Rackets and Radicals: Noise may cause gene damage in heart
By Ben Harder
Exposure to loud, continuous sound can pepper free radicals throughout heart tissue and cause injury to cells’ DNA that persists after the din subsides. This new finding from animal research adds to evidence that too much noise may be bad for the heart, but some scientists suggest that the changes may be no more than part of the body’s general response to stress.
Research over the past 2 decades has suggested that in addition to causing hearing loss, excessive noise exposure contributes to high blood pressure (SN: 3/28/81, p. 198) and elevated death rates from diseases of the heart and arteries (SN: 5/7/83, p. 294). Researchers at the University of Pisa in Italy and elsewhere recently reported that noise exposure can damage cells’ power-generating structures, or mitochondria.