CORRECTED: Airport noise instantly boosts blood pressure: study

(Corrects researcher's university affiliation)

By Michael Kahn

LONDON (Reuters) - Living near an airport isn't just irritating, it is also unhealthy, researchers said on Wednesday, in a study that showed loud noise instantly boosts a sleeping person's blood pressure.

The louder the noise, the higher a person's blood pressure went, a finding that suggests people who live near airports may have a greater risk of health problems, said Lars Jarup, who led the European Commission-funded study.

"Living near airports where you have exposure to night time aircraft noise is a major issue," Jarup, an environmental health researcher at Imperial College London, told Reuters.

"The reason we did airports is because there was no study that has looked at particular problems of aircraft noise."

High blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart failure, heart attack and kidney failure. It affects more than a billion adults worldwide.

The research team showed that people living for at least five years near a busy airport and under a flight path have a greater risk of developing chronic high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, than those who live in quieter areas.

That study of nearly 5,000 people found that an increase in night time airplane noise of 10 decibels increased the risk of high blood pressure by 14 percent in both men and women.