anxiety and sleep disturbance for long.

“The traffic has become the main source of noise pollution. Constant honking leads to anxiety and tolerance among people have decreased due to a change in the lifestyle,” said Dr Avinash Jindal, a medicine specialist at the local Civil Hospital and the president of the Ludhiana chapter of the Indian Medical Association.

Dr Jindal said heart was worst affected by honking and leads to anxiety and hypertension. Earlier, patients were hypertensive because there was something worrying them or there was some problem in their lives but today the entire scenario has changed. Today, due to a change in the lifestyle, the reason behind hypertension has also changed. Traffic and noise pollution are one of the major contributors towards making people hypertensive.

Sharing the statics, Dr Jindal said daily they received 50 patients suffering from hypertension and on an average, 30-35 new patients, are detected every week.

“People are having anxiety as they are busy running towards their destinations. The number of urban patients detected with hypertension is more as compared to the rural area. The IMA has purposed to observe No Honking Day and if accepted, it will be a good initiative and people will realise how peaceful and calm their life will be without horns and adopt it in their lifestyle,” he said.

According to city-based ENT surgeon, noise pollution is the prime reason for permanent hearing loss and health complications such as heart-related ailments, stress and acidity. “There is an urgent need to curb noise pollution. Some of the horns produce sound between 100 to 120 decibels (dB). Continuous exposure to such high levels of noise is extremely harmful. Studies have shown that if a person is exposed to noise above 80 decibels for eight hours a day for eight years, one can suffer permanent deafness,” he said.